Neoteny

written for Going Your Own Way forum. Reviewed & Edited by BeijaFlor

Have you ever pondered why some western men are attracted to Asian girls? Are you perhaps among those who are perplexed on why western men find Asian girls appealing?  The answer lies in Neoteny. In this article, I attempt to provide the break down and the lowdown on Neoteny as well as the world’s fascination, obsession, celebration and perversion of it. Now, there are several aspects to Neoteny; anthropological, physiological, physical, psychological and evolutionary. To delve deep into each category would be far beyond the scope of this article but I will cover relevant aspects from each of them. 

 

Forever Young

British American Anthropologist Ashley Montagu in his 1989 work Growing Young simply described Neoteny as Juvenilization. This view is shared by American Paleontologist and Evolutionary Theorist Steven Jay Gould (2008) who described Neoteny as “progressive juvenilization as an evolutionary phenomenon”. He proposed that humans “have evolved by retaining to adulthood the originally juvenile features of our ancestors.” I myself am rather taken by renowned scientist JBS Haldane’s definition of Neoteny as the “preservation of embryonic and infantile traits” as well as the “retardation of the developmental rates in humans” (Montagu 1989: 222-224).

In case you missed that, Neoteny is the preservation of childishness and the retardation of maturity.

There is of course, the laymen’s explanation of Neoteny which include “maintaining youthful characteristics into adulthood,” (Merlin 2003) and “the physiological (or somatic) development of an animal or organism is slowed or delayed,” (Phneah 2012) and my favorite, “when cuteness is retained after an animal reaches adulthood,” (Dickinson 2012). These are examples of Neoteny as expressed by women and to be fair these definitions are not wrong but they are inaccurate and too confined within political correctness that belies the breadth and depth of its meaning, which includes the distinct practice and philosophy of childish traits, appearances and behaviors.

Neoteny is essentially Childish-ism, and I aim prove this claim.

Do the Evolution

The general consensus among evolutionists is that animals as well as humans are indeed neotenic and were needed to be to ensure the continuing survival of the species. Zoologist and Nobel Prize winner Konrad Lorenz proposed that cuteness “motivates caretaking behavior in human, with the evolutionary function of enhancing the offspring survival” (Glocker et al., 2009). In other words, the reason babies and puppies are cute is to elicit a nurturing response in adults to ensure the adults care for them.

And unfortunately, we are biologically programmed to respond to cuteness.

Two hormones called Vasopressin and Oxytocin suffuses the adult brain and programs it to send tsunamis of pleasurable emotions that turn an observer into protector and provider (Sanello 2011). Oxytocin and Vasopressin are key hormones in the neuroanatomy of intimacy, particularly in pair bonding and social attachment (Young & Wang, 2004). So yes, every single one of us is highly susceptible to the effect of the attractiveness of cute things.

To give you a perspective, here is a simple narrative. Keep in mind that a girl reaches sexual maturity at the average age of 14 years hence she would appear and behave as a child in all other ways. Our caveman ancestor met 14 year old cavegirl, his hormones stimulated his neurological impulses and he responds. Cavegirl agrees to mate with cavemen with the condition that he protects her from the environment as well as providing a nest and eatables. Repeat for 3,000 generations then lo and behold, cavegirl’s childish traits were passed down and perfected till it reached us.

And we know this is possible when we look at the rapid evolution of diverse dog breeds. Many adult dogs are similar to puppies in their behavior and morphology. The breed differentiation in the dog is believed to be possibly based on neotenic processes so that some morphological or physiological traits delayed at a particular developmental stage may become characteristics of the breed (Trut et al., 2004). To put it simply, dogs behave and look appealing because they retain their puppy-ish features when humans domesticated and bred them.

In our example, when our cavemen ancestors mated with 14 year old cavegirl, this would produce women who retain their childish traits and cavegirls would best remain childish to be cute and appealing if they are to attract other cavemen who will protect and provide for them.

Physical Graffiti

So how do we quantify cute and appealing? In a 2009 study of facial characteristics between two groups of Italian beauty contestants against women in a reference group, it was found the two groups of beauty contestants share similar traits which include larger forehead, smaller jaw as well as broader, flatter and more rounded face. The attractive Italian women had faces characterized by more "babyness" traits compared to the "normal" women used as a reference (Sforza et al., 2009).

Women look like children and what’s more, they want to look like children.

We can verily observe this by looking from the laymen’s definition given earlier; “maintaining youth” as well as “cuteness retained” underlie the desire to be young that is to remain a child. This lust for youthfulness has spawned a pointless need that women indulge in and are willing to pay for. A study of 2000 British women found that the average woman spends £18,000 or $30,000 on her face in her lifetime which includes £9,500 or $15,000 on make-up (Waterlow 2013). British women spend an equivalent of buying a car to look juvenile; it is insane.

