New Civilization News: Xs and Ys    
 Xs and Ys20 comments
picture2 Apr 2005 @ 19:27, by John Ashbaugh

X-celling Over Men
By MAUREEN DOWD

Published: March 20, 2005

Men are always telling me not to generalize about them.

But a startling new study shows that science is backing me up here.

Research published last week in the journal Nature reveals that women are genetically more complex than scientists ever imagined, while men remain the simple creatures they appear.


"Alas," said one of the authors of the study, the Duke University genome expert Huntington Willard, "genetically speaking, if you've met one man, you've met them all. We are, I hate to say it, predictable. You can't say that about women. Men and women are farther apart than we ever knew. It's not Mars or Venus. It's Mars or Venus, Pluto, Jupiter and who knows what other planets."

Women are not only more different from men than we knew. Women are more different from each other than we knew - creatures of "infinite variety," as Shakespeare wrote.

"We poor men only have 45 chromosomes to do our work with because our 46th is the pathetic Y that has only a few genes which operate below the waist and above the knees," Dr. Willard observed. "In contrast, we now know that women have the full 46 chromosomes that they're getting work from and the 46th is a second X that is working at levels greater than we knew."

Dr. Willard and his co-author, Laura Carrel, a molecular biologist at the Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, think that their discovery may help explain why the behavior and traits of men and women are so different; they may be hard-wired in the brain, in addition to being hormonal or cultural.

So is Lawrence Summers right after all? "Only time will tell," Dr. Willard laughs.

The researchers learned that a whopping 15 percent - 200 to 300 - of the genes on the second X chromosome in women, thought to be submissive and inert, lolling about on an evolutionary Victorian fainting couch, are active, giving women a significant increase in gene expression over men.

As the Times science reporter Nicholas Wade, who is writing a book about human evolution and genetics, explained it to me: "Women are mosaics, one could even say chimeras, in the sense that they are made up of two different kinds of cell. Whereas men are pure and uncomplicated, being made of just a single kind of cell throughout."

This means men's generalizations about women are correct, too. Women are inscrutable, changeable, crafty, idiosyncratic, a different species.

"Women's chromosomes have more complexity, which men view as unpredictability," said David Page, a molecular biologist and expert on sex evolution at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research in Cambridge, Mass.

Known as Mr. Y, Dr. P calls himself "the defender of the rotting Y chromosome." He's referring to studies showing that the Y chromosome has been shedding genes willy-nilly for millions of years and is now a fraction of the size of its partner, the X chromosome. "The Y married up," he notes. "The X married down."

Size matters, so some experts have suggested that in 10 million years or even much sooner - 100,000 years - men could disappear, taking Maxim magazine, March Madness and cold pizza in the morning with them.

Dr. Page drolly conjures up a picture of the Y chromosome as "a slovenly beast," sitting in his favorite armchair, surrounded by the litter of old fast food takeout boxes.

"The Y wants to maintain himself but doesn't know how," he said. "He's falling apart, like the guy who can't manage to get a doctor's appointment or can't clean up the house or apartment unless his wife does it.

"I prefer to think of the Y as persevering and noble, not as the Rodney Dangerfield of the human genome."

Dr. Page says the Y - a refuge throughout evolution for any gene that is good for males and/or bad for females - has become "a mirror, a metaphor, a blank slate on which you can write anything you want to think about males." It has inspired cartoon gene maps that show the belching gene, the inability-to-remember-birthdays-and-anniversaries gene, the fascination-with-spiders-and-reptiles gene, the selective-hearing-loss-"Huh" gene, the inability-to-express-affection-on-the-phone gene.

The discovery about women's superior gene expression may answer the age-old question about why men have trouble expressing themselves: because their genes do


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20 comments

2 Apr 2005 @ 20:54 by bushman : Hmm, lol.
Really, but I still think it is because the woman ate from the apple first, so it stands to reason females have a year and a half head start, did it take eve a year and a half to con adam into takeing a bite too? lol. And being the woman was tricked into it by a snake, makes me think now woman tend to over compensate for that first mistake of trusting a snake, so woman became more sencitive and intuitive , just in case that snake comes back, lol.  

