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The End of Men?quex
First, read this: The End of Men - The Atlantic.com
I had not realized this was happening - or, per the article, that it has already happened in many places. The preference for boys children in multiple Asian cultures was an often-discussed topic in my secondary education, and the facts and statistics still ring in my ears. China's one child policy would turn the country into a massive bachelor party. Korean preferences threatened to force the importation of brides from other countries. Female infants would be murdered in countries that didn't have the technology to detect sex before birth; in advanced nations, they would simply be aborted during pregnancy. It was going to be an apocalypse, they told us. And now, we have the numbers in hand... and girls are the preferred sex. I would hardly have believed this were true before the recession, but the article covers many of the reasons that our economic crisis is accelerating the switch from a world that relies on men's traditional advantages, strength and aggression, to one that requires more feminine attributes, such as flexibility and sensitivity. I don't want to turn this into a gender war, but... do you feel this is occurring in your local social environment? Do you notice women achieving more than men in life around you? I have to say I don't see it particularly well where I live in the southwestern USA. I think the genders here are in near equilibrium in all aspects of economic and social standing. Maybe I'm missing something. ._. deanhills
In Canada it's the same as in the US. In the Middle East I've found female students at University to be brighter than their male equivalent. Also, for every male student there are 10 female students at University. You would find it quite novel to see female students having babies as they work through their education. Male students are also married while they are studying. There is a very strong family support system that takes care of their families while they are completing their education. The challenge for women is however that only those who go overseas to further their education after graduation stand a good chance to make progress locally. Women can't travel as men can so only a scattering of women get to further their education abroad. So once they are ready for careers, it's usually the male students who go that much further as they have plenty of support to further their education abroad. Even though some of them have been less promising as students during their University years. So in balance where I am, women seem to be brighter, but men more powerful and not all of them as bright as their female counterparts at University. I think this is in a process of changing however. For example, daughters of very wealthy Sheikhs studying abroad and returning to real powerful positions.
Another factor that is interesting in the UAE is that it has the highest divorce rate in the Middle East at 34%. (Source: http://www.emirates247.com/news/emirates/divorce-rate-in-dubai-falls-2010-07-25-1.270577) quex
You say this about the Middle East? I imagine this would be a surprise to the average US citizen; we are often fed (and our media reinforces) an understanding of most middle eastern nations as restricting their female citizens to domestic life, limiting their education, not allowing them to attend university, etc. One of the bigger ways of garnering support for the invasion of Afghanistan was to show how women and girls were kept from attending school.
You mean as in they don't do this, or you imagine I would be surprised to see that they DO have babies while working through their education? This is actually not uncommon in the USA as well, with some students having children as early as high school, although this is socially frowned upon.
Sorry, my brain can't pick up your intended inflection from the typed syntax.... do you mean "locally" in the overseas destination where they study, or locally to where they began in the middle east? Either way, do you think the women who do manage to study abroad for further education are more tempted to remain overseas in pursuit of a career, or is there a strong draw for them to return home to establish themselves after finishing education?
Why not? Is it a moral/social issue, or a legal one...? Harder to get passports...?
o.o Woah, that's not something I'd ever heard of before. So peaceable, legal divorces are common in the UAE? Again, in America, we only ever hear the worst, most degenerate stories of husbands selling their wives into slavery or attacking them with acid or things like that through the sieve of the media, so hearing of legal divorces at such a high rate is completely new piece of information to me. deanhills
Problem however is after the final exam has been passed as there aren't that many opportunities available to women as they are to male graduates. Things are changing however. Along the lines of progress. On a realistic note however, UAE is more progressive than some of its neighbours. So probably not a good idea to take the UAE as a typical example for the Middle East.
ocalhoun
I think the misunderstandings here might stem from seeing the whole middle east as a homogeneous culture.
In reality, there are big differences between, say, Afghanistan and the UAE. deanhills
therimalaya
Women will start fertilizing themselves. since natural always finds its way. Women have both X and Y chromosome, Somehow they will manage to generate new life...
