Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Take me to your Leda

It is inexplicable that no-one has filmed The Green Millennium yet. As always with Fritz Leiber's dramaturgy, the storyline is already cinematic.* Also, I can has Coen Bros. production of A Spectre is Haunting Texas plz?** Kthnxbai.

Leiber calls our attention to the cunning disguises favoured by female satyrs:

These disguises are one reason why artistic case-studies of satyrism are overwhelmingly dominated by males. This female example recorded by Rubens is a rare exception (see also less-SFW case studies by Rops and Anonymous). In addition, satyrism is an X-linked recessive trait (like most forms of inherited colour-vision deficiency), so the females in a satyrism pedigree generally display a normal plantigrade phenotype.

That is, mothers and daughters of satyrs are heterozygous carriers of the condition. Explaining voice, Lyonisation of the X chromatin, blah blah.

It comes as a surprise when satyrs manage to sire children at all, given their non-reproductive predilection for flames and large birds. The avian paraphilia may stem from a misunderstanding of the Leda myth, coupled with a failure to distinguish between swans and raptors.


Bonus avian paraphilia:

This whole issue of sex differences is relevant to my interests and is not just an excuse to mention the latest research on the female orgasm:
Greg Laden has an analysis of it; PZ Myers has an opinion. It is a twin study:
Using questionnaire data from over 10 000 Finnish twins and siblings, we found significant genetic variation in both male and female orgasmic function, but no significant correlation between opposite-sex twins and siblings.
Disappointingly, the words "I never thought I would find myself writing to Animal Behavior" do not appear anywhere in the paper.

* Though the MacGuffin is a green cat and who would believe that?
** UPDATE: Bonus A Specter is Haunting Texas news. Teh Wiki sums up the background:
Canada is now North Texas and what is left of civilization in North America is ruled by primitive, backslapping, bigger than life anti-intellectual "good ole boys" convinced of their own moral superiority.
In the absence of any interest from Hollywood, we at Riddled Enterprises have decided to step in and make the movie adaptation ourselves.

Currently working on the powered-exoskeleton prop for the Scully character.

22 comments:

Dr.KennethNoisewater said...

Does the Doktor have an opinion?

ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© said...

I learn so very much on the internet sites of my blog roll brethren and sistern.

Ah, what did I just learn, again?
~

J— said...

and some depressingly ignorant commenters

Some did make me laugh out loud.

Substance McGravitas said...

genetic variation in both male and female orgasmic function

Dear Animal Beahaviour:

I never thought it would happen to me but I could not bring those Finnish twins to orgasm.

tigris said...

Nor bring the orgasm twins to finish?

mikey said...

In which we determine, with finality, that the well-know assumptive correlation between the size of hands and that of junk is utterly false.

Big Boy's havin' himself a time, nonetheless!

Smut Clyde said...

Some [of PZ Myers' commenters] did make me laugh out loud.

Do you mean this one? Seemingly serious:

My guess is a major reason for female orgasms is to promote lesbian sex. Lots of research suggests women are naturally bisexual although our culture today generally pushes women to claim to be straight or gay and not bi.

Back in our early human history groups of women raised groups of children. Groups of women also could resist individual men or even a few male intruders. So what motivated the women to form groups? I hypothesize making out. This is hardly a stretch. It is how our nearest relatives, the bonobo, handle things today.


The really depressing thing, for me, is the universal acceptance -- by the original paper, by science bloggers, by the commenters -- that female orgasm needs some sort of genetic explanation while the male orgasm does not.

Everyone seems to agree that men who enjoy sex -- to a paroxysmic degree -- pass on their genes better than males who are merely hardwired to screw anything female-looking but without the enjoyment. This is so obvious that the question never comes up. But the same people cannot extend the same explanation to women... perhaps they think that early human females had no say in "sex or no sex" decisions, so there was no evolutionary point in them enjoying it.

Smut Clyde said...

Nor bring the orgasm twins to finish?

He's Russian to finish.

J— said...

Do you mean this one?

Yes! That one made me laugh most.

J— said...

that female orgasm needs some sort of genetic explanation while the male orgasm does not

Yeah, that struck me. But this imbalance in the framing of inquiry into human sexuality has a pretty deep history, no?

Substance McGravitas said...

Why is the gene to enjoy lesbian sex present in me then? Answer THAT, smart guy.

Tentsper!

Smut Clyde said...

But this imbalance in the framing of inquiry into human sexuality has a pretty deep history, no?

It must be a tradition, or an old charter or something.

Dr.KennethNoisewater said...

". Lots of research suggests women are naturally bisexual"


Erm, WHAT?

This commenter learned all his biology from The Playboy Channel.

Smut Clyde said...

There is some other source of information?

Whale Chowder said...

But this imbalance in the framing of inquiry into human sexuality has a pretty deep history, no?

All I know is I have an urge to probe the question deeper, longer and harder than ever.

Smut Clyde said...

This commenter learned all his biology from The Playboy Channel.

I am DEEPLY OFFENDED by VS' cavalier* and COMPLETELY UNFOUNDED assumption that vividly-imaginationed commenter "free_thinker_44#c45c3" was male.

* Or cavalieuse.

Big Bad Bald Bastard said...

In the tortured version of history known to the giant hormone-boosted Anglo-Saxon inhabitants who rule a diminutive Mexican underclass, the original Texas, or Texas, had actually secretly ruled the pre-nuclear war United States since 1845.

Texultants?

Leiber calls our attention to the cunning disguises favoured by female satyrs:

D00d was all about that Cute Monster Girl business.

Bonus avian paraphilia:

Foul!

Dr.KennethNoisewater said...

"I am DEEPLY OFFENDED by VS' cavalier* and COMPLETELY UNFOUNDED assumption that vividly-imaginationed commenter "free_thinker_44#c45c3" was male."

Just a hunch.

ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© said...

What hunch.
~

Dragon-King Wangchuck said...

They got funding for this?! OMG. I am re-submitting my own proposal for twin studies on teh female orgasm. And my twin study is designed to specifically address teh flaws inherent in subjective self-reporting by using actual observations.

Smut Clyde said...

Point out in your grant application that you are looking at an older cohort.

Dragon-King Wangchuck said...

Well, we are looking for trait heritability, so it just makes sense to focus on subjects that have reproduced.