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by torrent-of-ions 3245 days ago
Have you ever wondered what the point of males is? We take it for granted and many of us probably think males are actually necessary for reproduction but, of course, they are not. Many organisms reproduce just fine without sex. Those that do have sex end up with 50% of the population unable to reproduce. That's an incredible cost, so what is the advantage?

Many biologists study sex and it's one of the most fascinating questions out there. The general theory is that producing males allows the organism to try out some really wacky stuff.

You can't play around too much with females. If your children are female and they can't reproduce then that's the end of your line. So the selective pressure on female offspring being good is high.

It's a different story for males. You only need one good male and you're set. So if you produce 10 males, 6 might be average, 2 exceptional, and 2 complete failures (in evolutionary terms). Those 2 exceptional specimens will pick up the slack for the others. Not only that, but those two exceptional specimens will reproduce more than any set of males that were all average (like a set of females). So not only is there no selective pressure to produce 100% "good" males, there is a strong advantage to producing a few exceptional males.

The trouble is, modern feminists only look at the few exceptional males (the CEOs, Nobel prize winners etc.) and whine about it. The other end of the spectrum, the men on the street or committing suicide, are completely invisible to them.