3 Apr 2005 @ 01:24 by astrid : Good REASONING, Bushy!
John, thanks for that truly Heartfelt observation of yours: "....while men remain the simple creatures they appear." Though I gotta admit that that wall of Truth is starting to show some cracks. : ) Iv'e ran into a handful men showing some sprouting Budds of Intuition!.... : )  

3 Apr 2005 @ 02:22 by koravya : note
The entire wording of the article is Maureen Dowd's.
I'm just the intermediary.  

3 Apr 2005 @ 07:27 by vaxen : There was...
no apple to eat. Like the good doctors 'assumptions,' about men, Y and X chromosomes and the glaring generalizations about men that he/she makes. "Make peace between the two warring houses..."---Y.H.M (Yeshua Ha Mashiach) Like so many of the stark progenitors of an infant 'science' these two will probably wake up some day from out of their culturally induced madness to see that all that 'junk DNA' really did have a purpose. Ah well...I can be thankful at least that these good 'scientists' are planning their own demise. There is another kind of man alive on this planet. and in the greater megaverse, who does not fit into their 'patterned,' and pre-conceived 'notions.' Thankis, anyway, for the articulo K. "En Archei Kai to Logos"---Gospel of Saint John  

3 Apr 2005 @ 12:36 by sprtskr : I'm not surprised
at this conclusion but I do feel men will accept their feminine side when society and family no longer generalize between the sexes.  

3 Apr 2005 @ 12:43 by martha : hahahahahaha John
thanks for posting the article...makes sense to me!
I have never found men having trouble expressing themselves in certain areas but they do have one track minds at times but so do some women.
Oh sure lay the burden of the mess of the world at womens feet because we aren't using our genetic makeup to it's full capacity to get men to balance correctly their feminie side...LOL...way too much Y energy in the world presently.  

3 Apr 2005 @ 22:48 by vaxen : Now...
just whose fault is that Martha? And it appears to me that maybe the tables are actually turned that it is the Y which predominates in La Femme and the X that predominates in El Homme? In either case it is balance between extremes that will win the day and not a bunch of 'scientific,' so called 'dictum.' It is a well known fact in Mahayana Buddhism as well as Quantum Science that the Observer effects/affects the observed so...we are 'composite beings not either or,s! Remember the original Andro-Gyne?  

4 Apr 2005 @ 00:05 by martha : Of course we are both
the female and male. One needs to understand both sides to create the balance. that's what I found so funny. It's no one's fault really Vax. We are all in this together and connected. So in truth male and female are not separate but part of the whole.  

4 Apr 2005 @ 20:32 by koravya : And so
As I recall, this sexual differentiation thing has been going on for some many numbers of millions of years in just about every species more complex than an amoeba, so I would think that the Great Mother had some kind of reason, purpose, insight, or motivation for creating this bifurcation, and the article's suggestion that some folks think men, males, and the masculine proclivity might disappear in anywhere between ten thousand and ten million years is just a shade shy of most unlikely. As in, pure speculation. I personally tend to shy away from gross generalization about differences beween men and women, males and females, boys and girls. This little article just came by my way, and I thought I'd toss it out there to see what might come along.
Always, it seems I hear, the call is for men to get in touch with their feminine side. Where is the counterpart? Women, here we go!, what does it mean for the feminine to "get in touch" with her masculine side?  

4 Apr 2005 @ 21:42 by swan : It is about balance,
as Martha said. I personally don't want to see the male species disappear, I like men! If each of us integrate the fabulous qualities of each gender we would have a different world.
"This is from a newslog I wrote about balancing the masculine and feminine:
The dance of romance between complements can begin to happen as we begin to see and experience the innate beauty and power that is unique to women and the innate beauty and power that is unique to men, through the eyes of love and not fear. This is not power "over" the other as it is under a dualistic belief system, but the power that comes from just being in the unique expression of who you truly are.

