Prev | Current Page 381 | Next

Ellis, Havelock, 1859-1939

"Sexual Selection In Man"

W.T. Stead, having for its
object the purpose of promoting correspondence, friendship, and
marriage between its members. There are two classes, of entries,
one inserted with a view to "intellectual friendship," the other
with a view to marriage. I have not thought it necessary to
recognize this distinction here; if a man describes his own
physical characteristics and those of the lady he would like as a
friend, I assume that, from the point of view of the present
inquiry, he is much on the same footing as the man who seeks a
wife. In the series of entries which I have examined 35 men and
women state approximately the height of the man or woman they
seek to know; 30 state in addition their own height. The results
are expressed in the table on the following page.
Although the cases are few, the results are, in two main
respects, sufficiently clear without multiplication of data. In
the first place, those who seek parity, whether men or women, are
in a majority over those who seek disparity. In the second place,
the existence of any disparity at all is due only to the
universal desire to find a tall person.


Pages:
369 370 371 372 373 374 375 376 377 378 379 380 381 382 383 384 385 386 387 388 389 390 391 392 393