#1020 - Amy Alkon

Joe Rogan (0:03)

Five, four, three, two, oh, we jumped the gun. Hey, how are you, Amy?

Amy Alkon (0:10)

Hey, good.

Joe Rogan (0:11)

Thanks for doing this, man. Appreciate it.

Amy Alkon (0:12)

I'm glad to be here.

Joe Rogan (0:14)

How's things?

Amy Alkon (0:15)

Well, outside of, you know, Vegas, everything's good.

Joe Rogan (0:18)

I know, right? You have to say that. Everybody, I mean, these things that happen that sort of just change the whole world, you got to think that's probably one of the reasons why these psychos do it in the first place, right, so that everyone talks about them. It becomes their big, you know, fireworks, 4th of July grand finale before they leave.

Amy Alkon (0:38)

Yeah, there was a very interesting post by a guy named Robert King on Psychology Today. And I guess he's doing research in this. And he talked about it as a way for men to get or chase status.

And that he saw two bumps. I think one was at 23 and one at 41 in terms of the ages that people do this. And it does tend to be men who have some kind of their marriage breaks up. They lose their job in their 40s or the young men are just chasing status. So it's at least some kind of explanation other than, oh, someone just went wild. They just went crazy, which is not helpful because it doesn't tell us really what we can do to maybe prevent it or look at how do we look for these people who do this.

Joe Rogan (1:24)

Yeah. Well, to prevent it, you have to lock all men up.

Amy Alkon (1:27)

Not for that.

Joe Rogan (1:28)

That's the only way. I mean, obviously not the only way, but it's all men. That's a giant issue.

Amy Alkon (1:34)

Right?

Joe Rogan (1:34)

I mean, you never see women go on mass shootings.

Amy Alkon (1:37)

But well, without men, we'd still be living in grass huts, so.

Joe Rogan (1:41)

Listen, I'm a man. I'm all pro men.

But it's very weird that it's entirely men who do mass shootings and drive trucks into crowds and that kind of thing.

Amy Alkon (1:53)

Well, I think we may start seeing women do that. But actually, I don't think it's weird that it's men because men, if you look at how men and women evolved to get partners, women just have to look hot. You have to look like you're fertile and young and have good genes, which is what we consider beauty. These what feminists say are arbitrary standards of beauty, aren't anything like that. They're very across cultures, men like women with this hourglass figure and who have long shiny hair and who are not 72

Because if you had sex with a 72 year old, your genes died out.

Joe Rogan (2:29)

Yeah, this, the feminist thing about arbitrary standards of beauty, as a person who is deeply entrenched in science, like that's got to be frustrating, right? Because you're looking at something that's not accurate.

It's, you're pushing a narrative that's just not accurate. There's this very takeaway culture, take away, you know, all the, all your personal feelings about human beings, and you look at the mammal, the human mammal, and it's, it's very clear why the certain males are gravitating towards certain females and contrary, or conversely, why certain females are gravitating towards certain males. It's biological.

Amy Alkon (3:06)

Right. And this, it's so unhelpful. It's really awful, this idea that people should like you for what's on the inside. You know, we don't see the people, if you look at porn, it's not the woman who buys a homeless man a sandwich, you know, who's in the porn. It's the woman with those features that are just cross-culturally appreciated by men.

Joe Rogan (3:26)

Well, it's also, too, we're talking only about sexual, right? Because people do like you for who you are on the inside. Like Melissa McCarthy is a perfect example. She's this vibrant, hilarious woman and no one's holding her up as the standard of beauty or sexual attractiveness. You know, you're looking at her as this fun person. And that's why millions of people go see her in movies and her TV show is this giant hit. I mean, it's literally what's on the inside and how she carries herself. Right.

Amy Alkon (3:56)

And she is very vibrant. And if you look at that cross-cultural research, David Buss, who is an evolutionary psychologist, did the big, big cross-cultural study. And kindness was what both men and women wanted. I think that was the top, the top of each list. But if you prioritize, well, okay, well, what do I, what are my must haves in a partner a guy is not going to want a very old, unattractive woman as his partner, if he can do better.