Is She Dressed For Success – How Women Adorn During Courtship
Christopher Philip
In 2004 researchers Karl Grammer and his colleagues LeeAnn Renninger and Brettina Fischer conducted a study on women attending an Australian discotheque.
The study was simple enough, they surveyed and photographed 350 women at a bar and collected saliva samples to measure levels of estrogen and testosterone. The researchers predicted that the level of estradiol, which peaks during ovulation, would match with the sexiness of the girl’s outfits. Only the girls that were not taking hormonal contraceptive were predicted to be affected directionally as these women are known to cycle normally and also respond to their peak fertility hormonally. Women taking contraceptives do not have spikes in hormones and thus were not expected to show behaviour indicating fertility.
To analyze dress, the images of the women were converted to gray scale and then a selection tool was utilized to mark the outline of the subject.
Next, the number of pixels were calculated in the area in which skin was showing. This gave a figure representing the amount of skin and thus a predicator of sexiness of dress. Next, dress was measured for sheerness and finally for clothing tightness which was rated by two independent observers.
The Results
As expected, results showed that single women were more likely to report that they were at the bar to “meet new people” and “flirt.” Women whose dress was less sexy, however, also tended to report that their desire was to “hang around” whereas those who dressed sexy tended to report their desires to “meet to new people” and “flirt.” The women who reported a desire to locate a partner for “sex” rated their own dress as highly sexy and bold, but low on “natural.”
The first finding is that overt dress indicates a desire to be noticed and meet new people, and when girls dress particularly sexy, they are actually seeking sex – as self reported.
There was no measurable difference between the amount of skin shown by the girls and their intentions on contraceptives. All women were found to display approximately 23-30% of their skin regardless of condition.
A moderate correlation was found between clothing choice and motivation. When women reported the motivation for sex, the sheerness of their clothing was predictive. This, however, was only the case for the partner-absent, no pill group.
Results for all girls combined showed that testosterone levels correlated with clothing sheerness and in the no-pill, partner absent group, estradiol correlated with skin display and shorter skirt display.
Drawing Conclusions
Overall, most women reported the desire to be in a club to “meet new people” over other more overt adventures.
The single women reported a higher interest in a desire to flirt than the paired women.
The women rated their clothing accurately with respect to social norms, so they do understand exactly how others will perceive them. Additionally, sheerness of clothing was a predictor of more overt desires such as to flirt or seek sex.
Interestingly, say the authors, all the women in the club displayed similarly and not as expected. That is, the single women displayed similar to the non-single women. It might be surprising to realize that women did not display more overtly when single, or, put another way, that all women, single or dating, maintained similar codes of dress.
However, as we might expect, women of childbearing age are in constant competition with other women, and until married and even then, likely seek offers from other potential mates. Should a better offer arise, most women would be tempted to stray, even if it was simply extra-copulatory (i.e. cheating).
Higher than usual testosterone and estrogen levels also predicted motivation and dress, suggesting that both hormones function in motivation for attraction.
One factor that helps explain why there is so much variation in hormones with women’s response is that it may be that women, overall, are more sensitive to testosterone and estrogen, and that it is highly specific to each individual woman. In other words, so long as women have received a threshold level of the relevant hormones, their behaviour and interest in sex and display will be triggered.
This study certainly seems to present support for this idea.
Resources
Grammer, Karl, LeeAnn Renninger and Bettina Fischer. Disco Clothing, Female Sexual Motivation, and Relationship Status: Is She Dressed to Impress? The Journal of Sex Research. 2004. 41(1): 66-74.
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