Sexual Attraction and Mitochondrial Health
The following are well established in humans:
- Only the mother’s mitochondrial genome is passed on to the children
- Men are more attracted to female beauty than women are to male beauty
Additionally, I strongly believe, though this is more speculative, that health and beauty are closely intertwined. The attributes that make a woman attractive, for example, are also clear signs of health, all else equal:
- The waist-to-hip ratio signals reproductive health.
- Being slim suggests metabolic health.
- A wide, full mouth with straight teeth and a visible jawline implies healthy airways.
- A feminine distribution of body-fat (much on hips and breasts, none on the stomach) suggests healthy levels of hormones in the formative years.
- Etc.
It is interesting to note that these signs of health tend to come as a package. They are probably interrelated in ways we have not yet discovered.
The most fundamental possible driver of health in general is, in my view, well-functioning mitochondria. While the cell is the basic unit of life, the mitochondria are the CEOs of the cell, and nothing functions if they don't.
The old interpretation of mitochondria being merely power plants dramatically underplays their role. We now know they are extensively involved in gene expression, which can be more impactful than the genes themselves, and that their dysfunction causes multitudes of downstream problems.
So, what if men put greater weight on beauty-health-because it is ultimately a sign of well-functioning mitochondria, which will be passed on to the children from the mother only? What if we know this, subconsciously, and our mating preferences reflect it? This could, perhaps, explain why men care so much more about looks, i.e., health, than women do.