Women walk sexy to throw off undesirable men

14 November, 2007

A woman who walks with her hips swinging in a seductive manner, no doubt, is bound to attract most men. However, she is, by doing do, unknowingly giving a complex sexual signal to men – that she is unlikely to be ovulating.

A research team at Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada, dressed female volunteers in suits which had light reflectors placed on the joints and limbs and filmed them walking to analyze their gait.

The women also gave a saliva sample to assess their hormone levels.

Women who were in the fertile period of their menstrual cycle walked with smaller hip movements and with their knees closer together, the scientists found.

A total of 40 male volunteers were shown the footage of the women and were asked to rate those with the sexiest walk. The winners – those who walked the sexiest – were found to be in the least fertile part of their menstrual cycle.

The new study apparently contradicts a recent research which found that men respond more readily towards women at ovulation. A paper published in the United States in October 2007 had said that lap dancers earn more tips during their fertile period than during the non-fertile part of their cycle.

However, the researchers at Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada, say they believe that there is, in fact, no contradiction, since a fertile woman gives out “come-hither” signals at close range rather than at a distance.

These signals, they add, come through scent molecules called pheromones and expressions of the face. The proximity would mean that a woman can check a potential mate for fitness before letting him come close to her.

In contrast, men can find out the attractiveness of a woman’s walk from a long distance. Hence, a “sexy” walk, visible from a distance, could act as an unwitting signal to less appealing males, according to the Canadian researchers.

They conclude that, having a less sexy walk at the time of ovulation gives a woman an evolutionary advantage – that is, she can hide her fertile period from an undesirable man who might want to take advantage of her at the time.

The study, which appears in the November 10, 2007, issue of the British journal New Scientist, has also been published in the US journal Archives of Sexual Behavior.