Why There Will Always Be A Need For Men

BBC ^ | 4-1-2004 | Professor Steve Jones

[blam]

Why there will always be a need for men

By Steve Jones
Professor of genetics, University College London

Superhero or zero? Professor Jones says men are indispensable

If the 21st Century belongs to women, could men become extinct? It's the question raised in this week's BBC Two drama documentary If... women ruled the world? Professor Steve Jones explains why, in spite of the rumours, men are biologically hard to get rid of.

One of the biggest questions in biology is: what is the point of men?

Why do women let them get away with it? All they do is force the unfortunate female to copy their own, male, genes.

Imagine a city with 10,000 women and just 10 men

And why are there so many of that selfish tribe?

Each one, each time he has sex, makes enough sperm to fertilise every woman in Europe. Surely a few lucky lotharios would be enough and we could do away with the rest in the interests of economy.

'Dumped males'

In fact the question of males raises not one, but many biological issues: the origin of sex, of distinct sexes, of why there are only two sexes rather than dozens.

And how is that pastime maintained, given that it is so expensive? A woman, it seems, could much increase the rate at which she copies her own genes if she avoided having them diluted by those of a man.

If... women ruled the world Wednesday, 31 March 2004, at 2100 BST on BBC Two Yes, men are a complicated lot, and there's a lot we do not know. As we look through the living world, one thing is clear: it is very hard to get rid of them.

There are plenty of creatures out there that have done the job (including a California lizard in which every animal is a female but, strangely, half pretend to be male by trying to mate with its sister).

Plants - think banana or potato - have dumped males again and again. However, almost none of those lineages have evolved very far.

On the great tree of life, they are at the tips of the branches, each at a dead end. Males act to reshuffle the genetic cards, handing a new mixture of DNA to the next generation, rather than exactly the same mix as that in their mother.

In the great casino of life, they are essential, for any creature that always gambles with the same hand, however good, is bound to lose in the end.

'Investment strategy'

In mammals like ourselves there are also boring technical reasons why some genes have to pass through a father to work properly (which is one reason why cloning is so hard).

But why equal numbers of the sexes? Like so much in life it is a matter of investment strategy.

Imagine a city with 10,000 women and just 10 men.

The cells that make sperm are preserved from decay while those who bear them age and die

Every man would have lots of mates perhaps a hundred or more but however energetic the men were, many of the women would remain without a partner.

Being a man would be very, very, advantageous, and the gene for maleness would get commoner in the next generation.

In time, the city might, perhaps, end up with more men than women - and then the shoe would be on the other foot for many of those males would fail to reproduce.

In the end, things would settle down at 50-50, which is where it more or less is, at least in the west.

In China and India, though, lots of girl babies are killed off as they are seen as valueless. That effect has led to a great excess of young men (more than 120 to every 100 women in some places).

Now, it seems, some parents actually prefer to have girl babies as they are guaranteed to find a partner when they grow up.

Why are babies born young?

The laws of nature are less forgiving than those of television, and in spite of the rumours men are going to be around for a long time yet.

In fact there is another reason why we are going to be hard to get rid of.

Men are at the heart of another central question of biology: Why are babies born young? How can two old and decayed pieces of protoplasm (mothers and fathers, as we call them) get together and, with remarkably little effort, generate a new, rejuvenated, one?

It has to do with sex: for the cells that make sperm are preserved from decay while those who bear them age and die.

Without men, babies might be born as old as their mothers. Imagine what a great television drama that would make!

Professor Jones has written a book on the issue called: Y: The Descent of Men.

[So Cal Rocket]

Someone has to take the garbage cans out to the curb.

[netmilsmom]

Babies need daddies, not sperm donors.

(actually, I didn't read the article, just had to add this)

[b4its2late]

Imagine a city with 10,000 women and just 10 men.

I could handle it...... they used a sample of my blood to create the chemical compund found in Cealis... ;-)

[Az Joe]

bump

[Interesting Times]

Professor Jones appears to have taken the sentences of this article and randomized their order to see if they would pair up and evolve...

[dandelion]

"men are biologically hard to get rid of"

I noticed that early on. The man who was to be my husband was just another eager male buzzing about the hive. I fought them all off successfully. But one day, this one male managed to get into my domicile; immediately he began to insidiously implant himself in my home.

