In Part 1 of the “Evolution of Sex,” I described a few of the major problems facing boys and men said that what boys and men need more than anything else is to reconnect with the community of life on planet Earth. In Part 2 I said that the ancient philosophical dictum to “know thyself” must start with understanding the biological basis of maleness and the importance of evolutionary science. In Part 3, we will delve more deeply into biological importance of our sex chromosomes and how they help us understand and heal ourselves.
Sharon Moalem, M.D., PhD, is an award-winning physician and scientist. His work brings together evolution, genetics, and medicine to revolutionize how we understand and treat disease. In his book, The Better Half: On the Genetic Superiority of Women, he says,
“I was always taught males are the strong sex, yet that’s the opposite of what I’ve seen so far, both clinically and in my genetics research.”
He offers some basic facts of life:
- “Women live longer than men.
- Women have stronger immune systems.
- Women are less likely to suffer from a developmental disability.
- Women are more likely to see the world in a wider variety of colors.
- Women are better at fighting cancer.
- Women are simply stronger than men at every stage of life.
- But why?”
Clearly, nature and nurture, biology and lifestyle, are all contributing factors, but recent scientific findings point to inherent biological risk-factors as having particular significance.
“We used to think that the mitigating factor explaining the difference in longevity between the sexes was behavioral in nature,” says Dr. Moalem. “More men, for example, have typically perished while serving as soldiers, and while employed in more dangerous occupations. We now know that genetic females’ longevity advantage can be attributed to factors that are biological in nature. Having the use of two X chromosomes makes females more genetically diverse. And the ability to rely on that diverse genetic knowledge is why females always come out on top.”
This biological advantage not only holds for female humans but is true throughout the animal kingdom adding additional credence to role played by biology. In her article “Sex Differences in Adult Lifespan and Aging Rates of Mortality Across Wild Mammals,” Dr. Jean-François Lemaître says,
“In human populations, women consistently outlive men, which suggests profound biological foundations for sex differences in survival. In our study we compiled demographic data from 134 mammal populations, encompassing 101 species, to show that the female’s median lifespan is on average 18.6% longer than that of conspecific males, whereas in humans the female advantage is on average 7.8%.”
In Part 2 of “The Evolution of Sex,” I quoted the work of David C. Page, M.D., professor of biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), who said,
“There are ten trillion cells in the human body and every one of them is sex specific. So, all your cells know on a molecular level whether they are XX or XY.”
Dr. Page goes on to detail the genetic difference between males and females.
“In humans, there are 23 pairs of chromosomes. One pair of the 23 chromosomes, known as sex chromosomes, determines at conception whether a fertilized egg will develop into a male or female. Today, human females have one pair of identical X chromosomes. Human males, instead of a matched pair, have one X and one smaller Y chromosome.”
My friend and colleague Robert Bly used to say that boys need to be in the presence of older men “in order to hear the sound that male cells sing.” This is a wonderful and poetic way of expressing our biological difference.
Evolution helps us understand why females should come out as the biologically stronger sex.
“Although we belong to the same species and are more similar than we are different,” says Dr. Moalem, “there’s an important reason that females are more genetically endowed. Our very existence has depended on it for millions of years. Being the stronger sex, genetically speaking, is what allowed females to survive long enough to ensure the survival of our offspring — which in turn means the survival of us all.”
Like Every Other Part of Us, The Male Brain is Significantly Different from the Female Brain
Louanne Brizendine, M.D. is a neuropsychiatrist, researcher, and clinician and a professor and is on the faculty of U.C. San Francisco Medical Center. She is the author of three books, The Female Brain, The Male Brain, and The Upgrade: How the Female Brain Gets Stronger and Better in Midlife and Beyond.
In her book The Male Brain, she says,
“Simplifying the entire male brain to just the ‘brain below the belt’ is a good setup for jokes, but it hardly represents the totality of a man’s brain.” She goes on to say, “The male brain is a lean, mean, problem-solving machine. Faced with a personal problem, a man will use his analytical brain structures, not his emotional ones, to find a solution.”