When we stand in our power and reflect that beauty, which complements the other, we will be on our way to healthily male/female relationships, which are a balance of intimacy and autonomy and a reflection of love. "

We need to own the male and the female that we all are. If we disown any part of the mix, what we fear is what will control us. We all have received negative images of the opposite sex in our formative years and it is those images that we must embrace and own as a part of us so we can be whole and complete.

I too shy away from generalizations. I think it is foolish to use generalizations to describe either gender because everyone is a unique expression of the X's Y's and P's and Q"s that is unlike anyone else.  

5 Apr 2005 @ 17:29 by koravya : Eloquent
Very eloquently put.
Thank you Swan  

5 Apr 2005 @ 17:51 by jerryvest : Excellent Swan
I appreciate the importance of balance and using our best qualities and potential as humans to improve ourselves and humanity as one body. When I was younger, early 20's, one of my colleagues suggested that I had some feminine gestures that make him uncomfortable. Well, I was hurt by this and didn't tell him that my gestures were not a problem for me and that perhaps he could take a good look at himself. Anyway, I've learned that being sensitive, loving, and caring are very positive traits and am grateful for being the way I am.

Thank you for your gestures of balance.  

5 Apr 2005 @ 19:23 by swan : Gender equality is one of my favorite
causes. I usually take to my soap box when I hear all of the blame put on men for not being able to express feelings, or be sensitive or whatever the blame might be. I feel that if we point blame we send energy to support the very things that we wish to change and holding people hostage to our projections.  

5 Apr 2005 @ 22:26 by astrid : To answer your Q, John;
".... the call is for men to get in touch with their feminine side. Where is the counterpart? Women, here we go!, what does it mean for the feminine to "get in touch" with her masculine side? " end quote.

In order to even SURVIVE AT ALL the last 6000 or so years in the highly ABUSIVE patriarchal society women had to --automatically-- find/get in touch with her masculine side.
The women who didn't survive ( abuse/rape/battering) did not manage to muster enough of the masculine energy!.... and this is where all "the light-heartedness" about the subject stops, I hope! There IS some serious aspects to "this whole thing" as well... As far as BALANCE.... Yes. Absolutely. That means when the scales are level; in equilibrium. WE /Humankind is A FAAAAR CRY FROM THERE YET!!!!!! Whom are we kidding????
It IS a VERY serious subject and HUUUUUGE, if you ask me!.... EVERY single Thing in our Daily Life needs to be re-adjusted to a balanced feminine/masculine-energy result/ing! EVERY SINGLE ASPECT!....
Thar's right!
How many WARS do you guys, think, is started/instigated into being by women -or by men using their feminine aspects: Divine Intuition, Inspiration, Imagination, Enthusiasm, Discernment, Discrimination, Judgement, etc. In one word: their DIVINE Intelligence??????....( No, we're NOT talking about CIA here!!!...) Now, someone, answer that!

How much of the destruction of the Planet/Mother Earth is done by making use of those Divine Skills/Faculties???? Want me to continue???

".... if we point blame....." Sure. BUT HOW ARE WE TO SEE/ACKNOWLEDGE THINGS IF NOT BY PUTTING THE SPOTLIGHT ON IT?????????? of course; to NOT then make the adjustments that Universe demands , once we found a life destructive behaviour/ way of using the Divine energy, doesn't serve us either!.... What's the Solution then???.........????????
ACKNOWLEDGE and DO THE TURN-AROUND /"REPENTANCE & AMENDS" as they were called in Biblical Times, AWAY FROM THE DESTRUCTIVE WAYS!... But ahhh, all those Convenient Goodies are there -on "that" side!... Bummer, eh?
So called Gender issue (interaction between Men & Women) is the smallest part of the Feminine/masculine use of Divine Energy!

Everything we do in Life, should be done from "INSIDE -OUT", which in simple, Childlike terms, could be expressed: by first listening / to LIFE/"GOD" Within = our Divine Faculties asking for the "hows and whys " --or just simply 'what'-- to do things and then proceed, once that is clear to us!.... THAT IS TO LIVE WITH OUR FEMININE AND MASCULINE ASPECTS IN PERFECT BALANCE/ EQUILIBRIUM...THE CHRISTED LIFE, which also then gives us automatically respect for eachother, with no abuse and lo & behold true JUSTICE AND DEMOCRACY!!!! Do we do that?....  