Peterssidan
cresvale
Men and Women are diferrent, so they have their own roles.
ocalhoun
Why? Nature already found a way, and that way works so well that the world population is now out of control. quex
I was gonna jump on the X chromosome thing, but you beat me to it. Thanks. ^_^b On a side note, has anyone else heard this theory (or has it been proven?) that the Y chromosome integral to the creation of the male gender is merely an incomplete X chromosome? Something about the earliest forms of life being genderless and asexual, until some very early mutation created men. I'd like to learn more, but am not sure about what to search for. Cloning, interestingly, is not even necessary as a human technology for a single gender to reproduce. While it becomes increasingly rare to successfully achieve a viable organism as you address more and more complex species, parthenogenesis occurs across a wide variety of lifeforms. (Not to mention all bacteria.) quex
I understand the world's 7 billionth person is statistically expected to be born this week. deanhills
 ocalhoun
I'd suspect that originally it was bi-gender, with both of them exchanging genetic material to the other, and then both reproducing... (And some organisms still do it that way.) ...Then somewhere along the line, one comes along that performs only a male function, not the female... This gives it an advantage in that it still spreads its genes, but doesn't have to go through the energy and resource cost of reproduction. After that, it becomes a matter of the ratio of one to the other -- if too many are male, it will reduce the chances of a male passing on its genes... if too many are female, the genetic advantage of being male becomes very high, and it will trend towards making more males... And, of course, it sticks around because it allows for evolutionary advantages of being both more diverse and more adaptable to change, as opposed to cloned populations. deanhills
Would be nice if women could be infertile for at least a little while however. 7 billion people are a little over the top.
bukaida
If men could be infertile for some moment ( Which is a lot easier ) it could stop the population in a better way. A woman once conceives, remain safe for atleast next nine months. Men do not have any such restrictions. deanhills
 mahirh
that must be like 7 billion parasites for earth!
quex
Eh-HEM. As a woman, I'd like to point out that women are technically only fertile for about half of the month ANYWAY (during ovulation). Men of good health, meanwhile, can easily conceive a child once every 24 hours... or even more frequently, if there are willing women available. :roll: Additionally, CONDOMS. Condoms, condoms, condoms. Seriously. Wanna have sex? Go for it. It's fun. BUT USE A DAMN CONDOM. deanhills
Bikerman
Huh? Of course they know what a condom is. The poorest people live in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, not Pluto. They might lack education, but they are not stupid.
Condoms are available in most of the countries of the world - providing the Catholic Church is not too powerful. What they need is FREE condoms.. Dementei
This thread reminds me of Children of Men. I liek dat movie.
quex
...you overestimate the familiarity of some of these isolated populations with modern contraceptives. Misunderstanding of the intent, application, and effectiveness of condoms is a persistent headache among health outreach programs worldwide. From South Africa:
I'm not saying these populations are stupid, but that their cultures and access to as basic a scientific understanding as "male sperm meeting female egg causes conception" leaves many of them without the right approach to employ even as simple a method as a condom in the search for contraception.
Free condoms are readily provided to many populations around the world, both in affluent and impoverished regions. You can get them for free in high schools throughout the USA, private and charity clinics in the Congo, Uganda, Zimbabwe, through a massive and ongoing public outreach in Thailand, through both clinics and one's employer in India, and they are explicitly targeted at the sex-worker populations in Indonesia and Sri Lanka, just to name a few. They are furthermore cheap as dirt in practically all impoverished nations, where they are subsidized and distributed by the billions by international HIV/AIDS charities to both gay and straight persons. Even in some affluent nations, you can find condoms for pennies. I purchased a dozen singles in different colors and hilarious styles (including a memorable one labeled as "VERY SUPER" printed with a knockoff of Sonic the hedgehog) to send to friends in the states while I was living in Nagoya, Japan in 2003-4... despite not being able to buy a carton of milk for less than the equivalent of $5 over there, I don't think I ever spent more than ~40 yen, somewhere between 25 to 40 cents USD, for a condom. Availability is furthermore rarely or not at all influenced by the presence of the Catholic church... rather, the power the church wields in the local social order often persuades individuals to reject the use of condoms. The biggest problem, however, remains the unwillingness of men around the world to interrupt their sexual experience or diminish their pleasure, however slightly, with the use of a condom. quex
AND BECAUSE I FINALLY HAVE A RELEVANT PLACE TO PUT THIS:
deanhills
Great show Quex!
That was a great movie with some great actors in it too. Related topics
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