Incredible Shrinking Y (Dowd Alert)

The New York Times ^ | 7/9/03 | Maureen Dowd

[NeoCaveman]

hy, oh Y, are men so insecure?

The darlings have been fretting for some years now that they may be rendered unnecessary if women get financial and biological independence, learning how to reproduce and refinance without them. What if nature played a cruel trick and demoted men, so they had to be judged merely by their appearance, pliability and talent for gazing raptly at the opposite sex, no matter how bored?

New research on the Y chromosome shows that my jittery male friends are not paranoid; they are in an evolutionary shame spiral.

As Nicholas Wade wrote in The Times: "Although most men are unaware of the peril, the Y chromosome has been shedding genes furiously over the course of evolutionary time, and it is now a fraction of the size of its partner, the X chromosome. . . . The decay of the Y stems from the fact that it is forbidden to enjoy the principal advantage of sex, which is, of course, for each member of a pair of chromosomes to swap matching pieces of DNA with its partner."

Mr. Wade said that biologists in Cambridge, Mass., had made a remarkable discovery: "Denied the benefits of recombining with the X, the Y recombines with itself."

The ultimate guys' night out. Simply put, the Y chromosome figured out a Herculean way to save itself from extinction by making an incredibly difficult hairpin turn and swapping molecular material with itself.

Self-love as a survival mechanism: the unflinching narcissism of men may send women into despair at times, but it has saved their sex for the next 5 million or 10 million years.

But, according to Olivia Judson, science's answer to the sensual British cook Nigella Lawson, men may need more than narcissism to survive.

Dr. Judson, a 33-year-old evolutionary biologist at Imperial College in London who has written a book about animals in a Dear Abby style, or Deer Abby, under the pen name Dr. Tatiana, says the worm has turned. "For a long time, it was assumed that promiscuity was good for males and bad for females in terms of the number of kids they could have," she explains. "But it wasn't until 1988 that it really started to become evident that females were benefiting from having sex with lots of males, with more promiscuous females having more and healthier offspring."

In her book, Dr. Judson writes about powerful babes, noting that females in more than 80 species, like praying mantises, have been caught devouring their lovers before, during or after mating. "I'm particularly fond," she told me, "of the green spoon worm. . . . The male is 200,000 times smaller, effectively a little parasite who lives in her reproductive tract, fertilizing her eggs and regurgitating sperm through his mouth."

And then there's the tiny female midge, who plunges her proboscis into the male midge's head during procreation. As Dr. Judson told the journalist Ken Ringle, "Her spittle turns his innards to soup, which she slurps up, drinking until she's sucked him dry."

The Economist recently reported on a variation of the creepy-crawly girl-eats-boy love stories. The male orb-weaving spider kills himself before the female has a chance to. Biologists now believe that the male orb-weaver dies when he turns himself into a plug to prevent other males from copulating, thus ensuring his genes are more likely to live on.

In a new book called "Y: The Descent of Men," Steve Jones, a professor of genetics at University College in London, says males, always a genetic "parasite," have devolved to become the "second sex."

The news that Dolly the sheep had been cloned without masculine aid sent a frisson through the Y populace, he writes, because men began to fear that science would cause nature to return to its original, feminine state and men would fade from view.

The Y chromosome, "a mere remnant of its once mighty structure," is worried about size. "Men are wilting away," Dr. Jones writes. "From sperm count to social status and from fertilization to death, as civilization advances, those who bear Y chromosomes are in relative decline."

Perhaps that's why men are adapting, becoming more passive and turning into "metrosexuals," the new term for straight men who are feminized, with a taste for facials, grooming products and home design.

Better to be an X chromosome than an ex-chromosome.

[NeoCaveman]

I (almost) feel bad for the bitter, bitter spinster who writes this piffle.

[Support Free Republic]

50,000 people go to a baseball game, but the game was rained out. A refund is then due. The team is about to mail refunds when the Congressional Democrats stopps them and decrees that they send out refund amounts based on the Democrat National Committee's interpretation of fairness. After all,if the refunds are made based on the price each person paid for the tickets, most of the money would go to the wealthiest ticket holders. That would be unconscionable!

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Your donations keep us fighting liberals

[NeoCaveman]

2003 Oscar Winner: Best Supporting Actress
Catherine Zeta-Jones: "Chicago."


From Oxblog:


IMMUTABLE LAWS OF DOWD
1. Ashcroft never deserves credit.


