Sexual Selection Runaway Preference

Sexual selection is an evolutionary mechanism that pits the males and females of a species against each other. Females are often described as cryptic in their display patterns because it is not necessary to be flashy. Females are given the proverbial “choice” of mate and are therefore choosy in the males. Males compete to be flamboyant and display qualities that the female uses to appraise the fitness of the suitor and decide if this will raise the fitness of her offspring. Respectively, the “sexy son” hypothesis and “good genes” hypothesis say that a female will choose a respective mate because it of their appeal because their children will then have that same appeal for the next generation and that a female chooses a mate based on their genes because it will result in the offspring having better genes. This makes males compete for the female and the female choice decides what is deemed competatively appropriate. Some scientists suggest that the qualifier is not anything of apparent value, just what has evolved as the required quality. Put more simply, the idea of "beauty" is not a signifier of good genes at all, but rather a preference that has undergone runaway selection and as a result, no longer holds any direct correlation to the holder's fitness other than how well they fit that preference. This preference changes with the generations of females over evolutionary time and as a result, male characteristics change as well.