Wednesday 8 July 2009

Men may become redundant. But ...

I can’t resist it. Scientists in Newcastle have created sperm in their lab. This prompts a dual reaction. The first is to cycle through a long list of obvious schoolboy gags, but the second is more interesting. It’s the possibility that this will make men redundant.

I’ve spent decades being embarrassed by the macho culture, appalled at the brutality inflicted by men on what is literally the weaker sex. I don’t understand how these two attitudes can co-exist so easily. How absurd that the proof that you have the biggest cojones is best exemplified by being able to beat the shit out of someone who’s effectively defenceless. That’s an oversimplification, of course, but none of the subtle, erudite analyses of the male psychology is remotely persuasive when you see the black and bloodshot eyes, the fractured cheekbones, the split lips and swollen faces of the women they’ve used as convenient punchbags. It’s hard to believe in the perfectibility of our species when you realise that someone, even if they do have a severely limited set of brain cells, can perpetrate such things.

The whole ‘show me a silver medallist and I’ll show you the first of the losers’ mentality is ludicrous, negative, destructive. It also implies a severe lack of understanding of the wider values that need to be recognised to establish and maintain communal living. And, when I hear people braying that sort of thing, I always wonder what’s missing in their lives that makes them so needy, so desperate to be acknowledged.

I know there are women who voice the same mantra but, for the most part, these individuals show a wider set of values than their male counterparts and confine the competitive imperative to their (usually athletic) endeavours. Because, let’s face it, women are nicer than men.

So the Newcastle development seems promising. Maybe there could be a future in which humans don’t elect people like Bush and Blair, who fling on their bomber jackets and strut to the microphones to mouth platitudes and lies about saving the world and democracy. Maybe the days of the alpha male (like Bernie Ecclestone, for God’s sake) are limited. Maybe women will eventually take over.

But, of course, the minute that thought begins to form, two awful truths slink out of the shadows, truths which are precisely identifiable and which undermine the whole optimistic impulse. Even if machismo is doomed, there’ll still be things like Margaret Thatcher and, now, Sarah Palin.

OK, there’s no hope. So let’s just enjoy it.

11 comments:

  1. What worries me, Bill is the kind of human that might be produced by synthetic sperm. When "man" plays at God there is so much scope for disaster. So let's hope that we don't become redunadant - at least, not the ones with strong values.

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  2. Well, I kind of agree with you. But only up to a point. My women friends are lovely. But just speak to somebody who has been bullied by a group of girls with too much money, far too much self esteem and the ineradicable sense that they can do as they please with whoever they please - as somebody I know was, over a period of several years - and you may have to revise your opinion of just how 'nice' women really are!

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  3. I know Catherine, and I agree that it's a huge generalisation. I, too, know many gentle men who deplore the macho culture as much as I do. Equally, I've met women whom I'd gladly cast as worthy victims in one of my novels. Indeed, the latest 'ladette' trend is a depressing proof that my 'thesis' is flawed. I'm clutching at straws here but, on the whole, I still think your lot is nicer than my lot.

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  4. ... or even that your lot ARE nicer than my lot ... (God, I must stop exposing my lack of literary competence)

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  5. I agree with Michael. The prospect of disasterous results from synthetic sperm is frightening. And why, in Heaven's name, do we need it? Is sex going to become obsolete as a form of procreation, so that couples can genetically engineer "the perfect offspring"?

    Makes me shudder to think about it.

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  6. I agree with you and Michael, too, Jean. The notion of synthetic people is appalling. If I'd reported the news properly, I'd have had to say that they're still years away from it becoming a reality. And I don't think the ethical argument about it has even started yet. It was just a glib way of taking a pop at the macho culture which I despise so heartily.

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  7. Societies with engineered people have been a staple of SF for decades. Cyteen by C. J. Cherryh would be a fair example, or many of Cordwainer Smith's stories.

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  8. I can't see men becoming redundant that easily. One, who would we get to rewire plugs and change light bulbs? And two, who would protect us from Sarah Palin? ;)

    (And yes, I am only teasing. Deep down I think it's a worrying idea too. Good for men who are infertile, perhaps, but not as a general rule...)

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  9. Sorry, Bill, I just saw this post and had to say, AMEN to that last statement. More and more since you wrote this, it's apparent that the future of the Republicans lies with her or Huckabee. God help us all.

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  10. Well, Marley, you can always emigrate to somewhere where the politicians aren't all power-crazed loonies. Somewhere like ... er ... um ... well ... er ...

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  11. What the hell. this lunatics should be immediately halted in there steps. Damn! What? are they playing mini-gods here?

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