2. Offering constructive solutions to problems, instead of whining endlessly about them, is a sign of weakness.


3. The People Magazine principle: all political phenomena can be explained with reference solely to caricatures of the personalities involved ("Dubya" is stupid; "Poppy" is an aristocrat; Cheney is macho-man; etc.). Any reference to the common good or even to old-fashioned politicking is, like, so passe.


4. It is much better to be cute than coherent.


5. Maureen knows best. Her long years as a columnist (doing basically what your great-aunt Tillie does in the nursing home bull sessions, but getting paid for it) have given her deep insight into foreign relations, politics, welfare, the Constitution, and all other topics. To disagree with Maureen in any way is not only a sign of being wrong, it's a hallmark of pure evil...or at least membership in the NRA, which is pretty much the same thing.


6. It is usually possible and always desirable to name-drop and name-call in the same sentence.


7. The particulars of my consumer-driven, shamefully self-involved life reveal universal truths.

[Cyber Liberty]

The "Y" part of most men shrink up like an old flower whenever they are in Dowdy's presence.

[Cyber Liberty]

Hey, where's the obligatory pic?

[NeoCaveman]

Well here's something to rivive the "Y" chromosone.

[NeoCaveman]

Hey, where's the obligatory pic?

Patience, I'm working from a dial up modem here....

[Hobsonphile]

Dowd's attempt to read fem-nazi meaning in advanced genetics is merely amusing. Nothing to see here.

[Jorge]

Another delightful piece of garbage from the ideologically diseased Dowd.

[NeoCaveman]

Dowd's attempt to read fem-nazi meaning in advanced genetics is merely amusing.

Sounds like she's putting the Nazi in feminazi.

[Cyber Liberty]

Feed the hamster some crystal meth. You can get broadband type speeds, but not for very long.

[McGavin999]

Boy, she really does hate men, doesn't she? It must be rough to be a dried up old spinster.

[Slings and Arrows]

Are there any FReepers reading this who have some background in psychology/psychiatry? I am decidedly not a mental health professional (or even an amateur), but this stream-of-consciousness screed sounds a lot like schizophrenia.

[monkeyshine]

Tonight we're gonna party like it's nyntyn nynty nyn.

[JoeSchem]

In her book, Dr. Judson writes about powerful babes, noting that females in more than 80 species, like praying mantises, have been caught devouring their lovers before, during or after mating.

Sounds like what women do to a guy's finances. Divorce court, anyone?

"I'm particularly fond," she told me, "of the green spoon worm. . . . The male is 200,000 times smaller, effectively a little parasite who lives in her reproductive tract, fertilizing her eggs and regurgitating sperm through his mouth."

The woman who spoke this probably doesn't get asked out on too many dates.

And then there's the tiny female midge, who plunges her proboscis into the male midge's head during procreation. As Dr. Judson told the journalist Ken Ringle, "Her spittle turns his innards to soup, which she slurps up, drinking until she's sucked him dry."

Are you listening, Michael Douglas?

[LoneRangerMassachusetts]

The darlings have been fretting for some years now that they may be rendered unnecessary if women get financial and biological independence, learning how to reproduce and refinance without them. What if nature played a cruel trick and demoted men, so they had to be judged merely by their appearance, pliability and talent for gazing raptly at the opposite sex, no matter how bored?

When I see women picking up my garbage then we will have true equality. The witches fight tooth and nail to become white collar professionals looking for power, but they avoid hard, laborious, and dangerous work like the plague.

[lainie]

OTOH, you sort of have to hand it to a professional writer who gets paid good money for writing such bilge. She can't possibly be serious. She must laugh and laugh, all day long.

[Wild Irish Rogue]

" I (almost) feel bad for the bitter, bitter spinster who writes this piffle."

According to the New York Post,Mo has been canoodling with Aaron Sorkin for a couple of years. What a busy man he must be,doing the rehab thing,pretending Martin Sheen is President and trying to keep poor Mo happy.

[NeoCaveman]

I am decidedly not a mental health professional (or even an amateur), but this stream-of-consciousness screed sounds a lot like schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia? I thought she was just suffering from a sever case of not getting any good.

[tsomer]

piffle

Another Hot Flash !!!

It happens once a week, not once a month, so it can't be PMS.