Are males simpler than females?

[Jim__]

Maybe:

The secret to why male organisms evolve faster than their female counterparts comes down to this: Males are simple creatures.

...more

[shadowknows69]

1. Guh?

[n2doc]

10. oog!

[Emit]

19. Doh!

[maxsolomon]

2. yup

nt

[treestar]

3. Neither sex could possiblly evolve faster than the other

What a miracle - somebody hit on something we have in common for once!

[EstimatedProphet]

13. Ding ding ding! Exactly!

What a complete load of crap. SPECIES evolve, not SEXES. It takes both sexes to make a species (unless it is asexual), so evolution of one sex over the other is impossible.

[sam sarrha]

32. evolution is a response to stress, in a long standing culture where

such as a hunter gatherer ..where the females had remarkably different duties, they would begin to evolve differently if changes to the environment were slow..

that is predicated on each sex having different activities..

birds have evolved radically in as few as 15 generations

a flock of migrating birds was blown north into a deep thicketed area where they began to forage on foot, in about 15 generations their offspring lost the ability to fly..

in other species suck as herding animals the males are larger, birds sometimes have remarkably different sizes, larger females, colorful males, dowdy females. spiders have some of the most striking dissimilarities..

so, if other species can have the diversities they do, then our own species can be no different as a member of the that community. we are only animals just like the rest. we have a 27 step signal behavior mating ritual.. we are no better than the rest.. we are subject to the same phenomena

[Basileus Basileon]

53. Sure they could.

I fail to see how they couldn't. Sure, in humans they share every chromosome but the Y, but we're referring to phenotypical presentations.

[SoCalDem]

4. physiologically they are more complex

they have to turn from female to male, in the womb.. that's a nifty trick :)

[DadOf2LittleAngels]

8. transformations aside the Males reproductive system is simple

Men make and deliver sperm, thats about it...

Women have an incredibly complex internal system

[Igel]

16. Read up on spermatogenesis.

Then it has to take the sperm that it produces and keep it alive and happy until it finds a place to deposit it.

The hardware involved in all that isn't really trivially simple.

Then again, all women do is produce an egg and let it fall to where sperm get to it, right?

[SoCalDem]

29. but then we have to grow and maintain another person ... inside us

and then eject it..and then produce its specialized food:)

[DadOf2LittleAngels]

44. Exactly right!

Why is it when someone says the female reproductive system is more complex people get in a nit?

Its an internal system which is pretty much completely separate from the body as to prevent (as much as possible) infection.

[THUNDER HANDS]

5. i didn't read that word as organism the first time

so I was about to type something highly innappropriate. :D

[Jackpine Radical]

37. Eh?

Come again?

[Flabbergasted]

51. Please type something highly inappropriate.

:smoke:

[gatorboy]

6. I thought it read orgasms.

I am such a male....

[CT_Progressive]

7. Yes - nt

[Matariki]

9. yeah, and women grow up faster.

what an odd selection of words this article has chosen to use...

[PDJane]

11. Sounds logical..........

But that xy chromosome thing means males are more unstable too, in some ways........and a double y, xyy, means that a human male has a tendency to be a psychopath. It's all interesting......

[alarimer]

12. It has to do with the y chromosome

Traits that occur on the y chromosome can be expressed with only one copy. So change in the phenotype happens more quickly. Think of all the genetic diseases (like hemophilia) that are primarily y-chromosome linked. The example used in the paper had to do with peacocks.

[BB1]

14. Only on tv.

in real life, though, men are often more likely to get drunk and hence behave in a simpler way.

Other than that, dolphins are having sex as we speak. So who's smart now?

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

15. Yes.

[Tejas]

18. exactly

That's why Wallyworld needs a "man-lane" at the checkouts.

[Selatius]

23. That picture made my day. nt

[Deja Q]

26. Dammit, you beat me to it! Still, those big knobs do look lovely...

:rofl:

[Occulus]

31. I want to label each and every last one of those knobs.

The one center right at the top, the one with the expanding, curved 'swish' over it, can only be volume.

And the one at the bottom, directly beneath the 'm', has to be a subtlety dial, from 'extremely subtle and warm (or cold)' at the edges, to 'not subtle at all' at the center.

:silly:

:D

[symbolman]

56. ah, but where is the

"You KNOW what YOU Did, there's NO reason for ME to have to EXPLAIN it!!" button?

In case anyone doesn't know it, FEMALES came FIRST... Men are a genetic aberration that sprang from the original stock.

For christians who want their liberation sugar coated, this means that God created EVE first, and Adam came later, and tempted her with a Peach :)

[CreekDog]

17. This is not a question, it is a given n/t

[BoneDaddy]

47. um yeah whatever

[Quantess]

20. I love how the article is based on a questionable premise,

as though the premise is so obvious and common knowledge, that it doesn't even deserve background information or support.

The secret to why male organisms evolve faster than their female counterparts comes down to this: Males are simple creatures.