Before and After Makeup

And because men are attracted to young and pretty things due to neurological fireworks as well as the biological imperative to mate; women know that men who are interested in them will offer protection and provision, hence these women will present themselves in a such a way to attract as many men as they can for the purpose of mining vast amount of resources otherwise known as money and influence. Sex sells because women look neotenous and men respond to neoteny.

This has led to the supposed sexual objectification of women -- but note that it was originally brought on by women as a tool to control men. Women deliberately entice men while at the same time they reprimand and shame them for having natural sexual urges. This works to lower the supply of sex and inflate women's sexual value. As their value rises, so too does their influence; and they can command the terms of the negotiation for the protection and provision offered by men.

And men have agreed and adhered to all the unfair and unjust terms dictated by women.

Sad but True

Stardusk (2013) mentioned that “if women have evolved to have juvenile features, and men prefer this, and women are protected to the greater extent from the ravages of life by said men, having been taken care of for the most part in the past; it stands to reason that mentally a great portion of women have remained – psychologically speaking – in certain respects in an arrested state of development in their behavior, a behavior that can readily be likened to as a child.”

In our example of caveman and cavegirl; because our ancestors mated with juveniles – with the mental capacity of a child - for 3,000 generations, it is more than likely that through these natural selective breeding women retained psychologically childish tendencies and behaviors. And we can observe and compare this behavior of women with the children of today. Children whine and throw tantrums, women nag and throw hysterics; children can only think about themselves, women are largely concerned with only their wants; children think they are helpless victims and so do women.

Below are examples and a comparison of behaviors exhibited by a woman and two children;

(Worldmedia, 2013)

Oh yeah, it’s ugly. Now compare that video to the one below

(Steve Spell II, 2011)

The similarities between the woman and the children in the two videos above are palpable and telling. Whether it is inborn or acquired or intentional or inadvertent, the fact of the matter is that women are childish in their appearance and behavior. They resist and retard any attempt to mature both physically and mentally. Childish-ism is very much the core of women’s mental processes.

Karen Straughan (2012) stated to the effect that when men perceived women as juvenile, they are not taken seriously which contributes to men disregarding adult female disorderly behavior. This is overly simplistic and I would like to expand on this. I think when a woman behaves like a child i.e. throwing tantrums; both men and women see that this is unacceptable behavior in any adult. However, when a woman has high neotenous physical features i.e. she looks cute and pretty; then this woman can attract men and women who are infatuated with her due to their Oxytocin and Vasopressin firing in their brain that they will deliberately overlook her disruptive behavior i.e. Too Pretty For Prison syndrome. And we know that when a child throws a tantrum, is hurting or cries, it compels adults to mollycoddle and give in to the child and this has been a highly successful strategy for highly neotenous women too.

It is a winning strategy that has worked since caveman met 14 year old cavegirl 100,000 years ago when cavemen had to provide cavegirl a comfy den and delectable cuisine as well as protect her from saber-tooth tigers. Men have allowed these childish women to get away with their hysterics because they are intoxicated by the idea of sex. But whilst men have evolved and progressed from caves to space stations, women continue to stagnate in the comfort of the man that fulfilled her needs and wants. At least cavegirl honored her contract by having intercourse with cavemen. The modern woman do not honor her contract with her man, entraps him into fatherhood that he has no say in, dangles the sex carrot to turn him into slave labor and once she has exhausted him of his resources, she readily leaves him with no remorse, shame or responsibility (manwomanmyth, 2010).

And men still let women get away with it. We need to stop doing this.

Around the World

In my opening I asked the question why some western men prefer Asian girls. Montagu (1989: 13) found that Mongoloid skulls in particular of Chinese and Japanese variety are more neotenized compared to others. This is not surprising considering that China and Japan not only excel in neoteny; they celebrate it. The Japanese and Chinese often produce and reward women who are petite, have small hands and feet, large eyes, round faces and soft jaws; Asian women are more commonly cute (not that other women aren't). 

Blogger Seminal Thoughts (2013) proclaimed, and I agree with him, that Japan is the most neotenous in the world. In what specific areas you ask? Everything; the Japanese neotenized any and all from their 3^rd century B.C. Haniwa clay figures, to 8^th century Fat Buddha statues, to their food, cars, clothes and women; the Kawaii or Cutesy trend is a Japanese pop-culture identity heavily ingrained in their national psyche and this has spilled over to China, South Korea and South East Asia.

