Common chemicals are feminising males of every class of vertebrate animals

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/its-official-men-really-are-the-weaker-sex-1055688.html

by parenthesis • 18 years ago

32 18 18 years ago

independent.co.uk

s_baar• 18 years ago

Unfortunately, India and China's cultures may compensate for this imbalance.

rshao• 18 years ago

Why has it taken so long for this to come to public attention? I hadn't heard anything about it until about 2 months ago when my friend bought a BPA free Nalgene, and then recently with that CBC documentary Alex3917 posted (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=375127).

On another note, I like that I'm able to find out about this stuff from HN. I consider it a triumph of social media.

ram1024• 18 years ago

male to female disparities means i am allowed to have my harem...

thesethings• 18 years ago

Actually, it would be more appropriate for us females to have the harem, given the info in the article.

Herring• 18 years ago

I think we would all be happier exchanging sex for cash at free market prices.

mynameishere• 18 years ago

I heard about this over 10 years ago. Nothing will be done. Anyway, I'm surprised by the misuse of the word "evolution" in this article. If evolution is involved in any way here, it is in the gradually increasing resistence of animals to these chemicals.

ericb• 18 years ago

Nothing will be done

Not true.

Phthalates are banned in children's toys in the US starting on February 10, 2009. The ban needs to be broadened, as many of the effects happen in utero.

http://www.cpsc.gov/ABOUT/Cpsia/cpsia.html

Raphael• 18 years ago

That's not the impression I got from watching the Olympics.

jimbokun• 18 years ago

"Whole wildlife populations could be at risk, he said, because their gene pool would be reduced, making them less able to withstand disease and putting them at risk from hazards such as global warming."

I just thought it was funny that they threw the global warming thing in there. I don't see much connection between mass feminization and global warming, but it seems like scientists know if they can cram the words "global warming" in there somewhere they'll get the reporters' attention.

Reminds me of the old joke about the New York Times headline: "World to End. Women and Minorities Hardest Hit."

kingkongrevenge• 18 years ago

> threw the global warming thing

This is the infuriating thing about the whole global warming crock. You have any of eight critical and completely uncontroversial environmental problems to focus on, but instead the powers that be have sucked all attention and money towards the red herring of anthropogenic global warming.

sabat• 18 years ago

This is reaching. Headline searching for bombastic-sounding facts.

wynand• 18 years ago

Indeed. The author is loading the word "weaker" with another meaning; a meaningless one at that: who would write an article with a title such as "It's official: Humans really are the weaker species" if it were shown that cyanide contamination the world over was having a negative effect on all people?

jganetsk• 18 years ago

"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."

Stop the presses. The world is coming to an end.

rw• 18 years ago

Is this article a joke? Where's the paper?

"...male starlings who ate worms contaminated by female hormones at a sewage works in south-west England were subtly changed so that they sang at greater length and with increased virtuosity."

gaius• 18 years ago

Nothing will be done about this because it's very difficult to get men to admit that they're less masculine. It's like the way women are up in arms about unrealistic portrayal in the media, with airbrushing and so on of celebrity photos. Meanwhile you've got Men's Health magazine saying every month "get a six-pack in 2 weeks or you are a LOSER" and men just accept it. Feminists have basically hijacked a whole range of issues that actually affect everyone - and created a generation of males without the confidence to address concerns that are far more important than Barbie dolls and other feminist obsessions.

petercooper• 18 years ago

This won't be a popular opinion and I don't believe it myself, but in the interest of "what if" debate...

Perhaps this is a reasonable development. At the biological level, there's no direct need for a male gender beyond its ability to spread and mix genes. The chemicals specified - such as those from pesticides and PCBs - are the result of human technological improvement. Perhaps there's some biological reason to "switch off" the generation of diversity in species when humans reach a certain level of development? Now that one species has "won" the planet, perhaps having many multiple species and variations is a negative thing for future growth?

Again, I don't believe this myself, but biology has a funny way of doing stuff that we don't understand, and some of it has to have a logical reason (as we have seen in hindsight). This is the only logical rationale I can come up with myself - though I'm sure there are others.

dc2k08• 18 years ago

I am nearly sure that that a similar story was discussed on HN recently but I may be confusing it with another forum/social news site. anyway here's is a video that I watched as a result recently called the disappearing male: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7530701744597358451&...

fa• 18 years ago

Why do we want "something" to be done at a governmental level? I'm purchasing a home water distillation device. Any suggestions?

My wife and I have mostly implemented Art de Vany's paleolithic diet, so a distiller will hopefully take us to 90% chemical-free.

Will look for the actual academic paper and post...

Common chemicals are feminising males of every class of vertebrate animals

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