Sometimes little things annoy me. I’m quite a patient person most of the time, but there will be little things that tip me over the edge into griping and complaining. I’m not alone in this, life can be irritating for everyone, and never is this more the case than when it is our own bodies letting us down. Some things, which seem like they should be so logically simple, just aren’t that easy for us to do, and it has gotten me wondering why with these things our bodies have yet to evolve…
Digestion
Why, after having an existence that involves eating things for so many millions of years, do we still need to have a nap after eating a big meal? Should we not be better at digesting now, without having to divert important brain resource to our tummies?! How long does it take for us to evolve a more efficient way of doing it?!
Body hair
The tufts of prickly hair sprouting from legs, crotch and underarms are, to be frank, a major irritation. Despite there being very little use for body hair post-invention-of-clothes, our bodies clearly haven’t seen evolving to not have to use a razor as a priority worth embarking on. Instead, we have to shave, and wax, and put ourselves through misery to fit society’s completely illogical beauty priorities!
Ears
Not ears in general (they serve many useful purposes, after all), but the fact that despite being designed to so easily be “plugged”, no amount of sticking our fingers in our ears will ever keep out the noise of someone else’s crying baby. Sure, it may dull it slightly, but I find it so irritating that trying to keep out things you don’t want to hear is so very very hard.
Pregnancy
The most obvious thing, of course, is the fact that despite so many years of birth (and, you know, the evolution into creatures that walk on two legs), our bodies still aren’t designed to squeeze out an infant. Switching to the whole walking upright thing changed our birth canals, and you would have thought that the priority would be to fix a design flaw. But no, for thousands of years women have died through bad births, and at the very least experienced plenty of pain. Well done body, top marks.
Image via petercat.harris's Flickr