Sunday, November 24, 2024
The Other Reason Men Exist
At the bottom of this page is a news article reporting that scientists now know why the male gender exists in nature. It's a good article, but it's easy for the average person to get misled by the media when it comes to human nature and science in general.
A new study by scientists suggests that the male gender exists to help strengthen the gene pool in a species and ward off disease.
The scientists studied beetles in a laboratory for ten years. What was revealed was that the group of beetles that had males competing for sex kept the gene pool strong (resistant to disease) because only the strong males mated, and the group of beetles that had no competition between males had too much inbreeding and eventually went extinct in the lab.
This is evolution by way of sexual selection—and it works; however, the news article displayed a photo of a healthy man at the top, giving the false impression that this knowledge seamlessly ports over and applies to humans as well, but it's not that cut and dry.
The mating game for men and women has changed dramatically since the invention of agriculture 10,000 years ago. Before agriculture, men and women had a more or less level playing field. A man and a woman both worked. Man competed with the strength of a spear and a little social politics. Humans were mobile (they followed the sounds of large grass-eating animals). The pressure of sex selection was more able-bodied and strength-oriented.
Then came the invention of agriculture. Agriculture allowed humans to stay in one location and rely on the farm for their livelihood. This made it possible for a few men to have vastly more resources than other men, thus creating a gap between the haves and the have-nots, which continues to this day. Under these conditions, the mate selection playing field has changed, giving women a power advantage by reducing their need for a man who can travel and hunt.
Women prefer a man with resources, even if he's older or unhealthy, or even if he already has a woman. In fact, there are plenty of modern-day examples of women trying to have a baby with a rich or unhealthy man who won't live much longer so she can raise her status, sometimes by inheriting his wealth.
In addition, rich males sometimes horde more than their fair share of women. This puts great stress on young men. It might be that modern religion (Christianity) was invented as a way to help men keep the peace by dividing up the sexual resources, so every man gets one and only one woman. Competition for women in the past 10,000 years is more likely to breed men into warriors than bring health benefits to the gene pool.
Men competing with each other for mates in the modern mating arena doesn't necessarily lead to a healthier gene pool. But there is something that does; it's called genetic variance. For example, a woman like Jennifer Lopez might prefer a man with a narrower face and eyes that are closer together, unlike herself. Nature is telling her: Your face has evolved far enough in width. Don't go outside of normal parameters; start evolving the opposite way.
Apply that concept to every feature of our body—face, hair, internal workings, chemistry, as well as behavior—and what you get is that evolution shoots for the center (the average). So if you were born with a big nose, you might prefer a mate with a smaller nose. If you have a small, cute girl face, you may prefer a mate with a larger, more structured face. If you have milky white skin and red hair, you may prefer a darker mate. If you're really slender, you may prefer a thicker mate. Blonds from northern Europe prefer men from southern Europe. Dark-haired women from Southern Europe prefer lighter men from the North.
The constant addition and shuffling of genes and the hybridization of bodily features help protect the gene pool from disease and make us more resilient to a changing environment.
So the moral of the story here is that the male gender is needed not so much because they compete with other males for dominance but because the male gender [not the female gender] carries the bulk of the genetic variation (not necessarily more genes). That way, if the environment changes or disease enters the population, the population as a whole is less likely to go extinct because we are constantly shifting our genes around, not sitting still and breeding with only that one type of man.
Other ways we differ from the beetle and other life forms are that our technology has made it possible for both men and women to hide their genetic misfortunes: clothing, cars, cosmetics, plastic surgery, lighting, and photography. Even bodybuilding can give a false appearance of health. Religions sometimes teach men not to judge a woman's appearance. *1 This harms the gene pool because desirable women tend to be more intelligent, healthier, and more fit to have children.
Another technological marvel today is the sperm bank. This allows women to avoid the sexual selection pressure of men altogether. A few years ago, I watched a daytime news show interviewing seven unmarried women who were artificially inseminated. Six of them looked like women that men did not want, and that's not because they were a little older. In other words, almost any woman, even the ugly and unfit, can get pregnant and proliferate her genes, thanks to sperm banks. Our socially correct society is too polite to say this has got to stop!
Plus, we haven't even discussed how the 5-6,000-year-old invention of alcohol affects the health of the gene pool. Why do you think women prefer men who drink? Men who have weak self-control are attracted to alcohol. Plus, alcohol further weakens a man's self-control when he drinks. A woman can more easily hide her genetic misfortunes with this kind of man. Because he is too weak to resist her. Thus, both women and men with genetic misfortunes are defining the future generation. This can lead to less attractive children with weak self-control, like their parents.
Hello, drugs, alcohol, smoking, and crime. No wonder the local news channels have a never-ending supply of bad news to report on.
The [New State] will start off as a nonprofit organization that will provide more affordable housing, schooling, health care, and other community needs. Included in the system will be a balanced mate market with mandatory quality controls to filter out genetic misfortunes in all of us to ensure that each future generation gets a little healthier, more intelligent, and more sexually appealing than the generation that came before it.
***
*1 This doesn't literally mean all desirable women are more intelligent than undesirable women.
The doors of opportunity sometimes automatically open for good-looking people, and therefore they don't have to work as hard to further develop the intellect (IQ) they were born with. Less attractive people are sometimes forced to develop their intellect (IQ) because their survival depends on it. And of course, there are unattractive people who just happen to be born brainy.
The reason why good-looking people tend to be more innately intelligent is because men who have strong self-control and are detail-oriented notice the flaws in women and thus do not desire just any woman. When they do have kids, their kids inherit some of their good looks from mom and some of their higher intellect from both mom and dad. Whereas men, who have weak self-control and don’t notice details, believe every woman is desirable. These men mate with any woman and, consequently, have lots of mediocre children.
