this post was submitted on 21 Jun 2026
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I agree on the conditioning aspect but is there not some biological imperative as well? Generally attractive traits deemed desirable from an evolutionary perspective
What we view as attractive is socially constructed and varies over time and place. See e.g. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0738081X23000251
Youth and health are probably a proxy for fertility, so that would be related to physical attraction, but why should that affect how we treat people? That's not a reason to favor the young or to disfavor the old. Not only that, but community care of children meant everyone had a role in the greater sense of "fertility".