The Pill - why women now prefer effeminate men and have unhealthier babies

From The Week - 17.10.09
Why women love Orlando Bloom

The advent of the contraceptive pill, which became available on the NHS in the late 1960s, ushered in an era of sexual liberation and gave women, for the first time in history, control over their fertility. What it may also have done, according to a report in Scientific American on research done by scientists at Sheffield University, is alter women's taste in men. In a normal menstrual cycle, the scientists found, the hormonal changes occur around the time of ovulation tend to make women more attracted to rugged, manly men - that is to say those who, being genetically dissimilar to them, are more likely to father healthy children. The pill, however, suppresses this process, with the result that women start to prefer more sensitive-looking types (as they do ordinarily, at other times of the month) and those who are genetically more similar to them. Some commentators have speculated that this may in part account for the effeminate appearance of many of today's heart-throbs - Orlando Bloom, for example - which is markedly different to the macho look of film stars of the 1950s, such as Burt Lancaster and John Wayne. A quarter of women in Britain between the ages of 16 and 49 currently use the pill.

And then there is all the oestrogen in the water that gets turned into drinking water, feminism, and feminine traits that are lauded and tolerated at the expense of masculine virtues, turning us all into demented old women who think being offended is enough reason to stop rational debate ....

In case anyone's interested, my heart-throbs are the men whom I have loved (clever, talented, wealthy and charming), Russell Crowe, Alan Bates, Oliver Reed (before drink destroyed his looks) and Peter Mandelson ...