Welcome to the First Quarter Man Boobz Pledge Drive 2014: Fluffy Cat Rolling In Money Edition!
To repeat my simple pitch from my previous pledge drives: If you enjoy this blog, and can afford it, please click on the “donate” button below and send a few bucks my way. Or, if you’d prefer, a lot of bucks. You don’t need a PayPal account to donate; you can use a credit card, and there are other options as well. If you’re outside the US, PayPal should be able to handle your weird foreign money.
I appreciate any and all contributions. Of course, if you’re broke and can’t swing a contribution now, I understand. Really.
Your donations — and other forms of support –keep this blog going, by keeping me going. (Yes, the money goes to me. And my cats.)
Enormous thanls to everyone who donated during the last pledge drive. (I know I didn’t get back to everyone personally, and I apologize.) Thanks as well to those who’ve donated since the last pledge drive, and extra special thanks to those who’ve made a point of donating on a regular basis.
Man Boobz has now received more than 13 million page views since its inception on Blogger in 2010. Even more impressive: you all have posted close to 400,000 comments. The community that’s grown up around this blog is, as always, amazing to me. I couldn’t do it without you.
Cloudiah and MEZ, so sorry about your moms. All the hugs. Think I’ll hug my mom really hard next time I see her, in honor of your moms.
David erased the pugs! Again!
Sorry I left the conversation earlier, it was like 2 am
“The very basic reason why men are stronger than women is because men have more testosterone, and testosterone promotes muscle building and thick bones. If women increased the amount of testosterone in our bodies, it would raise havoc with our cycles, we would never get pregnant, and we would become IMMEDIATE genetic dead ends”
I’ll remember that testosterone thing whenever someone tries to argue it is natural or that evolution selected for men to be stronger. Although an MRA would probably just say that’s still evidence that men are meant to protect women. What they fail to realize is that humans are so successful precisely because we are so adaptive. We form societies that are so different, but all manage to reproduce genetically. If we were meant to strictly adhere to our gender (and sex since they see no distinction) roles there wouldn’t be other cultures. I know that’s a simplistic argument, but I think it really is that simple.
@wordsp1nner Bonobos are fricken awesome! They solve disputes by having sex with each other instead of fighting. Funniest video to watch in university class.
@ marci and shayla For sure there isn’t nearly as much sexual dimorphism as some people think their is, and it is definitely made more extreme by our cultural standards. That being said, I think cis-men do have an easier time of putting on muscle than cis-women. I remember in highschool so many girls I knew who refused to lift weights or exercise because they thought they would look manly… le sigh. Meanwhile I was determined to have a 6-pack, which I managed for a year and then got lazy.
@Ally your philosophy teacher sounds awesome, I’ve always hated evolutionary explanations for modern behaviour it can be used to explain anything if you don’t have a strong grasp of biology (and also culture!). It does seem to be more predominantly used to explain sexist bullshit though. Your writing is not pretentious, it would be pretentious if you were using jargon incorrectly or simply using jargon for its own sake, but it makes your arguments more coherent and succinct. Do you only write for school or do you write think pieces for yourself?
http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/two-spirits/map.html
You guys should check out this map PBS made. It’s really cool and shows various cultures with diverse gender traditions. Although it was pointed out to me that “Two Spirits” refers to a specific gender in Native North American group(s). I think it’s just the name of the map and doesn’t actually refer to all of the other cultures.
We have cardinals in our yard. I’ve named them Nick and Nora.
Cloudiah, I am so sorry about your mom. My condolences.
Great map cupisnique! I loved this entry! Fascinating, and I’d never heard of it before! Talk about smashing apart the sex/gender binary.
Guevedoche (Dominican Republic)
Last Updated by brookish on Jun 7, 2011
In an exceptional case, genetics seems to have created a third sex in Dominican Republic. A heritable pseudo-hermaphroditic trait was discovered by ethnographers in the 1970s, who followed the children over generations. With undifferentiated genitalia, they generally were raised as girls, but began developing male traits at puberty. Instead of changing their gender identities to male, most chose to live as a third gender called guevedoche (roughly meaning “testicles at 12”) or machi-embra (man-woman). The society has accommodated the guevedoche and constructed a third gender with distinct roles for them.
