Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by bobthechef 1736 days ago
That's ED.

P.S. The use of "fertility" to describe men is weird and seems recent. Fertility is passive and receptive and thus better fits women (hence the use in agriculture to describe the earth). Virility is a better term because it is active. Some people seem to falsely claim that it doesn't refer to procreative or generative power, but it does as this entry in Etymology Online[0] shows (emphasis mine):

"period of manhood," 1580s, from French virilité, from Latin virilitatem (nominative virilitas) "manhood," from virilis "of a man, manly, worthy of a man," from vir "a man, a hero," from PIE root wi-ro- "man." Meaning "power of procreation, capacity for sexua[l] intercourse" is from 1590s; sense of "manly strength" is recorded from c. 1600.

There's not much power to procreate if you have a low sperm count.

[0] https://www.etymonline.com/word/virility#etymonline_v_30873

2 comments

I think "lack of fertility" to design low sperm count/inviable spermatozoids is accurate. Lack of virility would be impossibility to use your own penis for different reasons. 10-8 year ago i knew a trans who was fertile and could give sperm to her lesbian friends, but lacked virility.

The female counterpart of virility should be femininity.

DNA and knowledge of the specific of procreation is probably as recent as the use of fertility.

Wanted to comment about obesity but i guess most people said what i wanted to say, so i'm rebounding on a tangent for my own self-esteem, sorry.

Technically you're right.

But If I was a researcher, I would stay clear of using a term that could be understood as some kind of endorsement of toxic masculinity, heteronormativity or whatever.

Better to use the slightly less accurate term, overloading its original meaning with a new one, and avoid being the subject of a witch hunt.