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Old October 29th, 2005, 05:34 PM
James Brody James Brody is offline
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Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: Philadelphia area
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Default Mate Selection: Supernormal Teeth

First, symmetry is a known market asset and so are skin clarity and a narrow waist. Second, our spending lots of money suggests a sensory preference, perhaps an instinctive one, for whatever it is that we buy. Along these lines, I've mentioned at other times the fascinating data probably available in dental practices. Parents invest fortunes in their children's teeth and dentists happily make the teeth and take the money. Parents perhaps understand this aspect of mate selection that has NOT been studied by the symmetry and pathogen crowd. (Even WABC, 770 am radio carried an ad that recommended that you whiten your girl's teeth for Valentine's.)

Sometimes, the effects acquire the traits of a "supernormal stimulus," one that is an enhanced version of whatever occurs naturally on the belly of a guppy or the feathered cap of a bird. Walk through the make-up section of a large department store and study how the ads enhance lip and hair color and rarely feature a lopsided model. Similar trickery occurs in 'toons wherein animated drawings are sometimes more lively, resilient, humorous, and compelling than their human costars. A cartoon fish can be handsome, cute, or sexy because of eyes, symmetry, liveliness, and vocal quality.

I recently saw supernormal teeth in the face of a waitress.

Her freckled 17 year old face, framed by tousled blond razor-cut locks and led not by her nose but her jaw, might have been diner cute instead of drop-dead gorgeous. The difference? Her perfectly spaced, perfectly aligned teeth almost glowed and the effect was so damned powerful that she was either in extraordinary health or told an extraordinary, expensive lie. I paid for my eggs and asked her to keep data on the number of men who fell in love with her next week.

Not sure that she understood...

Copyright, James Brody, 2005, all rights reserved.
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