Slashdot Mirror
Chemical Pollution Is Destroying Masculinity
myrdos2 writes "A host of common chemicals is feminizing males of every class of vertebrate animals, from fish to mammals, including people. Many have been identified as 'endocrine disruptors' or gender-benders because they interfere with hormones. Communities heavily polluted with gender-benders in Canada, Russia, and Italy have given birth to twice as many girls as boys, which may offer a clue to the mysterious shift in sex ratios worldwide. And a study at Rotterdam's Erasmus University showed that boys whose mothers had been exposed to PCBs grew up wanting to play with dolls and tea sets rather than with traditionally male toys. It also follows hard on the heels of new American research which shows that baby boys born to women exposed to widespread chemicals in pregnancy are born with smaller penises and feminized genitals. It is calculated that 250,000 babies who would have been boys have been born as girls instead in the US and Japan alone. And sperm counts are dropping precipitously. Studies in more than 20 countries have shown that they have dropped from 150 million per milliliter of sperm fluid to 60 million over 50 years."
The choice of playing with dolls, tea sets or cars is CULTURAL and not genetic. This have been proved in numerous scientific researches.
-- dnl
Yes, the religious right are hard in their belief that it is a "choice" and not a matter of biology. I don't choose to be straight, so I can't imagine how anyone could choose to be gay.
Too many people on this rock anyways. Imagine the disparity in China, which is, by and large, and enormous polluted sewer.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
So will the religious right now be against pollution? I guess not, the religious right are also against science.
Thats not entirely true. They are against science that does not promote a given point they are trying to make. If it happens to agree with something they like the sound of, they generally quote findings as if the conclusion was known to them for quite some time.
So in this case it would constitute proof pollution is Gods punishment for everyone being gay.
I think you underestimate just how much I just dont care.
Trust me. I'm married. You wouldn't. Don't get me wrong, I'm very happily married. But one thing being married has taught me -- women are complex, emotional creatures who need a whole lot of care and feeding (well, actually, I knew that before I got married, but you learn it better after you're married). Taking care of one spouse is difficult enough.
What you want is polyamory, not polygamy. That way you get to have sex with the other women, and you only have take care of one. ;)
My blog
I see no comparisons of polluted to non-polluted areas. Also, there is no attempt whatsoever to identify the cause of the incomplete observations. This looks like an environazi scare piece.
That depends on a lot of other factors besides government encouragement.
See it like this: Polygamy is here, today. Depending on your culture or country, it might be officially sanctioned (muslims if n=4, or mormons) or not (most of the west, anything else that's catholic). But reality is that it simply takes different forms. In the west, for example, the rich manager simply has an affair. More often with knowledge of his wife than you'd think.
The common factor is that requires the ability to financially support two wives. That's why in muslim countries, even though they can have up to four wives, the vast majority only have one. They simply can't afford a second one. And that's why in western society, a lot of rich men do have two (or more) wives, going by different official terms, because they can afford to.
So - you still happy? :-)
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
yea but with your shrunken penis there's nothing you can do about it.
What if Tetris was invented by Nazis?
How can a boy though with one Y-chromosome become a girl? Does the chromosome change??
Your wife is a lucky woman. :-)
Polyamory implies multiple relationships. Relationship == having to listen.
The sweet spot is multiple NSA partners and one best girl.
Studies in more than 20 countries have shown that they have dropped from 150 million per milliliter of sperm fluid to 60 million over 50 years
Ahem... I blame internet porn!
So what are the odds that this research was funded by some fundamentalist religious group ? No one just randomly sets out on random research, someone has to pay the bill, which usually (always) means there's something to be gained from the results. Today's world is anything but altruistic.
-Billco, Fnarg.com
>> If we had more men than women, wouldn't there be more aggression?
>Why?
C'mon, just above we were stereotyping the religious right, and now we're trying to make sweeping generalizations about men and women. This is Slashdot, home of leftist atheist nerds, i.e. the babbling imbeciles of the geek community, try to play along.
I'd predict you're going to have a hard time convincing the gay rights movement that they're gay because of pollution too :-)
Its not the most glamorous defence of a lifestyle, is it?
- Michael T. Babcock (Yes, I blog)
>>> women are complex, emotional creatures who need a whole lot of care and feeding
This is why you need to look for the independent women who take care of themselves. "Honey my car is dying. I need to buy a new one." "Okay. Good luck!" and off she goes.
FOX NEWS.com should be BANNED from television and internet. Have the Congress take it over and give us Truespeak.
The religious right is against millions-of-years-ago storytelling that masquerades as hard science. As we all should be.
As opposed to thousands-of-years-ago storytelling that they take as gospel?
It goes deeper than that though - "attractive" meant "the guy who could kill or maim his rivals".
Look at animal species that are polygamous - even the "docile" herbivores engage in violence as the males compete for females. In species that engage in pair-bonding, violence is much less common.
Monogamy (enforced by law/church) was a way of reducing societal violence.
I suspect there's very little evidence indeed.
