Prof Michael Jennions, study co-author, added: “While the human penis functions primarily to transfer sperm,…..
A sexologist who says that has really missed a very large part of being human.
Face to face mating, the existence of tits, the female orgasm, pair bonding, convealed ovulation eetc. All point to hte idea that the penis has a distinct function in pleasuring the female – and the male, obvs – rather than just being a sperm transference tool.
Umm, urination? Surely that’s more frequrnt than sex, after a certain age?
Don’t forget ‘before’ a certain age too Julia…..
As you might have noticed, JuliaM, half the human race manages to urinate without a penis.
Rather messily and inconveniently, though.
More frequent at most ages Julia.
He doesn’t know if he’s coming or going.
The penis is a rather primal signalling device for a *lot* of things.
And humans aren’t anything special when it comes to Social Clues, emotional state, and a host of other things.
In fact, we share most of the triggers/reactions with all the higher primates. And quite a few with most mammals.
The only difference between humans and animals is that we use clothing to hide those Clues ( even something a simple as a loincloth..) , or exaggerate them ( like the penis sheaths in vogue with some tribes..).
Nor is the size of our tackle particularly large. Lots of our extended family members have *far* larger gear for their body size…
And yes… It’s a Brave Male Dominance Thing. *One* of the indicators of being Solidly Male and Fit for Purpose.
Something the Femminists and their Penis Flaccidus sycophants ( also a Thing in social apes and monkeys….) hate and resent.
But Humans are Different!! [insert Narrative here]. Except that we aren’t. Not at that basal level where “Intellect” has as much influence as a Wet Wipe in a bushfire..
They’re named “Primal instincts” for a solid reason.
Then again… UWA…. About what you expect…
‘Nor is the size of our tackle particularly large. Lots of our extended family members have *far* larger gear for their body size…’
Not silverback gorillas though.
Not surprising…
Gorillas, like the pandas, are fussy eaters. And being near-exclusive vegetarians even when they’re actually not built for it, they have *very* little energy to spare.
They’re like those pumped-up bodybuilders who are all muscle, but *no stamina*.
Which also means actual mating wears them out. Really Fast. So they only do it when neccessary.
They don’t *need* large tackle for the Physics, and they *can’t* do all the Huffing and Puffing you see in other ape/monkey species.
So that particular bit of them stayed at the size their Ancestors had.
Gorillas, like the pandas, are fussy eaters.
Gorillas have a varied diet – mainly eating leaves, stems, pith, bamboo, roots, and fruits, though some also consume insects like termites. Pandas, on the other hand, have a diet of 99% bamboo. And both are “fussy eaters”? How so?
And being near-exclusive vegetarians even when they’re actually not built for it, they have *very* little energy to spare.
Many vegetarian species have plenty of energy – eg horses, elephants, hippos and my wife…
Theo… Gorillas are not *built* for their diet…
Quite amply demonstrated that, like rabbits, they have to eat their own excrement to even *get* enough calories out of their diet to keep existing..
( while continually farting like a lactose intolerant on a cheese diet….)
They have to pass their food *twice* ….
Sorry to ruin Gorillas for you, but they are, like Pandas and Koalas, evolutionary dead ends.
Specialists that can’t/won’t switch back to something more practical if the environment changes.
in fact.. the dietary supplements gorillas in captivity get sneak in about 20% animal protein in their diet.
That’s why they’re so frisky, and generally *don’t* do the poo-eating in public.
Actual Biology is not a “nice” science… Nor do the answers it gives fit Narratives.. which is why Attenborough ( pox be on him and his issue) is reviled by actual professionals…
As for your wife…. “It’s a Free World”, I guess…
I hope she realises that the *only* way she stays healthy and “energetic” is because of modern dietary supplements and other bits and bobs of “civilised life”.
Which includes a steady and plentyful supply of carbohydrates off the shelf in the Supermarket.
And a variety of nuts and fruits that *do not grow here* all Out of Season.
Same for Veggies. More so even… Veggies don’t keep well without refrigeration or ‘UPF”-ing. and lose most of why you eat them along the way…
Vegetarianism and Veganism are solid signs of decadence.
And truly a sign of Bad Hunters.
as Generalists, like rats, roaches, badgers, and a host of others, we can *survive*, even *subsist* on pretty much anything.
Doing a long-term bout of subsistence survival is *bad* for you.. And the only way modern Vegans and Veggies get away with it is because they *CHEAT*…
Like gorillas, omnivores, like pigs and dogs – occasionally – indulge in coprophagy to rectify nutritional deficiencies. The hindgut-fermenting digestion (caecotrophy) of lagomorphs bears no resemblance to the occasional coprophagy of gorillas, dogs, pigs, etc, because, unlike occasional coprophagy, it’s a specific digestive adaptation.
You have still not justified your claim that gorillas are “fussy eaters”. They aren’t: a diet of different plant materials and insects (plus poo occasionally) is quite varied.
Gorillas and pandas may well be evolutionary dead ends, but we won’t know that until they are extinct.
Moreover, to repeat, many herbivorous species are very energetic – eg horses, deer, birds, elephants, hippos, etc. And I mentioned my wife as a jocular aside…a j-o-k-e, which you took as a cue for a rant.
While I’m no vegetarian, your claim that vegans/vegetarians “cheat” biology is absurd. We humans who have progressed beyond hunter-gathering “cheat” biology all the time – with agriculture, medicine, space travel, aeroplanes, industrialisation…ie civilisation. Science and culture enable us to transcend biology to a remarkable degree. The supplements that vegans or vegetarians take are just one more way in which humans can transcend biology…
Lots of our extended family members have *far* larger gear…
So in your extended family you compare members?
