Women Invade

[James Brody]

Richard Coss discussed "dinichism" in relation to males and female australopithecines: the guys came down from the trees about 2 million years ahead of the girls. Not a big deal except the psychological preferences of those ladies and gents still show up in how our children act.
You can't help but notice the effect once you think of it. I can relate it to phase transitions: men live closer to chaos and danger, females invade territories that males settled. Starts with our daughters sniffing and crying their way past "no girls allowed" on tree house doors and persists on for all our lives. Happens to all of us, not just to once-and-was australopithecines...
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The Toyota dealership had a "Customer Work Area" defined and three of us guys amicable filled the three available slots. Trouble started, however, when the other two guys left!

1) A lady tried to pull out one of the "work chairs" to the general waiting area but her husband told her that it wasn't allowed. I think he sensed the architectural harmony that existed and protected it. She probably had a blind spot for such things and meekly took his lead. Thank you Sir!

2) An older white woman brought over twin girls, moved an extra chair to one of the work spaces, parked the kids to snack and bicker while she escaped to the far side of the room. (Thanks bitch!) Fortunately, the girls were Oriental and did the traditional things for both Oriental children and twins: they got along. After a casual glance at my screen, they left me and eventually left the work area. (See Kagan, J. (1994) Galen's Prophecy: Temperament in Human Nature. Also, Segal, N, (1999) Entwined Lives.)

3) Another female arrived, but one 20 years younger and packed more than once with too much Chunky Monkey. Nonetheless, I did the male thing, smiled, and griped a bit about the kids in a "Work Area." She promised to barricade me in safety. She also punched up her husband on a cell phone and loudly debated their Christmas spending for each of 20 relatives!

Dinichism is not a hypothesis. It's a fact! And the chicks now on bar stools could occupy the branch of an acacia tree...

JimB

References:

Coss, R., & Moore, M. (1998) Preschool girls differ from preschool boys in recognizing the utility of an arboreal refuge site. HBES 10th Annual Meeting, Davis, CA, July 8-12.
Coss, RG. & Charles, EP (2004) The role of evolutionary hypotheses in psychological research: Instincts, affordances, and relic sex differences. Ecological Psychology, 16(3): 199-236.