6 Apr 2005 @ 05:54 by koravya : What is what?
What are the essential differentiating qualities
between the masculine and the feminine?

Here is a section from an article at:
http://www.shambhalasun.com/revolving_themes/Women%20in%20Buddhism/brown.htm

Feminine Principle in the Vajrayana
By Judith Simmer-Brown

".......
On the level of appearance and manifestation, women and men are distinct and complementary in their physical forms and psychological experiences. From the view of vajrayana Buddhism, both feminine and masculine qualities are inherently positive, awakened and beneficial, but when accompanied by ignorance and habitual patterns they can manifest in painful ways. When powerful self-centeredness is the motivation, relationships between women and men can arouse dramatic streams of emotionality, conceptuality and fantasy, leading to pain and alienation. But whether manifested in awakened or painful ways, the qualities of feminine and masculine energies remain consistent. Feminine manifestation is associated with energetic heat and intensity; masculine manifestation is associated with steady power and groundedness. Penetrating insight as manifested in the lives of human women is a subtle, pervasive and very intelligent energy, a kind of sharpness or sensitivity. In its basic nature it is awareness, but in daily life it manifests as sensitivity, which can be quite intense and hot, related with emotionality. This sensitivity has more allegiance to dynamics than to content. There is a Tibetan saying: "Women's intelligence is at a very sharp angle, and empty." This means that women have a heightened ability to identify problems and to penetrate them, without clinging to results.

The heat and intensity of women's energy can trip intense emotional triggers, which can create enormous chaos. This chaos can be beneficial when intractable situations present themselves. For example, when bureaucracy becomes overbearing or when stubborn logics and habitual styles are employed, penetrating insight can liberate the ponderous environment into chaos, even when it manifests as intense emotionality.
The sensitivity of women's intuition can see injustice, emotional subtlety, interpersonal dynamics, and hidden meanings, and when there are imbalances and obstacles in specific environments, the sharp and penetrating qualities of women can identify them and adjust them. This emotionality can also be very warm, generating compassion and care for others.

However, when intense emotionality is indulged, feminine intelligence can become self-serving. When this happens, feminine wisdom can become wild and even dangerous, subverting its own intelligence. Women have a capacity for responsiveness which can be fickle and provocative in its style of expression. Its fascination with sharpness may become habitual, so that when problems are identified, feminine energy may not have a particular allegiance to solutions.

An analogy to feminine wisdom is the sharpness of a knife, which is very cutting and penetrating. But if not used properly, it can be too sharp, too sensitive, unstable and even dangerous. In this case it is important to have a complementary energy, strong and skilled, to steady that wild blade and protect those things which are not to be cut.

When skillful means manifests in the styles of human men, there is strength, solidity and resiliency. In contrast to the feminine energy, the masculine is explicit, directed toward the material world of manifestation, and action-oriented. It is also more grounded, more sleepy, and when out of balance, could be considered a stubborn, resentful presence. Generally, however, it is praised because it is strong and faithful.

In positive manifestation, masculine means are tolerant, patient and accommodating. The fundamental masculine quality is immovability and bluntness. Men may have the wisdom to know what is happening-whether just or unjust, good or bad, negative or positive-and to just let things be as they are. Masculine energy is also known for loyalty, reliability, and the ability to join in groups to achieve common goals. It is culturally associated with politics, institutions and traditions.

On the other hand, masculine energy can be too accommodating, even lazy, and tends to be dull and oblivious. Without the stimulation of feminine wisdom, the masculine can go to sleep or be lulled into merely habitual routines or bureaucratic solutions. Or, when confronted by the wild and self-serving feminine, the masculine can become stubborn, cold and stolid. When threatened, the masculine can become blunt and heavy-handed, retaliating without precision or accuracy. The masculine needs relationship with sharpness because, though it is very strong, it is not precise or incisive.