As if everyone knows males evolve faster than females. I took a lot of biology classes in college, and I never once heard this idea.

[endarkenment]

22. In fact I think it is rather obvious that both sexes evolve at the same rate.

How could it be otherwise?

[Quantess]

25. An offspring gets half their genes from the father, half from the mother.

If either mate was "more evolved", then the offspring, either male or female, would have some of those "more evolved" genes. The only exception would be the Y chromosome from the father.

This article sounds bogus.

[Spike89]

33. Evolved is the curious word here

Obviously a species evolves (voth male and female) but just as obvious is that gender differences do exist. I believe the article is discussing the specific gender-specific aspects of various species and the evidence seems to support that male primary and secondary gender traits are more volitile than female-specific traits. This doesn't really seem that shcocking to me.
Species evolution is not gender lockstep! The article had plenty of examples, why are they so hard to understand? The hype and knee-jerk reaction that no such gender differences exist in humans is perplexing. There is NOTHING in biology that says a species can't evolve with one of the genders adapting/changing/mutating differently than the other--in fact, obviously boys and girls aren't the same.

[Quantess]

34. Did I say that?

Why do I even bother typing a reasonable post, when someone invariably responds to things I didn't even write. This has happened twice to me in about 3 days. This will not happen again! I refuse to indulge you. Try it on someone else, Spike89, because I'm not playing.

[Spike89]

36. Not attacking you, really

But just pointing out that having the same genes doesn't bypass gender differences or the possibility of faster expression of gender-specific evolution. Your post seemed to imply that because the article sounded fishy because genes are passed as a set.

[Quantess]

38. Look, if you want to argue that gender differences are real,

then pick someone else to argue with.

It doesn't work to assign an argument to someone else. You can't just say "you take this side, and I'll take this side", if you don't know what the other person (me) actually thinks about the subject. I did not give you enough information in my post to make you think that I disagree with you about gender differences.

Not to mention, that it a different topic than the idea of males and females evolving at different rates.

[DFW]

21. My wife says no, I say yes.

It's that simple.

[BoneDaddy]

48. It may be for you

I guess my problem is what is your definition of simple and what does that mean for you?

[La Lioness Priyanka]

24. in nature arguments can be made about males vs females because

there is no differentiation between sex and gender.

however when it comes to humans, we have created seperations between sex and gender depending on the culture.

hence when drawing conclusions from nature it is extremely important to remember that peacocks do not have culture or history.

[Jackpine Radical]

39. Neither do Americans, apparently.

"peacocks do not have culture or history."

[La Lioness Priyanka]

41. lol. we have enough culture to attribute pink to little girls and blue to little boys

or to tell little boys to stop crying whereas encouraging girls to be emotional

[Perry Logan]

27. I know I'm too simple to figure this out.

[A-Schwarzenegger]

28. I think how that more is blue is pretty.

:P

[supernova]

30. So men are pretty but dumb?

[H2O Man]

35. Male orgasms

don't have to evolve any faster than females. Just slow down

[Jackpine Radical]

40. Well, this thread devolved pretty quickly.

Most of the posters must have been male.

[Annces]

42. Ha ha. Good one n/t

[Ezlivin]

43. We have fewer moving parts

And the ones that do move don't require a lot of thought.

[Scout]

45. "males were designed for short, brutal lives"

said my college anthropology professor.

Take that for what you will. :shrug:

[pink-o]

46. You know, whome ver is simpler or more complex...

...it doesn't matter because men and women are totally interdependent.

And that is my simple philosophy!

Listen, I've learned a lot from men: how to expunge my negative body image by working out instead of starving myself, how never to ask for directions, how to mistrust doctors so I never go, and especially...how to love techie toys and power tools far more than shoes or jewelry! I can pack a small carry-on roller bag for 10 days in Europe better than any dude I know!

What men have learned from me: I'm always right. See it is simple

:bounce:

[undercutter2006]

49. stupid thread

whatever differences there are between males and females, there are so many exceptions to any rules you can come up with, you just have to take every person on their own merit, generalizations such as yours just perpetuate stupid ass stereotypes and should be ridiculed

[Jim__]

54. If you're capable ...

... of reading an comprehending the linked article, you would know that the generalization is not mine, but the article's. And the generalization in the article is based on a study done by the National Academy of Sciences; and the statement about males being simpler than females is based on a quote from a University of Florida zoologist. Ultimately, of course, the generalization is based on the fact that males have XY chromosomes whereas females have XX. As to taking every "person" on their own merit, the article is not about "person's" per se, but rather about the difference in genetic composition between males and females. The article explicitly notes an exception in humans because of the way the X chromosome functions in them.

[Flabbergasted]

50. Gee....she's peerty.

[Basileus Basileon]

52. Makes sense, but that's an awful misleading way of putting it.

Because (largely due to the singular Y chromosome and lack of competition and redundancy in the X), sexually-specific features can evolve quicker in male organisms.

Doesn't mean males are "simpler."

[Javaman]

55. And we like it! :) nt