ABSTRACT
Power is the capacity to impose one’s will upon another. Power is…imposing? We tend to assume that imposing appearance indicates power. Peacocks look imposing (and peahens not). Male birds of paradise display imposing plumes, strut aggressively, and repel invaders of their territories. The highly charged flamboyance of these cocks is not a simple sign of power, for as Darwin proposed, it is the smaller, plain females who have the power to accept or reject the gorgeous suitors. A century after Darwin’s startling insistence that conspicuous display may be associated with begging for favor, numerous field studies shifted the focus of selection from the cocks per se to the territories they maintained (Mayr 1972:95) and attributed hens’ drabness to their need for concealing nests (Selander 1972:205). That being said, it remains, as Darwin noticed, the imposing cocks have less power to effect their will than do the brown hens.