When either of these energies manifests alone in our beings, they can become an obstacle to one's spiritual development, according to the vajrayana. One without the other creates an imbalance in the practitioner, no matter what the gender. The sharpness of our mind-body complex yearns for more grounding, and our dullness craves excitement and clarity. Unifying these two qualities and bringing them into some kind of balance is one of the goals of vajrayana practice.
......."  

6 Apr 2005 @ 12:33 by swan : Thank you for that John a very good
summary.
I agree with Astrid that every aspect of our lives must be brought into balance in masculine and feminine energy and that it must be done from the inside out. I still say without blame. We have done nothing wrong, as things on a continuum must seek out each extreme before coming into balance. We must know both sides before we can know the middle. That is what duality is about.

"BUT HOW ARE WE TO SEE/ACKNOWLEDGE THINGS IF NOT BY PUTTING THE SPOTLIGHT ON IT??????????" If a spotlight is used to make one person wrong and the other right that is not helpful. Women and men have an equal part in bringing our world where it is right now. There are no victims. I don't believe many of our ancestors were using their Divine skills when the concept of war came into being. We are can choose to come from a place of LOVE and peace and navigate the world through our divinity or we can choose not to. We can only choose for ourselves and hope that other follow suit. So one must find a way to shine the spotlight with compassion for the purpose of evolution and not for the purpose of judgment and model those quality that will help us evolve and support the planet.  

6 Apr 2005 @ 19:59 by astrid : Where is the
automatic equal-sign (=) between 'Spotlight' and ( putting out) BLAME????????? Of course it's OK to make the point clear to the preptrator/s Isn't it???? When "your" kids stole pocket change from yo(r purse of where-ever ) did you not make the point to them that they did it and knew it and they should stop it and they wer grounded for a week and they had to sweep the Driveway clean every one of those days. Did you not teach your children accountability, which this, my example, is all about -or did you not?
Does anybody think Baby Bush was taught acountability? Yes, but ONLY about his actions towards the FAMILY = Authority; some one above you, with the Power to hurt you!....but NOT accountability for harmful actions done to someone "below" him in Social rank!
I see a big difference between balimg someone and demanding accountability!... Now, excuse me for bring so dense!... And on top of it Ireally do think that this very account.-question is a big part of the problem as far as re-storing BALANCE /EQUALITY goes i our World. BLAME -on the other hand is when the VICTIM IS MADE ACCOUNTABLE ( " you --the one who is being beaten-- forced me to hit / = abuse/ you" ) FOR THE PERPETRATOR'S EVIL-DOINGS!!! ...and GUILT is then what the victim feels. So, yes: Humankind HAS to start doing it as if the victims would be forcing the "BigBoys" to rape and plunder and steal and murder and the world and its Citizens!!! That BLAME-THE-VICTIM-Paradigm has now been enforced the last 5-6 or maybe even ten thousand years and is one of the bottom-line reasons our world is at the brink of annihilation!
I can see the wisdom, Swan, in your words "We have done nothing wrong, as things on a continuum must seek out each extreme before coming into balance. We must know both sides before we can know the middle. That is what duality is about." BUT I THINK WE NEED TO KNOW WHEN ONE METHOD IS OBSOLETE AND OUTLIVED ITSELF AND DOES NOT CORRESPOND TO OUR COLLECTIVE CONSCIOUSNESS ANY LONGER,NOR TO THE INCOMING COSMIC ENERGIES!
Of course there are victims! what kind of fluffy Politically Correct Rhetorics is that???!!?? BUT: Nobody( or at least fewer and fewer people ) needs to remain a victim! HUGE DIFFERENCE!!!!
"... shine the spotlight with compassion for the purpose of evolution...." That is beautiful!
Am I correct here thinking that you use the word "judgement" as IF it automatically meant CONDEMNATION? ( that's just how sloppy use of the these words colocially has perverted the word 'judgement'. Its true meaning is 'conclusion' )
We should never condemn another person for anything at all -not even for bad actions- IF we ourselves reserve the right to do those very same bad actions ourselves!!!!... because that moment WE become the perpetrators!...
LOTS n' LOTS for each and everyone of us to think about!... : )

Isn't it interesting, though, Swan, that when we decide to just be kind and loving and in ever higher vibrations, and getting ever more CLEAR and free from ( the very painful and 'dark' energies of ) confusion, the less anybody even dreams of hurting us!!! THAT is where our TRUE Power lies!!!
I really think we, Humankind, are more and more on the RIGHT TRACK for every passing day!!!.... : )
John , I absolutely LOVE your Summary! THANK YOU!!!  