Kawaii Hello Kitty Smart Car by Sanrio and Smart

Kawaii Pikachu Boxed Lunch

Cute Japanese Girl

Now, I will go on record to say that this is not something to be proud of. As we know, neoteny is not only a physical attribute but also a psychological one. And East Asians, having the most neotenous looking females in the world, also produces the most infantile and juvenile women in existence. In China, women are prone to “Sa Jiao” which is a set of behaviors characterized by being spoiled, clingy and coquettish (Larson-Wang, 2012). In SEA, the equivalent to “Sa Jiao” is “Manja,” and it is readily seen in women of Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand.

Here is a video of a Cantonese wife throwing a tantrum for not getting soup

(Fun Support, 2009)

And here is a clip of an elderly woman in a fit just to show you that this behavior is widespread

(Rice Tea, 2009)

There’s no English equivalent for Sa Jiao and Manja but I say that this is the epitome of Childish-ism which is rampant and so entrenched in Asia due to centuries of Asians traditionally and specifically seeking childisistic women to mate with and it has resulted in a pandemic of psychotic and neurotic females. Yeah, we fucked it up. And here is where a good argument can be made against traditionalism in Asia and perhaps the world over; and that is, traditionalism enables Neoteny and sires Childish-ism which has perpetrated and perpetuated the dysfunction and malfunction of women.

This is what Barbarossaa (2014) alluded to when he said “one must ask themselves whether or not we are actually deluding our species by allowing stay at home mothers and indeed women as a whole – half of our species after all – to get by in life with much less need to pursue intellectual endeavor,” and that “we have to do away with this powered by orgasm method of sustaining this civilization and adopt a powered by intellectual endeavor civilization.”

If we are to progress as a species, we need to stop reproducing using defective materials.

Boys to Men

Bless you if you have read this far. Neoteny is not exclusive to women; men also display neoteny though not at all the same. Physically, men are not generally neotenous, and certainly nowhere near as neotenous as women. However, psychologically men do retain a certain degree of childish behavior and mental processes both that are of benefit and detriment.

American Scholar Warren G. Bennis (2002: 20) explained Neoteny as “the retention of all those wonderful qualities that we associate with youth: curiosity, playfulness, eagerness, fearlessness, warmth, energy.” Bennis is describing the qualities that leaders still preserve as they age. What Bennis understated and what I feel is powerful, is that these traits; curiosity, playfulness, eagerness, fearlessness, warmth and energy; are all neotenous traits of boys. Bennis is effectively saying that men who carried with them their neotenous boyish behaviors into adulthood become great leaders and indeed these are laudable traits to have and should be cultivated.

However, I believe there is a definite detriment from the retention of boys’ psychological neotenous traits. Stardusk (2013) explained that the mother is a giver of care and nurture to the son and there is a state of discontinuity of what the man seeks moving from the mother to the sexual female partner. A man will not be given the same love and care from his wife as he used to receive from his mother. Stardusk hypothesize that this is the psychological origins of the residual Male Mother Need that exists in men. It could very well be that the Male Mother Need is a byproduct of men’s psychological neoteny and the perversion of it can lead to disturbing behavior and poor life choices as has been documented in the case of Bernard Boursicot.

However, if we assume Bennis to be true, then without doubt as thinking men we should attempt to revisit and reengage our boyish traits and develop them. Sandman (2014) pondered “why were we devoting our time to home decorating instead of space exploration and exploring our minds,” and “if we understood that we can learn and grow in the vastness of the universe and never become bored, then women are just some sideshow beggar tail.” Men are explorers and discoverers, and to be explorers and discoverers men need to be curious of wonders, eager to pursue, fearless towards adversity, active in our endeavors and just have a positive outlook on life. These are the traits that we once had in older and happier times because we used to engage the world with this attitude.

In The End

Physical Neoteny is not an absolute evil. We must understand that we biologically susceptible to cute and pretty things but there is a need to control the self from becoming infatuated to the point it skews our good judgement that we are guilty of unjust; there is no such thing as Too Pretty For Prison. 

What is more disconcerting is Psychological Neoteny, specifically in women who indulge in childishness, who suffer from Childish-ism, and who inflict harm upon others only to satisfy their own selfish greed and interest; we need to separate ourselves from these toxic women lest they make prey of us, rob us of our fortune and leave us destitute. 

We also need to reflect on our own psychological neoteny specifically those boyish traits of fearlessness, eagerness, playfulness, curiosity, energy and warmth. We need to relearn to become explorers and discoverers of our world again. 

When Barbarossaa jokingly refer to women as the 'beautiful retards,' I laughed my ass off because he hit the nail right on the head. They are in fact beautiful and they are in fact retards. And we don't want them to be retards; we want them to be the best that they can be but they can only achieve that if they stop being children and we start treating them as adults whose worth is proven by merit. 

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