Science Can't Explain Why Women Sleep Around

Science Still Cannot Explain Why Women Sleep Around

By Annalee Newitz, 11:47 AM on Thu Jun 25 2009, 30,765 views (Edit, to draft, un-top, Slurp)

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Seed beetles are polyandrous – females mate with multiple males, and choose which sperm will fertilize their eggs afterward. Scientists long believed they did this to get the best sperm. But a new study shows the fittest males always lose.

A study published today in Science details a series of careful experiments Swedish researchers conducted on mating seed beetles (pictured). They want to find out what the benefits were to females who mated with multiple males, given that multiple matings could be dangerous to their health for a variety of reasons. The accepted wisdom is that females mate with many men because they can choose which sperm fertilize their eggs after mating. Basically, more men equals a bigger and better smorgasbord to choose from in the genetics department.

If this hypothesis were true, females would always choose sperm from the fittest males to fertilize their eggs. But they didn't. If you measure male fitness as the ability to produce a great number of offspring who themselves produce a great number of offspring, then the fittest males always lost. Inevitably, the females chose sperm from unfit males.

Why would these insects have sex with so many different men, only to choose the crappiest sperm? The researchers admit that they are baffled. Their experiment was only intended to determine whether females favored sperm from fit males – not to plumb the depths of the psychology behind female insect promiscuity.

However, what these Swedish researchers have done is eliminate one possible reason why female insects mate with multiple males. They're not doing it because of genetic benefits that come from the males. They are not picking sperm that have direct or indirect benefits on their offspring, as far as the researchers could tell. Though they do float the possibility that these females may be choosing sperm that are beneficial exclusively to female offspring. In other words, genes that make fathers fit may not make daughters who are fit.

According to researcher Göran Arnqvist:

The results support the suggestion that genes that are good for males may often be bad for their mates. Therefore, in beetles at least, multiple mating does not award females with genetic benefits.

So if multiple mating does not award females with genetic benefits, what exactly does it award them with? Is it possible that they're sleeping around just for fun?

via Science and Uppsala University

First Black Woman on the North Pole

It's Your Turn: Male Contraception

New male contraceptive injection appears effective

Updated Tue. May. 5 2009 1:11 PM ET

CTV.ca News Staff

An injection for men appears to be just as effective at preventing pregnancy as the birth control pill, finds new research that could revolutionize contraception.

In testing in China, only one man in 100 fathered a child while on the injections, the study in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism reports.

The contraceptive is a form of testosterone that is injected into the buttocks once a month. It works by temporarily blocking sperm production.

Chinese researchers injected 1,045 healthy Chinese men aged 20 to 45 years with a 500 mg of testosterone undecanoate in oil, once a month for 24 months. All of the study participants had had at least one child and all their female partners, aged 18 and 38 years, also had normal reproductive function.

They found the contraceptive was almost 99 per cent effective, with a failure rate of only 1.1 per 100 men.

There were no serious side effected reported in any of the men, unlike previous studies on hormonal male contraceptive. Some of the side effects of those formulations have been mood swings and a lowered sex drive.

In all but two of the men in this study, reproductive function returned to normal range within six months of stopping the injections.

"For couples who cannot, or prefer not to use only female-oriented contraception, options have been limited to vasectomy, condom and withdrawal," said Dr. Yi-Qun Gu, of the National Research Institute for Family Planning in Beijing, China.

"Our study shows a male hormonal contraceptive regimen may be a potential, novel and workable alternative."

It should be noted though that almost a third of the 1,045 men in the 30-month trial did not complete the study. No reason was given.

Gu says while the results of this trial are encouraging, more long-term testing needs to be done on the safety of the regimen, with a focus on cardiovascular, prostate and behavioral safety.

Gu said if further tests proved successful, the treatment could become widely available in five years.

**** right, so if you guys can't take minor mood swings and lowered sex drives, how do you think we feel, our list is longer.

So suddenly rape is a game

So my point this article is to try to get some level of outrage against this product. People can say whatever they want, but intuitively we know that audio and visual stimuli heavily influence our decisions. And when there's a game out that allows you to rape little kids while they're crying big eyes full of tears, you should be hung for thought crimes (because according to the studies the chances of this crossing the line into real life are quite high).

The title of the game is Rapelay, from Illusion Soft out of Yokohama, Japan. This game allows the player to stalk, beat, rape, gang rape, impregnate and force abortions (all in different positions and outfits) to a mom and her two daughters. I wish I could rewind to the time right before I learned about this and not click the digg link. Other than being completely insulted, disturbed and pissed, I wanted to see what I could do to get this thing off the market. Amazon.com already pulled it from their website after some complaints. It seems to me that this game makes people feel like it's ok to rape, attack and brutalize women. It's not going to make them go out and do this but it will reinforce the idea that it's not a big deal. That someone is going to side with them when they do it because hey, someone made a game about it. Think about that, it's a game now. For someones entertainment, you can attack, impregnate and force an abortion on a woman.

I can't completely judge Japan on this, because there is now an English download version, for all of the language deficient perverts out there. No country seems to be spearheading the war on crimes against women. But as women, we need to be pissed. We need to hang these men out to dry by using any level of legislative power we have. Women like Oprah, Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin need to have public talks about this. Everyone likes to call themselves feminists, but no one wants to do the footwork.

I haven't exactly found my venue yet but I figure I can start with insults.

I'm guessing that globally the players of this game are the least desirable to any woman and that's why these men feel that they have to result to forcing themselves on defenseless children, even if it's virtual. They are probably short, if not yet then they will be balding, overweight, overlooked, tiny penis having little pricks that if they came over here to Oakland would get their asses handed to them by any female they approached. Ladies, I don't know how else to declare war on something like this, so if you find this "game" in the possession of a guy you know, "accidentally" spill your morning coffee on his laptop. It will be you doing your part for womankind.
thanks.

Power & Sex: America's War on Sexual Rights

This is a snippet from a talk I watched on Fora.tv it's very compelling how the argument has been framed.

the full hour and a half talk is here

What should happen to women who have abortions, should it be illegal

interesting responses to a very valid question

Where are the Feminists on stories like this?

Family of Afghan rape victim cut her open and removed foetus without anaesthetic

The mother and brother of a 14-year-old Afghan rape victim face charges after they cut her open and removed her foetus without anaesthetic, it has been reported.

By Ben Farmer in Kabul
Last Updated: 8:49PM GMT 08 Jan 2009

The girl is critically ill in hospital after her family sewn the girl up themselves and said she had been bitten by a dog to cover their crime.

A man accused of raping the girl, from the central Afghan province of Bamiyan, is under arrest.

The rural family apparently decided to perform an abortion when the girl was five months pregnant to protect the family's honour.

Rape victims face extreme social stigma, imprisonment and abandonment or murder by their own families in Afghanistan.

Dr Ghulam Mohammad Nader, head of Bamiyan hospital, told the BBC that the girl had been able to explain what had happened but was in a critical condition with infected wounds. She is now being treated in the capital Kabul.

"The girl stayed at home for three or four days in her condition until her father took her to hospital," he said.

"He said a dog had bitten her so that people in the area wouldn't know what had really happened."

Habiba Sarabi, governor of the province, said the girl had been bound and taken to a stables for the abortion. Police are now trying to arrest her family.

source