Cloudiah (and MEZ), hugs if you need them. My boyfriend recently lost his dad, and they were very close. It’s been hard, but he has just recently started feeling normal again. It’s times like this I can’t begrudge people their own spirituality because I would have a hard time comforting them otherwise. It’s a shit time, but it gets better. Just don’t forget to take care of yourself! It’s not selfish, it keeps you whole.
@cupisnique
The vast majority of the things I write are unrelated to school. I mostly write on my journal (the link to which is in my username) and occasionally Tumblr.
By the way, I strongly recommend that anyone interested in attacking evo psych read this awesome paper: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.90.9290&rep=rep1&type=pdf
Just got up after neighbours had loud party until 2.15am (stereo, shouting at each other, etc etc).
One question about biology=destiny crap, where is account taken of the higher cognitive functions that all humans (with some sad, biological exceptions) have? Like the frontal lobe? If the older mammalian/reptilian parts of our brains are driving our behaviour, why don’t more people directly harm each other rather than, saying, relying on the rule of law to fix problems? Why do many people put off getting a full-time job start after they leave school (with the immediate reward of income) and go to university (delayed reward plus debt), which indicates the ability to value distant outcomes over proximal outcomes?
The thing with these arguments is not only do they ignore culture, they also ignore inconvenient (for them) biology. The “argument” also has a scent of “intelligent design” about it, with men conveniently being positioned as the more evolved sex (and I am using sex, rather than gender, purposely here).
“The very basic reason why men, ON AVERAGE, are stronger than women, ON AVERAGE, GIVEN SIMILAR SIZE AND EXERCISE AMOUNTS, (blah blah blah).”
Geez, I swear that, if I were dictator of the world, I’d throw every schmuck who mistakes a general advantage in the population for absolute superiority of individuals in Statistics Prison.
Mind you, the scientific consensus is still up on whether the differences are statistically significant, since the cultural pressure for women not to bulk up skews the results.
@ vaiyt
“Mind you, the scientific consensus is still up on whether the differences are statistically significant… ”
Which is also skewed by the greater variability WITHIN the groups (in this case sexes) than the amount of variability between the averages of the two groups. Said another way, men differ from each other (and women differ from each other) more than men and women on average differ.
The idea that this difference in strength (whether biological or cultural or both) is inherently why women shouldn’t be in the military, police force, firefighters, etc. is equally bogus and annoying. They assume that because women on average can’t do as many chin ups as men they can’t do these jobs, and they claim that the requirements have been lowered to allow women in to these professions rather than push them to higher standards. What they ignore is that many of the standards are actually not representative of tasks that they would be required to do for the position. I’d rather firefighters be able to drag my body through a house than pick me up and carry me out (because the latter would kill me due to the smoke). So what does number of push ups or chin ups have to do with being able to do their job? Seems like an arbitrary requirement to me. Furthermore, simply because you believe that statistically men are stronger than women makes zero amount of sense to deny ALL women from entering these professions.
“Said another way, men differ from each other (and women differ from each other) more than men and women on average differ.”
That’s the same argument for why race is not an actual biological characteristic. Not to say race doesn’t exist, but it really only exists as a social construct, because different “races” are not significantly different from each other. I’d say the same for sex/gender our genitalia doesn’t seem to be determintive of very much. Even trying to “sex” a skeleton is more guesswork than anything and many of it is based on our own preconceived notions of what the differences between sex are (gracile = female). This is even how they “sex” the skeletons of our ancestors all of which are only partial remains. So saying a 1 mil. year old skull is female based on its “gracile” features is based on a whole heck of a lot of assumptions.
@cupisnique, exactly re job entry standards. This is why many get turned over in court – because the damn entry standard cannot be related to on-the-job duties. Sadly that means the person or organisation bringing the case is often out of pocket, and it puts the onus on that person/organisation to do something.
Then, dealing with the bigoted attitudes and behaviours of the priviledged group already in the occupation is another hurdle.
