Lady Chatterley’s Lover
... wife and a wife is usually selected based on level of attractiveness or her ability to rear healthy children (Stritof). This selection process lead to another phenomenon, a difference in reaction to extramarital affairs based on gender. Researchers Bramp p. Buunk and Pieternel Dijkstra, of the University of Grononingen, found that men but not women became more jealous when confronted with a more socially dominant rival (referring to economic status and social status) than a nonsocial dominant rival. They also found that women but not men became more jealous when their rival is more physically Rose 2 attractive (395). Thus, the husband will feel more threatened by the rival if he is better able to provide for the wife and the wife will feel more jealous if the rival is more attractive than herself and will more likely keep the husbands attention. Not only does each gender react differently to the rival’s characteristic (social dominance or attractiveness), but also each gender is sensitive to the type of infidelity. Men tend to react more strongly to sexual infidelity while women react more strongly to emotional infidelity (Buunk, Dijkstra 396). Traditional roles explain why men and women react differently based on the type of infidelity. For men, paternity of offspring can be uncertain due to sexual infidelity. They may invest time and resource into another man’s offspring and not pass on their own genes. Therefore, they are more sensitive to...