Jim McCauley wrote:
You mean that it's possible that aliens from the vicinity of Tau Ceti might
be _less_ comprehensible than my teenaged daughters? Difficult to imagine
indeed :-)

Ah, yes. Teenage girls. Yes, they are a life-form that seems hard to
understand to their parents.

After all, everyone knows - it's just basic sociobiology - that while
it is in the interest of the male to spread his seed widely, because he
doesn't make the investment in childbearing and child-rearing that the
female does, the interest of the female is in finding one responsible
mate who will stay beside her and provide well for herself and her
children, particularly when pregnancy incapacitates her.

So why would teenage girls go around wearing short skirts... or, today,
pants cut so low that they do not meet short sweaters, baring the
midriff? One would think that natural behavior for females at any age
would be to behave modestly, not scandalously.

But an explanation exists. Although a female wants but one mate, she
still *does* need to find that mate to reproduce herself. So an arms
race of competition for mates still exists among females as among
males, but different in form. Just as males compete to be what females
want - by trying to achieve high rank order - females compete to be
what males want. Up to the point where it directly conflicts with their
self-interest, which is why they are such teases.

Note also that in our current social structure, contacts between people
and potential mates are much diminished once they leave school and
start working. Men and women of similar social class work in different
places. So high school is, for many, their last best chance of finding
their future life partner.

John Savard