Truth is, much of this article smacks of the extreme feminist propaganda I've seen in place around the net. It's part of the whole "God is a woman, men are dying out and women will take over the planet" craziness you occasionally see in extreme feminists.
If I remember correctly, the extreme feminists (extreminists? exfeminists? crazy bitches?) have been bandying about similar "statistics" for YEARS now, and they were proven false several times over. I wouldn't be surprised to see these results falsified soon enough as well.
Official Heretic from the "Church of Global Warming". Proven right thanks to whistle blowers. AGW = Flat Earth Theory
Yah, but the males that are left have 2x better odds. TWOOOOO GIRLS FOR EVERY GUY
Except 250,000 of those girls have XY chromosomes.
ah but see now they won't need to bug you.. they can talk amongst themselves. Leaving us time to play WOW : )
No you wouldn't, because you can only have sex so many times in a given day.
Two words: Coolidge Effect
Set your phasers on "funky"!
This, and many other phenomena occurring due to overpopulation/pollution/etc. didn't make it into the previous story "This Is The Way The World Ends". The ones that did make it were for the most part enormous explosions and such (alien invasion? come on.) Those things are highly unlikely but spectacular. The truth will be spectacular only in retrospect, if there is anyone left to retrospect.
"I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid." -- Bishop 341-B
Mormons have not officially sanctioned polygamy in over a century.
<irony>
It's clear from your neutral, non-emotionally charged and logical words and arguments that you are not at all pushing an agenda.
</irony>
Having been raised in a deeply catholic country and having studied science at an University along with some colleagues and even teachers which were both scientists AND Christians it never ceases to amaze me how the US seems to produce scores and scores of uneducated, anti-education, ignorant and even downright dumb "believers", incapable of reconciling religion with science.
Quick hint: it's perfectly possible to believe both in God and in the Big-Bang - they're not at all mutually exclusive as long as you look at the bible as a book full of allegories instead of trying to believe that the English translation is literally the word of Jesus.
What environmental legislation did Clinton sign?
\
I dunno, what environmental legislation did that republican congress pass?
upon the advice of my lawyer, i have no sig at this time
Indeed. No wife on Earth, and virgins promised in heaven leads to ...
main() {1;}
As an lds person, I don't think it's unreasonable to consider all related groups "Mormon" but you are right the mainstream Mormons have not done polygamy for a long time.
This author takes full ownership and responsibility for the unpopular opinions outlined above.
You could reduce that problem by marrying sisters. Don't know how they would feel about it, but most polygamous marriages tend not to actually be about sex; they generally sleep apart.
Stupid sexy Flanders.
Hrm... will they all be wearing thigh high boots and carry whips?
could be a good time.
AS opposed to what? Sitting around and nitting with Grandma while listening to some R&B? I'll concede that the mid 1960s through the 1970s, rock was untouchable, but if you think today's slop called rock can even hold a candle to country, you are sadly not very open minded.
Country? You mean that Nashville twaddle with the metrosexual men with shaved chests wearing their little cowboy hats like cornpone fetish night at the gay bar?
Modern country is over-processed, undernourished crap, just like what's become of commercial rock and numetal. Gimme the old stuff like David Allen Coe.
Let's just agree that commercialism sucks because you'll never convince me that Nashville country is good. :)
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
The real downside is that women who live togather tend to have synchronised menstral cicles. Imagine your pain on that one weekend off when you get home to find 5 wives and nobody to screw.
Or worse. 5 wives with PMS all bent on "discussing" your failures with you.
--= Isn't it surprising how badly I spell ?
Well, it is a Christian school after all... I remember that when I visited my female friend at Seattle Pacific University, they post a male "guard" at the door during your visit to the female dorm room, with the door opened. The bed was placed strategically (about a foot) underneath a bookcase that was nailed to the wall, so that only one person can realistically sleep on the bed comfortably. And this was just about 10 years ago.
There are a huge number of yeast infections in this county. Probably because we're downriver from the bread factory.
That really is it in a nutshell.
A lot of American atheists are fighting against that literal minded Fundamentalist thinking... and to be fair, the cultural environment has an awful lot of that. It was a a REAL eye-opener for me (years and years into my mush agnosticism) when I read an interview with some Anglican Bishop where he says something like "well, of course the stories about Jesus aren't literally true..."- that a high ranking member of the clergy of a very established Christian group could even say that took me aback.
So then you get into, why believe at all? Is it a pragmatic, useful stance for moral guidance? Or is there an inescapable supernatural element? And - and this is crucial - are the *other* books full of allegories about equally as true, or do you think that one specific one or group is special in its connection to the truth?
SO YOU'RE GOING TO DIE: The Comic for Dealing with Death
They are against science that does not promote a given point they are trying to make.
That *IS* being against science. Science is not a bunch of facts, it is a process. If you pick and choose your data to support your hypothesis, you are not following that process. That is being against science.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
Yeah, sorry for not differentiating the various small sects within one group of a specific subtype of one of the many abrahamic religions. Couldn't bother to. :-)
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
Like most extreme interpretations of anything, (religion, eugenics, etc.) there exist a vocal majority that confuse the intelligent but inattentive that exist within their community. I'm a research scientist in the US at Purdue University, and MOST of the faculty and graduate students in my department are devoutly religious. Talk about activities done with their church groups and invitations to visit their church are fairly common, especially if you are a new student or recent hire.
