Thersites opened this stream with the following:
"The question I put to the forum is about the decidedly anomalous reversal of sexual advertisment in humans. For instance, the male bird of paradise grows a huge flashy tail to "attract" the female, but the male human generally dresses far less attractively than does the female human."
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I would like to suggest that you will find no anomaly if you compare species with similar breeding strategies.
Male Birds of Paradise spend all their energy in seeking mates and take no part in rearing the offspring. Mammals with a similar strategy tend to have a higher level of sexual dimorphism - males with much larger and heavier bodies than females, bigger horns or antlers, manes, etc.
If you compare humans with bird species in which the male shares in raising the family you will find that we are actually fairly normal. While there are still many species where the male is more colourful than the female, this it more common in smaller birds where the female spends more time on the nest while the male defends the territory and brings food to the female.
In flock birds and species where both sexes work together to protect the territory, it is often quite difficult to tell the sexes apart.
Secondly, it is dangerous to base an argument on a comparison between genetics and learned behaviour. There have been many cultures where human males were as colourful as females. Consider the bright colours of most military uniforms before firearms reached the stage of development where camouflage became essential.
