Tall men marry women who are somewhat above the average in
height; short men marry women who are somewhat below the average, so that
husband and wife resemble each other in stature as closely as uncle and
niece. As regards eye-color there is also a tendency for like to marry
like; the light-eyed men tend to marry light-eyed women more often than
dark-eyed women; the dark-eyed men tend to marry dark-eyed women more
often than light-eyed. There remains, however, a very considerable
difference in the eye-color of husband and wife; in the 774 couples dealt
with by Pearson there are 333 dark-eyed women to only 251 dark-eyed men,
and 523 light-eyed men to only 441 light-eyed women. The women in the
English population are darker-eyed than the men;[182] but the difference
is scarcely so great as this; so that even if wives are not so dark-eyed
as women generally it would appear that the ideal admiration for the
dark-eyed may still to some extent make itself felt in actual mating.
While we have to recognize that the modification and even total inhibition
of sexual ideals in the process of actual mating is largely due to psychic
causes, such causes do not appear to cover the whole of the phenomena.
Pages:
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
390
391
392
393
394
395
396
397
398
399
400
401
402