Beyond Nature vs. Nurture: An interdisciplinary exploration of sexual politics and ideological divides

Abstract

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.

Bio

Dr Blake is an expert on sexual politics who combines insights from evolutionary biology, psychology and big data to understand conflict and competition among people. Her research addresses big issues that profoundly influence wellbeing, including personal agency and empowerment, intimate partner violence and the varied ways in which people seek and enact status. Dr Blake convenes TwitPlat, a database of 2.3 billion geolocated Twitter posts spanning 9 years, and the Daily Cycle Diary, an online platform that helps women to understand how their menstrual cycle affects their psychology. She is an ARC DECRA Fellow and a senior lecturer at the Melbourne School of Psychological Science at the University of Melbourne.