MYTH: Testosterone linked to violence...

It looks like it's typical misandrist stuff at first, but ends with:

'No one really knows the answer, but a growing body of evidence suggests that testosterone is as much the result of violence as its cause. Both winning an athletic game and beating an opponent at chess can boost testosterone levels. But losing a competition, growing old and becoming obese all reduce levels of testosterone.'

Also I didn't really detect a tone of anti-maleness in it, just a degree of scientific detachment. But I do have to wonder why the author talks about testosterone and not estrogen-- observations about its potentialy undesirable effects can also be made.

The guy Melvin Konner in the book they mentioned,makes some comments that,in my opinion,are arguably feminist leaning and also anti-male,although it's subtle.

"This 2002 discovery suggests that having less of the hormone could play a part in encouraging men to devote their energies to the family rather than looking for another partner. It suggests that lower testosterone makes dads less likely to stray, and encourages them to be true to their wives and spend time with their families."

And what does this fool recommend for that 80% of divorce filers (wives) who stray from their marriages???

We have more Child Fatalities in a year, than all the women killed by intimate partner homicide, but hypocritically we don't see an Amerikan Violence Against Children Act to witch-hunt the primary perpetrators of those fatatlities (biological mothers) like we see with VAWA witch-hunting men.

Child Fatalities 2004

Isn't it curious that the author of that schlock article, mentioning all those crimes committed by all those males, fails to mention how many of those males grow up being beaten on and abused by their bio mothers? How male-bashing and male demonizing can this Femi-nazi run country (Amerika) get?

The article fails to mention that women cause just as much domestic violence, if not more, than men. Nice try.

There is a number of studies that find testosterone levels raise after victory and lower after defeat. It is, quite honestly, a biological method to enforce the "pecking order" in any group of animals (humans included). That way, the pecking order is easier to enforce rather than being constantly fought over. Similar variations in testosterone happen in female animals after "battles" (hens in the one study I found). So, women are not immune to the affect either, other than their baseline level of testosterone is lower.

Estrogen? Causes dementia. Check the warning for any female hormone replacement therapy drug.

I do believe that women carry a certain level of "T" whether they like it or not. Studies have already demonstrated that women are as violent as their partner and even more so, especially in lesbian relationships..

http://whatmenthinkofwomen.blogspot.com/2007/02/its-part-of-older-lesbian-feminist.html

Example..

Professor Lori B. Gishick, a professor of sociology and women's studies at Warren Wilson College in North Carolina, has worked for about 10 years in battered women's organizations and has run a support group specifically for abused lesbians. The "myth that women are not violent," is persistent and contributes to a denial of woman-to-woman sexual violence, not only among the general population but also among lesbians, says Girhick. " We want to believe that our relationships are safe, that we have equality, and that we have ideal communities. But it's not true." The estimated incidence of domestic abuse in gay and lesbian relationships is one out of three. Girshick says a large number of her respondents, as children and adults, had also been sexually abused , and that the memories of these previous traumas often complicated their reaction to being assaulted by women.

According to Grishick, many of these women read books about woman-to-woman sexual violence; they went into therapy; they volunteered at rape crisis centers. For people who are part of a small lesbian community, the social implications of speaking out against their abuser can be terrifying. Girshick reports that some women did become ostracized when they told others. " I've heard stories of individuals who say ' My friends turned against me and protected her.'" There are only a handful of groups for women battered by other women in the country. Source: R. Morgan Griffin, " Breaking the Silence: Sociologist Studies Woman-to-Woman Sexual Violence," GayHealth.com; May 10, 2000.

So somebody blogged about this somewhere, oh well.. and a sack of rice fell over in China.

I do recall reading around one year ago, that a study showed that around 30% of lesbian relationships involve some sort of sadomasochism (I guess the assumption here is that both parties are willing participants). I wonder how that might intermingle with the observations of Girscht.

One thing to note is that she appears to be only concerned with woman-on-woman violence, even "[also] among the general population" (in other words not just within the context of her practice). Sounds like she is in denial about woman-on-man violence..or maybe that just doesn't count, since men are disposeable.

-ax

relevant page here...

When two sports teams meet, both teams will show an increase in testosterone during the game.
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It could be that the rise in testosterone has physical benefits, such as visual acuity and increased strength. But only the winning team continues to show high testosterone after the game.
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In one study, Dr. Christina Wang of UCLA found that men with low testosterone were actually more likely to be angry, irritable and aggressive than men who had normal to high-normal levels of testosterone. When their testosterone was increased during hormone-replacement therapy, their anger diminished and their sense of well-being increased. "Testosterone is probably a vastly overrated hormone," says Robert Sapolsky, a Stanford University biologist and author of The Trouble with Testosterone.

In other words, rather than causing aggression; testosterone may actually just prepare the body to cope well with conflict, and keep guys that are persevering going. That's a far cry from aggression... that's focus and determination.

our current Congress.

All so-called Congress-men should be legally required to be tested for minimally adequate testosterone, in order to qualify as "male."

I predict 50% of the club in D.C. would fail that test.

Now, Kim Gandy, on the other hand ....

that's a gal with excess male hormones!

Gotta luv our country.

Eunuchs in power.

Lesbians as their puppet-masters.

Never before thought possible, or even imagined as a form of "democracy."

Except maybe, in the last days of the Roman Empire.

Great link Alen

anthony

Just found an even better one:

NY Times

Choice quotes:

If testosterone qua testosterone is not the demonic potion of legend, its yangian counterpart, estrogen, may not be so innocent.

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The researchers propose that for both sexes, the cause of the teen-age spike in aggressive and very likely insolent behavior is estrogen. As scientists only lately are beginning to appreciate, most of the effect of testosterone on the brain is paradoxically estrogenic in nature. That is because the brain is rich in the enzyme aromatase, which converts testosterone into estrogen. The newly transformed hormone then acts on the nerve cells of the brain through estrogen receptors, proteins designed specifically to link up with it.
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The centrality of the brain's estrogen receptors to aggressive behavior was highlighted by a new study of receptor-deficient mice, presented at the endocrine meeting. Dr. Donald W. Pfaff of Rockefeller University in New York, his student, Sonoko Ogawa, and Dr. Kenneth S. Korach of the National Institutes of Health, have analyzed male mice genetically altered so that they lack nearly all estrogen receptors.

Only thing is that the article is from 1995...

I also like how sources were cited as opposed to the average dogma we hear from bogus studies women have commissioned on the behalf of their beloved feminism.

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*"the most outrageous aspect is the total and i mean TOTAL silence from women. hell, they could care less. makes me sick." ~ donnieboy5