Department of Psychology, University of New Mexico, Logan Hall, MSC03-2220, 1 University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, 87131-0001, USA.
The Kinsey Institute, Indiana University, Bloomington, Bloomington, IN, USA.
Arch Sex Behav. 2022 Oct;51(7):3225-3256. doi: 10.1007/s10508-020-01768-x. Epub 2021 Jan 4.
Investigations of women's same-sex relationships present a paradoxical pattern, with women generally disliking competition, yet also exhibiting signs of intrasexual rivalry. The current article leverages the historical challenges faced by female ancestors to understand modern women's same-sex relationships. Across history, women were largely denied independent access to resources, often depending on male partners' provisioning to support themselves and their children. Same-sex peers thus became women's primary romantic rivals in competing to attract and retain relationships with the limited partners able and willing to invest. Modern women show signs of this competition, disliking and aggressing against those who threaten their romantic prospects, targeting especially physically attractive and sexually uninhibited peers. However, women also rely on one another for aid, information, and support. As most social groups were patrilocal across history, upon marriage, women left their families to reside with their husbands. Female ancestors likely used reciprocal altruism or mutualism to facilitate cooperative relationships with nearby unrelated women. To sustain these mutually beneficial cooperative exchange relationships, women may avoid competitive and status-striving peers, instead preferring kind, humble, and loyal allies. Ancestral women who managed to simultaneously compete for romantic partners while forming cooperative female friendships would have been especially successful. Women may therefore have developed strategies to achieve both competitive and cooperative goals, such as guising their intrasexual competition as prosociality or vulnerability. These historical challenges make sense of the seemingly paradoxical pattern of female aversion to competition, relational aggression, and valuation of loyal friends, offering insight into possible opportunities for intervention.
对女性同性关系的研究呈现出一种矛盾的模式，即女性通常不喜欢竞争，但也表现出同性竞争的迹象。本文利用女性祖先所面临的历史挑战来理解现代女性的同性关系。纵观历史，女性在很大程度上被剥夺了独立获取资源的机会，往往依赖男性伴侣的供养来养活自己和孩子。因此，同性同龄人成为女性在竞争中吸引和留住有限的、愿意投资的伴侣时的主要浪漫竞争对手。现代女性表现出这种竞争的迹象，不喜欢和攻击那些威胁到她们浪漫前景的人，尤其是针对那些身体有吸引力和性行为无拘无束的同龄人。然而，女性也相互依赖以获得帮助、信息和支持。由于历史上大多数社会群体都是父系的，女性在结婚后离开自己的家庭，与丈夫一起居住。女性祖先可能利用互惠利他主义或共生关系来促进与附近不相关的女性建立合作关系。为了维持这些互利的合作交换关系，女性可能会避免与竞争激烈和追求地位的同龄人交往，而是更喜欢善良、谦逊和忠诚的盟友。那些设法在竞争浪漫伴侣的同时又能建立合作女性友谊的女性祖先可能会特别成功。因此，女性可能已经发展出了既实现竞争目标又实现合作目标的策略，例如将她们的同性竞争伪装成亲社会性或脆弱性。这些历史挑战解释了女性对竞争、关系攻击和对忠诚朋友的重视的看似矛盾的模式，为可能的干预机会提供了深入的见解。