“The idea that this difference in strength (whether biological or cultural or both) is inherently why women shouldn’t be in the military, police force, firefighters, etc. is equally bogus and annoying.”
By the same argument, we should forbid white people from competing in the 100 meter dash.
Cloudiah and MEZ — *drags over the barrel of hugs* I think there are a variety of furry critters, some fish and plenty of hugs in there for you to hug as desired. I’ve put in a few more and some nibbles from puff, I’m so sorry!
“Geez, I swear that, if I were dictator of the world, I’d throw every schmuck who mistakes a general advantage in the population for absolute superiority of individuals in Statistics Prison.”
Can I be in charge of shiny things and enforcing that?
Pecunium — does it cease being kosher if you bleed in it? *hands over the portable first aid kit and the iodine* (it’s in the other pouch to balance the weight, should you somehow ever need to know this, the band aids et al are in the grey zipper one, the iodine [and sewing stuff] are in the white smaller on, as are the tums)
Emilygoddess — Pecunium was the one running around solving shit with waist length red hair (probably braided, cuz I’ve only ever seen it not braided when wet)
As for survival of the fittest, I cannot, for the life of me, remember where I heard this example, but it was something like this —
You have two islands, both have groups of a species but they’re different colors — other than coloration, they’re the same animal — one island gets hit by a meterior, wiping it out. So the color on the other island survives and that coloration must have some evolutionary advantage right? XD
That’s what the evo psych folks remind me of — survival of the fittest doesn’t mean EVERY trait provides an advantage, some where just a matter of not being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
As for gender differences among mammals vs reptiles, neither is my strong suit, fish otoh…it varies, wildly. And, interestingly, in all the cases I can think off, the ones where there is no difference or the females are larger they’re egg scatterers (or stick the eggs to things and swim off). The ones where the young are actually raised it’s usually by the males and they’re usually bigger. Go solve that one.
Bigger females when they lay the eggs and move on makes some sense in terms of having the energy, or what have you, to produce the eggs. But mouth brooders having larger // more colorful males with the babies living out of their mouths? My guess? They’re very territorial, so it’s more a signal to back the fuck off than anything else. (And I mean very territorial, aquarists who breed cichlids need multiple tanks because of their harem structure and how dominate makes act when they breed)
Speaking of baby fish, have I mentioned that my latest batch is getting big enough to see? And the biggest of the first batch is half as big as dad already, so I’m guessing it’s a girl, but we’ll see on that one.
I’m so sorry to hear about your mom, Cloudiah. 🙁
David: I’ve tossed a few bucks in the kitty. So to speak.
@MEZ
I hadn’t seen your comment earlier. My condolences to you as well.
When I have money to spare, I will absolutely donate to you. 🙂
MEZ, I missed your comment about losing your mother, too – my condolences.
We don’t have cardinals in Oz but if we did I’d call them Biggles and Fang.
David, I’ll squeeze out what I can for a donation. I’m about to be slugged for new glasses and they’re going to be about $600. Ouch!
OMG! DO it! I need to hear this.
Cloudiah and MEZ, I am so sorry for your loss.
And let’s never forget that the idea that women are weaker than men is a relic of classist presumptions about women and that modern women in industrial societies are in a similar position to middle and upper class women of earlier times in having ways to avoid or to lessen the work that requires bodily strength. We now have appliances instead of servants – and those servants were mostly women.
The great majority of women have always had to do seriously heavy or other physically demanding work. Laundry, fieldwork on farms, orchards and gardens, carrying water, chopping firewood, milking animals and carrying the result to the dairy, scrubbing floors, beating carpets, cheesemaking, butchering animals and processing the carcase. Let’s face it, even killing a domestic animal like a duck or a goose involves a great deal of work in scalding and plucking on top of preparing for the oven or pot. Even cooking is a demanding task when you have no appliances to help you. When old-fashioned cookbooks tell you to beat a mixture for 20 or 30 minutes, they’re not talking about flipping a switch, they’re talking about hard work.
I missed that too, MEZ. I am so sorry for your loss.