As a transplant from a more urban area of the US (Massachusetts), my personal theory is that the Atheistic scientists in the more urban centers tend to provoke the religous with their talk of science disproving God somehow (The lack of evidence while convincing, is never proof in and of itself). This leads to a tendancy toward radicalization (or fundamentalism) among those who feel as though they are being attacked. Then the willfully ignorant become more promenant for predicting this persecution all along, and then we get things like the creationist museum that recently opened.
Maybe the religious shot first, probably depends on who you ask, But I hold those that intentionally bait the religious with indifensible scientific stances to be as responsible for the present situation as the most vocal of the religous fundamentalists that are unwilling to accept any science that disagrees with stories originally told before the advent of heliocentricity. Religion and science are two different fields with two different goals. Science asks "HOW" and religion asks "WHY". Anyone attempting to use one to inappropriately draw conclusions within the others bailiwick are just full of shit.
Bureaucracy expands to meet the needs of the expanding bureaucracy.-Oscar Wilde
> I'm amazed it took Slashdot (or anyone) twelve years to report on it.
Although now that the story has finally appeared here, its comment section is all dumb jokes.
You missed one point though.
Unlike the professors who do "research" for attention and say the Y chromosome is disappearing, and there will be no men, the articles about this study say it's a problem and suggest we do something to fix it.
If you really want evidence, just read up on it.
Bisphenol A is a well-known one. This is nothing new. You get articles about this about once a year or so. The issue is what you can do to avoid all the nasties that attack your endocrine system out there.
Tips for men/parents/parents-to-be, regardless of your sex or that of your child/child-to-be:
Avoid soy/flax/etc.
Avoid fish.
Avoid milk products, or buy hormone free.
Buy hormone free meats.
Don't use cosmetics (including lotions), especially scented ones.
Buy organic foods when possible, and don't go huffing that can of RAID.
Avoid plastic food containers, specifically those with a 7 or 3, unless they are labeled as Bisphenol A (or BPA) free. This is basically impossible, so see the following few notes.
Do not microwave food in plastic containers / while covered with plastic wrap.
Do not re-use plastic bottles.
Do not put plastic food containers in the dishwasher.
The vast majority of the shit you get will be from what you eat, though you can also absorb it through your skin or by breathing in delicious fumes.
Basically, live like a lumberjack (that's okay).
Imagine how many effects aren't obvious.
As a gay man, I have already done some of this research, and I can tell you without a doubt that gay men are NOT physically more feminine in general than straight men. There are masculine and feminine men in both camps, and I don't see any masculine/feminine bias in either direction. And there is certainly no bias towards a smaller penis size in gay men.
I think the reason gay men act feminine at times has more to do with them letting go of the macho image that straight men try to portray, especially in the United States, which is why European men are often accused of "acting gay"; because they don't worry about acting "macho" as much as American men do. Europeans in general don't have such a deep seated fear of being branded as gay. This hasn't always been the case in the United States either. Watch some old B&W movies and note how much more "gay" the male actors tend to be than they do today.
First, that's an average. Second, a hell of a lot of sperm don't make it.
Even with 150 million, conception is definitely not a sure thing. With half that many, it's harder still. With a quarter as many... you get the picture.
It only takes one. But that one has to make it, upstream, to a certain place, at a certain time.
No... It's Dr Phil.
'complex emotional creature' is just an euphemism for 'it's ok for me to be an irresponsible, self-centered brat and society should force males to worship me for it'
Don't blame him, it's your own hyperbole that is at fault. You said that the EPA has failed utterly. If it has failed utterly then we might as well get rid of it.
What you're really trying to say is that the EPA isn't perfect and lets some things slip. That is, the EPA hasn't failed utterly, but needs to be improved.
Clarity often improves our ability to communicate and prevents these needless quarrels.
Well, who wants to sleep in a room with half a dozen other people snoring!
Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
As a gay man, I have already done some of this research, and I can tell you without a doubt that gay men are NOT physically more feminine in general than straight men. There are masculine and feminine men in both camps, and I don't see any masculine/feminine bias in either direction. And there is certainly no bias towards a smaller penis size in gay men.
I knew this.
I think the reason gay men act feminine at times has more to do with them letting go of the macho image that straight men try to portray, especially in the United States, which is why European men are often accused of "acting gay"; because they don't worry about acting "macho" as much as American men do. Europeans in general don't have such a deep seated fear of being branded as gay. This hasn't always been the case in the United States either. Watch some old B&W movies and note how much more "gay" the male actors tend to be than they do today.
Wow, that makes so much more sense. Men here really are locked into this homophobic machismo... aren't they? It's really... stupid.
WARNING! This girl exceeds the MAXIMUM SAFE standards established by the FDA for BRATTINESS