Pots, pans, and dishes showed up in my kitchen, accompanied by gifts of food. His boots and shirt mysteriously migrated from him house to my closet; he distracted me from this by buying clothing for me so I wouldn't notice his own. He ran off all the other males, and left his old smelly sneakers by the front door as a warning to any other males who might try to come inside.

I kept saying "no, no, no you can't stay here it's not right, my mother will find out." I sent him away every night, but he kept coming back, trying to move in to my apartment. He took the remote to my TV, and held it hostage. He kept showing up late at night saying, "I'll cook dinner while you relax". I had no choice but to marry him.

Then, to top it all off, he used my body to clone another of his kind - a small, louder version of himself.

My environment (formerly inhabited by only females of the species) is now overrun by that invasive species, males...

At least they are cute, and they can move furniture!!

[KarlInOhio]

Imagine a city with 10,000 women and just 10 men.

Every man would have lots of mates perhaps a hundred or more but however energetic the men were, many of the women would remain without a partner.

Turgidson: Doctor, you mentioned the ration of ten women to each man. Now, wouldn't that necessitate the abandonment of the so called monogamous sexual relationship, I mean, as far as men were concerned?

Strangelove: Regrettably, yes. But it is, you know, a sacrifice required for the future of the human race. I hasten to add that since each man will be required to do prodigious... service along these lines, the women will have to be selected for their sexual characteristics which will have to be of a highly stimulating nature.

[writer33]

"Someone has to take the garbage cans out to the curb."


And the plethora of things that are to be done as well, somehow relagated to the man.

[Vision]

If this is what the European intellectuals produce, I think I'll grab some chicken fried steak for dinner.

[writer33]

"Yes, men are a complicated lot, and there's a lot we do not know."


I can't agree here. Men are not that complicated at all. Just try working with a bunch of females and you'll see what I mean.

[Citizen Tom Paine]

Lest we forget, the female makes selection in most instances.

[writer33]

"Lest we forget, the female makes selection in most instances."


How true. I can only imagine you've heard the words, "Royal Paine" mentioned numerously. :)

[Sweet Land]

what is the point of men?

Without them, who would women get beers for and pick up after?

[FoxPro]

Did somebody mess up, or is this a very poorly written article?

[pankot]

"A hard man will be good to find"

[Old Professer]

It would seem to be a matter of non-formatting; the paragraph headers are mixed in with the text.

[HungarianGypsy]

Cute story! My husband kept showing up everywhere I went in college. Even if I was trying to hide from everyone, he somehow found me. Someone once said that most women get restraining orders on their stalkers, but I married mine. But, he was so cute about it.
I think the world would be a dull place without men. First, I'm not a wimp, but I'm no he-woman either. It's nice to ask someone else to reach the high shelves, kill scary bugs (instead of dancing around screaming and drowning it with hair spray, air freshener, or anything else that has a spray nozzle), and be able to carry the heavy boxes. A man's arms have a more secure feeling to them when his lady is sad. Men also know how to have more fun than women. Just compare stories of growing up between the sexes. Of course, most of those cool stories might be started or ended with how they did or almost got into a huge amount of trouble.

[lilylangtree]

An Elderly Gentleman

An elderly gentleman went to the local drug store and asked the pharmacist for Viagra.
The pharmacist asked, "How many?"
The man replied, "Just a few, maybe a half dozen. I cut each one into four pieces."
Upon hearing that the pharmacist said, "That's too small a dose. That won't get you through sex."
The old fellow said, "Oh, I'm past ninety years old and I don't even think about sex anymore.
I just want it to stick out far enough so I don't pee on my shoes.

_____________________________________________________________

Sven and Ole went into the garbage hauling business.

All they had for a truck was Sven's 1949 Ford pick-up with the grain
sides on it. They had just filled it to the top and started out for the dump,
when they were stopped by the police. The officer said that garbage was
blowing off the top of their load and if they didn't find a way to hold it
down, he was going to give them a ticket. So, Ole climbed up on top and
lay down spread eagled on top of the garbage.

As they drove along, they passed under a bridge. Two Swedes standing on
the bridge saw this sight and one of them remarked, "Vell, vould you look
at dat. Somebody threw away a perfectly good Norwegian.

[GATOR NAVY]

Being a man would be very, very, advantageous, and the gene for maleness would get commoner in the next generation.

I'm not seeing how this would happen. Why would this be any more likely than the number of males staying low because the lack of competition for females is to the advantage of each individual?