A related book I recommend is about the evolutionary chase between disease and life forms: The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature, by Matt Ridley.
END
A new study by scientists suggests that the male gender exists to help strengthen the gene pool in a species and ward off disease.
The scientists studied beetles in a laboratory for ten years. What was revealed was that the group of beetles that had males competing for sex kept the gene pool strong (resistant to disease) because only the strong males mated, and the group of beetles that had no competition between males had too much inbreeding and eventually went extinct in the lab.
This is evolution by way of sexual selection—and it works; however, the news article displayed a photo of a healthy man at the top, giving the false impression that this knowledge seamlessly ports over and applies to humans as well, but it's not that cut and dry.
The mating game for men and women has changed dramatically since the invention of agriculture 10,000 years ago. Before agriculture, men and women had a more or less level playing field. A man and a woman both worked. Man competed with the strength of a spear and a little social politics. Humans were mobile (they followed the sounds of large grass-eating animals). The pressure of sex selection was more able-bodied and strength-oriented.
Then came the invention of agriculture. Agriculture allowed humans to stay in one location and rely on the farm for their livelihood. This made it possible for a few men to have vastly more resources than other men, thus creating a gap between the haves and the have-nots, which continues to this day. Under these conditions, the mate selection playing field has changed, giving women a power advantage by reducing their need for a man who can travel and hunt.
Women prefer a man with resources, even if he's older or unhealthy, or even if he already has a woman. In fact, there are plenty of modern-day examples of women trying to have a baby with a rich or unhealthy man who won't live much longer so she can raise her status, sometimes by inheriting his wealth.
In addition, rich males sometimes horde more than their fair share of women. This puts great stress on young men. It might be that modern religion (Christianity) was invented as a way to help men keep the peace by dividing up the sexual resources, so every man gets one and only one woman. Competition for women in the past 10,000 years is more likely to breed men into warriors than bring health benefits to the gene pool.
Men competing with each other for mates in the modern mating arena doesn't necessarily lead to a healthier gene pool. But there is something that does; it's called genetic variance. For example, a woman like Jennifer Lopez might prefer a man with a narrower face and eyes that are closer together, unlike herself. Nature is telling her: Your face has evolved far enough in width. Don't go outside of normal parameters; start evolving the opposite way.
Apply that concept to every feature of our body—face, hair, internal workings, chemistry, as well as behavior—and what you get is that evolution shoots for the center (the average). So if you were born with a big nose, you might prefer a mate with a smaller nose. If you have a small, cute girl face, you may prefer a mate with a larger, more structured face. If you have milky white skin and red hair, you may prefer a darker mate. If you're really slender, you may prefer a thicker mate. Blonds from northern Europe prefer men from southern Europe. Dark-haired women from Southern Europe prefer lighter men from the North.
The constant addition and shuffling of genes and the hybridization of bodily features help protect the gene pool from disease and make us more resilient to a changing environment.
So the moral of the story here is that the male gender is needed not so much because they compete with other males for dominance but because the male gender [not the female gender] carries the bulk of the genetic variation (not necessarily more genes). That way, if the environment changes or disease enters the population, the population as a whole is less likely to go extinct because we are constantly shifting our genes around, not sitting still and breeding with only that one type of man.
Other ways we differ from the beetle and other life forms are that our technology has made it possible for both men and women to hide their genetic misfortunes: clothing, cars, cosmetics, plastic surgery, lighting, and photography. Even bodybuilding can give a false appearance of health. Religions sometimes teach men not to judge a woman's appearance. *1 This harms the gene pool because desirable women tend to be more intelligent, healthier, and more fit to have children.
Another technological marvel today is the sperm bank. This allows women to avoid the sexual selection pressure of men altogether. A few years ago, I watched a daytime news show interviewing seven unmarried women who were artificially inseminated. Six of them looked like women that men did not want, and that's not because they were a little older. In other words, almost any woman, even the ugly and unfit, can get pregnant and proliferate her genes, thanks to sperm banks. Our socially correct society is too polite to say this has got to stop!
Plus, we haven't even discussed how the 5-6,000-year-old invention of alcohol affects the health of the gene pool. Why do you think women prefer men who drink? Men who have weak self-control are attracted to alcohol. Plus, alcohol further weakens a man's self-control when he drinks. A woman can more easily hide her genetic misfortunes with this kind of man. Because he is too weak to resist her. Thus, both women and men with genetic misfortunes are defining the future generation. This can lead to less attractive children with weak self-control, like their parents.
Hello, drugs, alcohol, smoking, and crime. No wonder the local news channels have a never-ending supply of bad news to report on.
The [New State] will start off as a nonprofit organization that will provide more affordable housing, schooling, health care, and other community needs. Included in the system will be a balanced mate market with mandatory quality controls to filter out genetic misfortunes in all of us to ensure that each future generation gets a little healthier, more intelligent, and more sexually appealing than the generation that came before it.
***
*1 This doesn't literally mean all desirable women are more intelligent than undesirable women.
The doors of opportunity sometimes automatically open for good-looking people, and therefore they don't have to work as hard to further develop the intellect (IQ) they were born with. Less attractive people are sometimes forced to develop their intellect (IQ) because their survival depends on it. And of course, there are unattractive people who just happen to be born brainy.
The reason why good-looking people tend to be more innately intelligent is because men who have strong self-control and are detail-oriented notice the flaws in women and thus do not desire just any woman. When they do have kids, their kids inherit some of their good looks from mom and some of their higher intellect from both mom and dad. Whereas men, who have weak self-control and don’t notice details, believe every woman is desirable. These men mate with any woman and, consequently, have lots of mediocre children.
A related book I recommend is about the evolutionary chase between disease and life forms: The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature, by Matt Ridley.
END