Luxusartikel und Fitness Indikatoren

Geoffrey Miller schreibt in seinem Buch „Spent„:

Successful reproduction requires males and females to follow different sexual strategies, and to display their fitness indicators to different audiences. Across virtually all animal species, males display mostly t0 attract female mates, and less often to intimidate male sexual rivals. It is easy to see the functional connection between peacocktails and porsches, and many recent studies have confirmed that men increase the conspicuousness of their consumption when they are most interested in mating.

The situation is more complex for females. Female animals of most species gain little benefit from displaying fitness indicators to either sex, except in species where females compete for resources and mates, or where males are selective about their mates. Among the highly social great apes, for example, female status hierarchies are important in predicting female access to food, so female apes often compete for status by displaying fitness indicators to one another-such as their size, health, assertiveness, and popularity during mutual grooming. Such female-versus-female status competition probably likewise accounts for most conspicuous consumption by human females, especially for products such as Prada handbags and Manalo Blahnik shoes, which straight males rarely notice, Humans are even more distinctive in that males are choosy about the females with whom they form long-term relationships, which means that females also compete to attract the higher-quality males, Sadly, the evidence so far suggests that men pay very little attention to such conspicuous consumption by Women.

Demnach wäre viel was Mode und Aussehen betrifft auch auf die anderen Frauen ausgerichtet. Natürlich wird gleichzeitig der Konkurrenzkampf unter Frauen härter, wenn Männer sich weniger binden müssen, sondern einfach so Sex haben können. Es erklärt jedenfalls die weibliche Begeisterung für bestimmte teuere Handtaschen und das Unverständnis der Männer. Es sind Signale, die nur im Intrasexuellen Wettkampf eine Rolle spielen. Dabei gilt auch hier, dass ein teures Signal nach dem Handicap Prinzip deutlich macht, dass der Signalsender einen hohen Wert hat.

Es zeigt natürlich auch ein eigenständiges Interesse der Frauen an Luxusgütern, das außerhalb des Patriarchats steht, sondern allein der Konkurrenz unter Frauen entspricht.