For too long, our approach to sexual politics has quarantined the biological from the sociocultural, as if one has nothing to do with the other. Yet a closer look of the drivers of traditional gender ideology, intimate partner violence, and female beauty practices shows that nature and nurture often intertwine. In this talk I review a growing body of work implicating mating market conditions in some of the most ideologically divisive issues societies face. By incorporating insights from behavioral ecology, social psychology, economics, and international security, I aim to provide a functional account of sexual politics, one that highlights the need for cross-disciplinary collaboration. With this account I offer a new approach to understanding how and why ideologies concerning sex manifest, and what this means for the future of gender equality.
