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I was intrigued by Minerva’s recent item on calls for men to avoid
finger injuries by learning more about how to undo bra straps(1). Perhaps
we should view the dangers of bra removal as a phenomenon which, although
unfortunate at one level, will ultimately work to the advantage of the
collective gene pool. The point is that men with a poor ability to remove
bras may be at something of a selective disadvantage in the evolutionary
race to pass on their genes. Thus the bra can be viewed as a kind of
“Culturally-constructed evolutionary discriminator” or “Cultural object
for evolutionary discrimination” (the latter conveniently abbreviated as
COED). Or should that be a Culturally-Constructed Selection Tool?
(Elastic) Support for evolution?
EDITOR –
I was intrigued by Minerva’s recent item on calls for men to avoid
finger injuries by learning more about how to undo bra straps(1). Perhaps
we should view the dangers of bra removal as a phenomenon which, although
unfortunate at one level, will ultimately work to the advantage of the
collective gene pool. The point is that men with a poor ability to remove
bras may be at something of a selective disadvantage in the evolutionary
race to pass on their genes. Thus the bra can be viewed as a kind of
“Culturally-constructed evolutionary discriminator” or “Cultural object
for evolutionary discrimination” (the latter conveniently abbreviated as
COED). Or should that be a Culturally-Constructed Selection Tool?
1 Minerva BMJ 2002; 324:1464. (15 June).
Competing interests: No competing interests