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'Cowgirling' is a term from polyamorous communities where one woman strategically eliminates rivals to make an open relationship monogamous. This competitive behavior reveals that even within non-monogamous structures, the underlying evolutionary drive for mate-guarding and exclusivity often prevails.
Modern dating apps create a dynamic where a small percentage of men monopolize sexual partners, leaving many others sexless. This technologically-driven outcome mirrors 'effective polygyny,' an ancestral mating pattern, rather than creating a new social problem.
As a competitive tactic, women advise female rivals to delay having children and prioritize their careers more heavily than they would for themselves. This serves to subtly suppress the reproductive success of competitors under the guise of helpful advice.
The speaker introduces "mate suppression" as a twisted biological impulse, particularly prevalent in toxic femininity, to harm the reproductive chances of perceived rivals. This drive manifests in behaviors that sabotage others' attractiveness or access to mates, explaining seemingly irrational social rules that secretly aim to handicap competitors.
Despite its progressive image, polyamory frequently manifests as one high-status man with multiple female partners. This dynamic is less an enlightened evolution of relationships and more a modern form of polygyny, driven by the scarcity of men that a large number of women find desirable.
The 'lie' of monogamy is not that it's a bad choice, but that culture has sanctified it as the only valid path. This framing turns non-monogamous people into villains and ignores that polygyny is the biological norm for most animals, including pre-agrarian humans.
By branding traditionally attractive masculine traits like dominance and aggression as 'toxic,' women can manipulate the mating market. This sabotages rivals' ability to select high-quality partners by steering them toward less desirable mates, thereby inhibiting their reproductive success.
To maintain relationship stability, people in committed relationships unconsciously deploy a 'pro-relationship bias.' They automatically perceive attractive alternative partners as less appealing than they actually are. This psychological defense mechanism downgrades temptations and helps insulate the relationship from outside threats.
The "having a boyfriend is cringe" trend, promoted by high-status women, may be an unconscious evolutionary strategy to suppress the reproductive success of other women, thus reducing competition for desirable partners.
A study found that men’s real-world sexual success was highly correlated with how intimidating other men found them, not by how attractive women rated them. This suggests female mate choice is less about direct selection and more about passively choosing the victors of intra-male competition, validating a 'male competition theory' of attraction.
A key protective mechanism in monogamous relationships is the "derogation of alternatives." People happy with their partner subconsciously perceive potential mates as less attractive than they objectively are, a cognitive bias that defends the relationship from threats and temptation.