"Women compete for male affection by seeking to enhance their sex appeal and to diminish that of other women. They also seek to inhibit other women from engaging in “cheap” sex that could diminish the marketplace price of sex, which reduces all the women’s ability to extract resources from men. It includes seeking to control the sex appeal of other women, such as when different women promote different norms based on personal competitive advantage: Attractive women favor norms that allow their charms to be seen by men (in economic terms, sellers like to advertise), thereby enabling the attractive women to gain maximum advantage from their physical assets. Meanwhile, less attractive women favor norms that reduce such revealing clothes, thereby reducing their disadvantage. Women also use gossip to control each other’s behavior, so as to prevent rivals from offering sex at a lower price and undercutting.
Male contests are less overtly sexual in nature than female ones, because women choose men based on status and resources rather than sex appeal. Whereas a woman sees other women chiefly as sexual rivals, men see other men in a more complex and differentiated manner: They are both rivals for female affection and, importantly, potential allies in coalitional competition, which is where status and resources are built up."
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016748701630277X
Male contests are less overtly sexual in nature than female ones, because women choose men based on status and resources rather than sex appeal. Whereas a woman sees other women chiefly as sexual rivals, men see other men in a more complex and differentiated manner: They are both rivals for female affection and, importantly, potential allies in coalitional competition, which is where status and resources are built up."
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016748701630277X