Evolution of the pointless

[AngryTurtle]

Before i begin my story, this thread is dedicated to bringing up and hopefully solving the issue of so many odd things that seem to serve absolutely no purpose but seem to have been evolutionarily selected to be widespread.

 

Story Time!

I was sitting on IRC talking to total strangers in a karaoke channel I decided to stumble into and someone was talking about how amazingly hot their (more than likely fictitious) girlfriend is. Said person then went on in some detail about how sexy said phantom girl's back dimples are. Back dimples in case you don't know just means you have (for lack of a better discription) dimples in your lower back. I was about to pounce in on this conversation and ravage the emotions of some young porn addicted boys when I got thinking...

 

Alot of us actually do find back dimples very attractive, but exactly what causes such a small and odd trait to be seductive? Every other trait seems to have explanations (ie. big breast = feeding children, wide hips = good for birthing etc.) So why exactly is this rare and insignificant trait seen so widely as an attractive trait? what possible reason is there for our brains juicing themselves with hormones when we realize someones lower back is dented?

 

after thinking on this for about 3 minutes and getting a kick out of realizing thee are dedicated back dimple picture archive sites I decided on thus!

 

Evolutionary Question: Back-dimples attractive?

Speculation/Hypothesis:

forgive the almost pornographicness of the picture, its hard to find anatomical photographs of a universal fetish.

Basically my best guess is that the brain misconstrues them for visual clues leading the mind to think about the pelvis of the woman which would be a direct lead back into the whole primitive evolutionary pathway, it is a sign of sexual desire because it gets the mind thinking about the woman's ability to give birth the same way hips do. Would be interesting to see if women find back dimples attractive on a man because that would shoot my theory to shit unless it was for a different reason such as: looking like more muscular definition or something.

 

Shoot your ideas and i'd love to hear other "whats the evolutionary purpose of __________" ideas!

[John Cuthber]

"what possible reason is there for our brains juicing themselves with hormones when we realize someones lower back is dented?"

One possibillity that you would need to rule out as a confounding effect is that the sight of these means you are looking at someone who isn't wearing a lot.

[AngryTurtle]

hah, you fully understand what I am saying. The dimples are a massive additive factor for many people and drastically increase the sexual appeal of someones lower back.

[Phi for All]

Maybe they're appealing because they represent the "eyes" that go with the "cheeks" to make a "face", and that just leads the brain to fill out the rest of the pattern....

[liarliarpof]

Any practioner of 'good' science considers each example separately, and draws conclusions based upon individual merit. Looks like (2) 'handholds' to me but, of course, would require an experiment to confirm and at least (1) more to verify reproducibilty. Or, as Sir Isaac would have phrased it, "It must be 'demonstrable', or otherwise will lie in the realms of Philosophy or Theology". Purt near any realm'd work for me with this example!

[tomgwyther]

It could just be one of may bodily forms which are attractive because they represent general fitness and health.

The dimples appear to be caused by the gap caused where the Cartalidge below the latissimus dorsi overlaps the external oblique.

Some one who had toned and supple back muscles would show this gap more apparently.

Or it could just be that certain images set of certain chemical reactions in the brain; some people get turned on by the sight of paper clip.

I personlly like that whole collar bone area, although

"Darling, you have beautiful sternocleidomastoid connective tissue to your clavicular head."

Doesn't really work as a chat-up line, I tried.

[Moontanman]

Angry turtle, you just wanted to post a nekked girl pic didn't you? Nice one i admit and i do like the dimples..... Um yesssss, oh ok, um, symmetry, yes that's it, symmetry, that why I like them so much. On yeah, ummm, any chance we can inspect the other side for dimples, just a scientific check to make sure we are not missing any, you know, just to be sure

[Severian]

You get turned on by the dimples? You are weird.

[insane_alien]

took me a while to notice the dimples.

 

the dimples do not add an illusion of thinness, the fact that she's thin causes me to think she's thin.

[Sisyphus]

I don't think the reaction is as universal as you think...

[The Bear's Key]

Before i begin my story, this thread is dedicated to bringing up and hopefully solving the issue of so many odd things that seem to serve absolutely no purpose but seem to have been evolutionarily selected to be widespread.

Perhaps annoyance?

 

Or maybe it does serve an evolutionary useful purpose. Our caveperson* ancestor gets frustrated that someone's doing the food gathering in a nincompoop manner, and you do something about it just to make the feeling go away.** Kind of like reacting to pain from your hand touching a hot pan, but way more subtle.

 

 

*

 

**(Thus danger averted of the village starving....or at least going hungry for the night)

[Taktiq]

A better question would be why some people find it attractive to dress up as or dress someone else up as a horse (besides the obvious dominance issues).