7 Apr 2005 @ 02:14 by swan : Astrid,
you miss understood me. I didn't say that you were attaching blame by using the statement. Some people do attach blame when putting a spotlight on what they feel is a problem. I appologize for using your statement as I see it upset you.

I really don't want to get into a debate about word usage. (Judgement to me = to judge, to compare in a black and white way, to say you are right and I am wrong, black is better than white, cherry pie is better than apple, cats are better than dogs...Condemnation to me means go to hell) Sorry if that seems perverted to you.

I am into accountability yes, but with myself. We each need to be accountable to our integrity and our God. We can demand accountability from others until we are blue in the face and that doesn't mean we will get it.

My point was about coming into balance not saying someone is wrong and someone else is right or men are better than women or vise a versa. I am into making sure that I come from Love, compassion, honesty and interity. My point was I am the only one I can change. If I am in balance in my masculine and feminine I am adding to the balance of the whole which means we are all that much more balanced. If everyone came into balance in themselves, rather than saying things are messed up because of someone, this would be a different world. Everyone has a choice how they are going to live. If we choose to be kind and loving that is what we get in return.

This article was about gender and generalization and that was what I was addressing. I can't make George W Bush change, or Saddham or who ever else we want to fill in the blank with. Nor can I say that it is because they are boys/guys/men that they behave the way they do.

Love,
Swan

PS
You are preaching to the chior by lecturing me.  

7 Apr 2005 @ 03:27 by astrid : You are absolutely right, Swan!
I just tried to get the concepts /our Ducks in a row, so to speak!.... It is NOT your -per see- use of the word Judegement that is perverted = directed to mean the opposite, It is the Collochial use that has a tendency to this to words over any length of time.Another classic is "coincidence"!.... In th Mainstream it means the opposite from its original meaning! Lingo can be our greatest asset and biggest hassle!
And yes, it is up to each of us to be the very best, most loving most balanced humans we ever can. Eventually I will stop praching and just go for the Beautiful Stuff; living my own life every moment in as much Light and Love as ever possible. That's the only way to fly! .... : ) Talking 'bout flying;my Mom used to say; "A-d you can only fly with your own Wings, but NEVER with Borrowed Wings"... She was right.  

8 Apr 2005 @ 05:02 by koravya : It shall become
I’m not so sure that the problem of interpersonal violence is a function of whether a society is patriarchal or matriarchal, i.e. patrilineal or matrilineal, those lines of descent which define kinship relations. Even in matrilineal societies, boys are taken from their mothers and introduced, inducted, and initiated into the separate world of men’s associations, clubs, and kivas. There is an understanding amongst men in these groups that is apart from and other to the women who have their own natural gatherings together. All of the men sitting on one side of the church and all of the women sitting on the other side of the church, in all of its cultural variations throughout the world, is not a reflection of some patriarchal imposition, but a divinely guided recognition between these complimentary and opposing genders that to know the self is to know the other, and that to know the self requires a bonding with those of like kind. Any society that does not nurture mutual respect between the genders is doomed to extinction. Look for the seeds of the wish for domination and control; look for the primal fear and its outgrowth anger and the hypnotic obsession with control over the other. This is the seed that is passed through generation after generation of the mothers and the fathers who handle and speak with their children. There is a culture of violence embedded in the brain stems of people from many cultures around the globe, and this is not to say that the malady is culturally specific, but widespread. It is a human disease, and it is not all in one place. It is merged in the waves of the ocean of humanity, and the tidal waves and eddies between the expressions of violent and non-violent behaviors are as volatile as the clouds on a windy day. There must come a great calm for violence to lose its appeal and attraction.
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