Have you noticed that the world is getting prettier? At least the women in it? There is actually some science that suggests this is the case. A study from the University of Helsinki found that we’re stuck in a female beauty cycle: beautiful women have more children than their less attractive counterparts, those beautiful women give birth more often to girls, these young girls then grow up to be beautiful women, and then the cycle repeats itself. Over many generations, women have become gradually more and more attractive, while males have pretty much stayed the same. The study used images of approximately 2,000 Americans over the course of four decades of their lives to show the growing beauty gap between men and women. But psychologists are quick to point out that today, unlike in the past, women have the means to work hard to maintain their features. So whether it’s Botox or natural selection, because of this cycle, the female population is more beautiful than ever before. Are you buying it? [Daily Mail]

According to a new study, men are fast becoming the weaker sex. In recent years, some 100,000 chemicals have entered the atmosphere and are wreaking havoc upon masculinity. Apparently, “gender bender” chemicals are messing with hormones, resulting in a “feminisation of the males.” In male animals, symptoms include testicular dysfunction, smaller penises, and reproductive challenges, and some species are experiencing an uptick in hermaphrodites, among them polar bears born with male and female genitalia. These evolutionary “red flags” don’t bode well for humans: “If we are seeing problems in wildlife, we can be concerned that something similar is happening to a proportion of human males.” Some polluted countries are experiencing a surge in female births over male births, male children of women exposed to certain chemicals are exhibiting feminization, and in Rotterdam “boys whose mothers had been exposed to PCBs grew up wanting to play with dolls and tea sets rather than with traditionally male toys.” With sperm counts dropping “precipitously” around the world, women may transform from the fairer sex to the stronger one. [The Independent]

Some may say that going from super stylish clothes to sweatpants is a downward progression. But maybe it’s actually an upwards one. Coiffed city gal Laura, from Project Runway Season 3, may have feared being a sloppily dressed mom, but it turns out evolution has already put plenty of females in the animal kingdom into nature’s “sweats.”  While many female animals have the less showy appearance of their species, oddly enough, the males tend to get the fancy dress—like mallard ducks with their bright emerald feathers. Darwin thought that over time the boys had developed those traits to attract the girls, like glam rockers that use guyliner. 

While a lot of celebrities like to walk around with their cooters out, it turns out that just means they’re less evolved females. Big surprise! But seriously, evolution is to blame for all the problems men have reading women’s sexual signals—although it seems like the trade off was worth it. Back in the day, when we were monkeys, our privates were very public. When our hairy ancestors were in heat, their vajayjay butts would swell up and then they’d go around trying to get laid by showing off the hot mess to the males like this. Conversely, since the apes walked around on all fours, the men’s junk was hidden, so if they popped up, no one was the wiser.  Needless to say, ape sexuality was totally backwards by today’s human standards.  So, how’d our fates get reversed?