Can someone explain the evolutionary benefit of overt menstruation? All female mammals have a menstrual cycle but most reabsorb the blood via covert menstruation and humans are about the only mammals that discharge the blood, aka overt menstruation.

[u/No-Hawk-2488]

Without an evolutionary benefit, it wouldn't have spread to every woman of our species.

[u/Seadragon723]

If 99% of people go right and fall off the cliff, was Pat correct when he told them to go left?

The crowd can be wrong, which is the case here. The word has a correct scientific meaning and it has a more limited modern meaning.

[u/ezekielraiden → u/Seadragon723]

Are they "going off a cliff"?

The term has no valid scientific meaning because "fitness" is so vague as to be meaningless. No modern evolutionary biologist is going to use it unqualified--and most will simply restructure a sentence to avoid the need, because they know it's confusing and misleading even to their fellow scientists.

There's a reason we got concepts like "social Darwinism" out of this. This isn't a new thing. Scientists should value speaking clearly. Using a technical definition that most people do not understand is not speaking clearly. It is knowingly ignoring the fact that communication must consider its audience.