Here are some of the significant differences in the brain structure and function Dr. Brizendine describes:
- The anterior cingulate cortex weighs options and makes decisions.
It’s the worrywart center, and it’s larger in women and smaller in men.
- The medial preoptic area is the area for sexual pursuit.
It’s two-and-a-half times larger in the male.
- The temporal parietal junction is the solution seeker.
It’s more active in the male brain, comes online more quickly, and races toward a “fix-it-fast” solution.
- The hippocampus is the center for emotional memory.
“It’s the elephant that never forgets a fight, a romantic encounter, or a tender moment — and won’t let you forget it either,” says Dr. Brizendine. She notes that it’s larger and more active in women.
Testosterone: The Holy Grail of Manhood
Larrian Gillespie, M.D. calls testosterone the “Holy Grail of Manhood.” Testosterone is an androgen that is produced both in the adrenals and testes of men. Women produce this same steroid from their ovaries, but as is true in all aspects of life, quantity is important.
In her book The Alchemy of Love and Lust,Theresa L. Crenshaw, M.D., says,
“Men have about 20 to 40 times more testosterone than women, which is one reason why our sex drives are so different. This forceful hormone is responsible for the drive associated with sexual appetite and patterns of aggression.”
Dr. Carole Hooven is a human evolutionary biologist and an associate in Harvard’s Department of Psychology, in the lab of Steven Pinker, and an active member of the newly established Council on Academic Freedom at Harvard. In her book, T: The Story of Testosterone, the Hormone that Dominates and Divides Us, she says,
“The consensus of experts is that testosterone’s main job is to support the anatomy, physiology, and behavior that increases a male’s reproductive output — at least in nonhuman animals. And men are no exception — T helps them reproduce and directs energy to be used in ways that support competition, and directs energy to be used in ways that support competition for mates.”
Dr. Hooven goes on to say,
“Sex differences are simply differences between males and females — in humans, chimps, or other species — and noting difference says nothing about cause. Men are more likely than women to be sexually attracted to women, and they are far more physically aggressive than women in every pocket of the earth, at every age. For example, they are responsible for around 70 percent of all traffic fatalities and 98 percent of mass shootings in the United States, and worldwide commit over 95 percent of homicides and the overwhelming majority of violent acts of every kind, including sexual assault.”
She concludes saying, “One important point about sex differences, illustrated by these examples, is that almost any feature that differs between the sexes isn’t exclusive to males or to females. Women murder and sexually assault, they enjoy sex with other women.”
We all are aware than males, are on average, taller than females. But is a male who is 5 feet, 5 inches tall if I stretch to my fullest, there are many females who are taller than me (including my wife, Carlin).
Accepting Ourselves For The Vulnerable Males We Are is Our True Superpower
My mother loved Shakespeare and passed on his wisdom to me early. Writing in my Junior High School yearbook she offered this quote from Hamlet.
“This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.”
Over the years, I’ve learned more about what it means to be true to ourselves.
As I approach my 82nd birthday, I believe that accepting our inherent male vulnerability and weakness, is the key to developing our own superpowers. I believe the world needs males and it would be a better place if we let go of our need to dominate others. Men would treat women and other men with more kindness and generosity, if we truly accepted ourselves for the beautiful and vulnerable beings we are. We would also have a better chance of finding our home in the community of life on planet Earth.
As historian and geologian Thomas Berry reminds us,
“We never knew enough. Nor were we sufficiently intimate with all our cousins in the great family of the earth. Nor could we listen to the various creatures of the earth, each telling its own story. The time has now come, however, when we will listen or we will die.”
In Part 4 of “The Evolution of Sex,” we will explore our biology and our evolutionary future.
Disclaimer: This story is auto-aggregated by a computer program and has not been created or edited by healthlydays.
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