Why Do Women Take Sexy Selfies? - Dr Khandis Blake - #586

**Chris Williamson** (0:00)
Hello friends, welcome back to the show. My guest today is Dr. Khandis Blake. She's an evolutionary social psychologist at the University of Melbourne, whose research focuses on status seeking, the menstrual cycle and sexual politics. It is no surprise that women try to enhance their beauty, put on makeup, wear high heels and sometimes take off layers for photos. But what predicts beautification? Is it all a product of the patriarchy? Or is it something else? Just why are women making all this effort? Expect to learn whether women condemn promiscuity more when they have sons, what predicts a high prevalence of sexy selfies, whether society has an in-cell problem, the relationship between makeup and female assertiveness, how income inequality motivates some very odd behaviors and much more. This stuff, this intrasexual competition thing is so interesting and kind of endlessly deep. The number of different ways that we compete within our own sex to try and gain status or mates or resources or renown or prestige is pretty fascinating. And I keep on finding more and more interesting researchers that have even more cool stuff to tell us about. So here we go again. In other news, this episode is brought to you by Gymshark. I've managed to find the perfect shorts, T-shirt and hoodie combination after trying pretty much everything on from Gymshark. Their studio shorts line for men is absolutely ridiculous. I think they might be the perfect shorts. They're an awesome length, super, super lightweight. They've got this flat waistband. They're incredibly hard wearing. They're dusty maroon, willow green, onyx gray and navy are all amazing colors. They've got this crest hoodie thing, which is this ridiculously super thick hoodie, which you could wear to warm up in or to travel in. Light gray mile, misty pink and desert sage green are some quite outlandish color names, but fantastic and then they do a geo seamless t-shirt, which is basically, it feels like not wearing a t-shirt. That together is the ultimate train or travel outfit and it is all available if you go to bit.ly slash shark wisdom. That is my super secret product page with all of the products that I use and recommend. And if you use the code MW10 at checkout, you'll get 10% off everything worldwide and sitewide. Plus, there is a 30 day money back guarantee with free returns. It's a 100 dollar or 100 pound minimum spend, but those free returns mean you can just buy whatever you want. And in final news, this episode is brought to you by Element. First thing in the morning, having coffee doesn't do anything. Your adenosine system that caffeine acts on isn't even active for the first 90 minutes of the day, but your adrenal system is and salt acts on your adrenal system. Element is a science-backed electrolyte ratio of sodium, potassium and magnesium with no junk, no sugar, no colouring, no artificial ingredients, no gluten, no fillers and no BS. It is the exclusive hydration partner to Team USA Weightlifting and relied on by tons of Olympic athletes, Navy SEAL teams, FBI sniper teams and Marines, plus tech leaders and everyday athletes around the world. It plays a critical role in reducing muscle cramps and fatigue whilst optimising brain health, regulating appetite and curbing cravings. But best of all, it just tastes good. Plus, they've got a no BS, no questions asked refund policy and they ship internationally. You can get a free sample pack of all eight flavours with your first box. All that you need to do is go to drinklmnt.com/modernwisdom. That's drinklmnt.com/modernwisdom.
But now, ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Dr Khandis Blake.
Why Do Women Take Sexy Selfies?

**Khandis Blake** (4:02)
Oh, we're starting at the big ones, the big questions. So, this has been something that's been really fascinating for me for a while, partly because I'm a woman, you know? And I've been through all of those teenage years and my twenties where beauty was really important to me. And then I've kind of passed that, and whilst beauty still is important in your thirties as well, you know, you just see so many women taking these selfies and it seems to be so, so important to them. And one of the kind of strongest arguments about this, one of the most dominant arguments about this, is basically that women really care about their appearance, they really care about beauty because of the patriarchy, you know, capital P. And the idea there is that gender oppression leads women to value their bodies more than they value their other qualities. And psychologists call that self-objectification, that's the kind of techie term for it. And, you know, I think there is some truth to that, there's certainly a bunch of people have been talking about it for many years. But in my kind of opinion, when I first started looking at this topic of research, I thought that was doing a bit of a disservice to women. Because from what I could see, having kind of been in that world and having known many women in that world, there was something really uber competitive about women engaging in sexy selfies and beautifying their appearance as well. Like it didn't seem to me to be something that was done to women, but very much something that women were owning and using quite strategically.