Yes… It’s important to know who’s the biggest dick…
What about pissing contests?
Here’s a controversial suggestion.
Humans learned how to cook, and soften food. As a consequence our jaw size and bite strength have both declined relative to ancient hominids and most other primates.
Now the controversial bit. It’s long been my view that East Asians, and then South Asians, are the most refined and evolved of humans. The Japanese are not noted for big tits, hips or dicks. Those are found, er, elsewhere.
As a consequence our jaw size and bite strength have both declined relative to ancient hominids and most other primates.
Speak for yourself, Sapiens.
Nah, Steve…. we learned to *hunt* … and switched to a mainly-meat diet..
Researching ancient turds is fun…
Turns out the “Paleo-Diet”, as evidenced by the oldest Sapiens coprolites found is….
80%+ meat….
And you don’t need massive chompers to eat meat. Not when you have pointy sticks, and normal sticks with sharp pointy bits attached you can throw..
And can use slings ( far more deadly than people realise…) … And traps. And the stamina, speed, and tenacity to exhaust your prey..
It’s hunting PLUS cooking. Cooking meat means the human gut can digest something like 20 times more than raw meat, making it a much more efficient food source.
In Questions We Can Answer: “It doesn’t work that way.”
The most “refined” and “evolved”, by far, are sub-Saharan Africans. They *stayed* and have had roughly …100k-200k-ish years more time to adapt to their local environment, while starting from more “basic” stock.
And it shows in their genetics.
By contrast, us Caucasians are *roughly* only 20k-ish years “old” and are *most likely* central-asian in origin, after which we booted out the blokes who outcompeted the Neanderthals in what we now tend to see as the first East -> West Mass Migration.
If anything, the Asian phenotype for skin colour is actually closer to our Ancestors than the dark African type. *They* adapted to the African environment and got darker, we bleached up.
So in that sense Asians are *less* “evolved” than us.
And all of the changes are in a couple “libraries” of genes that adapts our exterior.. And are relatively volatile.. They do the Paint Job. They do not do anything under the hood.. Which is why all “races” of Humanity, and even our cousins the Neanderthals and Denisovans could interbreed. And still do…
As for the japanese… They’re in the fist stages of Islander Syndrome… Large numbers of generations on limited space with limited resources and lots of famine and wars…Followed by a couple of centuries of prescribed Communism ( no other choice to call the Shogunate era that…) and clannish inbreeding induces Dwarfism..
So in a sense…. yeah… they’re Highly Evolved, in that they’ve strongly adapted to their environment. But it’s just a couple of knobs that have been dialled down, nothing’s changed about the hardware itself.
If that’s a *good* thing… remains to be seen. Specialists always get outcompeted by Generalists when the Midden hits the Windmill and specific environments..Change.
Then again,,, the particular change the Japs are going through is very easily reversed when Space/Resources stop being an issue within a couple of generations.
Race is not a social construct: societies are racial constructs. And whitey gave the world (the concept of) the individual, science, industrialisation and much more – in a single word, dynamism – while the orientals stagnated for centuries in collectivism and the sub-Saharans were (and still are) mired in tribalism.
As for your claim that ‘The most “refined” and “evolved”, by far, are sub-Saharan Africans‘, sustained evolutionary adaptation is not the same as being more evolved: it just means that their environment was stable and no random mutations provided a better fit to their environment – ie they evolved little or not at all. Moreover, with their low average intelligence, tribalism and lack of cultural capital, sub-Saharans are strikingly maladapted to the modern world.
In the more challenging environment of Europe, hominids rapidly evolved physically but also culturally and technologically. Cultural and technological evolution has reduced the impact of natural selection and random mutation, while also providing (so far) survival value.
Theo.. You’re confusing genetics with culture.
For someone who’s a stickler for dictionary definitions, I’d think you should know better…
Besides.. for all their culture, the Romans were *just* as agressive, tribal, and genocidal as the current Somalis.. Far more so, even..
They just built fancier huts and did prettier parades.
But it seems their propaganda has stuck with you…
Genetics influence, even determine, animal behaviour. Species, sub-species and breeds all have identifiable behaviours. And genetics influence, even in some ways determine, human cultures; so human societies are, at least in part, racial constructs. Moreover, human cultures ‘select’ for genetic traits. In violent societies, a genetic predisposition to extreme violence will have survival value and attract females in need of protection.
And you manage to miss the point of the meme, which is that even 2000 years ago the West was more civilised than Somalia is today. Sure, the Romans were barbarous in many ways; but they had a developed legal system, constructed remarkable buildings, wrote great poetry, were extraordinary engineers, good administrators and disciplined soldiers…2000 years later, Somalia is a shithole, while the West has built on the legacy of Rome.
“. . .the penis has a distinct function in pleasuring the female . . .”
Not according to my better half.
And not according to Stephen Jay Gould, either – see his essay “Male Nipples and Clitoral Ripples” collected in “Bully for Brontosaurus”.
I have the cure for excessive priapism
I don’t remember there being a Teletubby in a black outfit.
Suicide vest instead of a telly on their middle.
Here’s another…
That doesn’t follow. The primary function of any penis is to transfer sperm. That human ones have other functions doesn’t alter the primary function.
Yet it’s odd that the female’s primary source of sexual pleasure is somewhere other than where the penis (and the male) wants to be. It’s a funny old world.
‘female’s primary source of sexual pleasure’
Do you mean Selfridges, or Harrods?
chocolate…….
“A chicken is an egg’s way of making another egg” is a very old cliché, because it’s true. The pleasure is how the genes bribe men and women to pass on said genes, via sperm transfer and ovulation. Uniquely, women have an organ whose only function is to supply sexual pleasure (yes, yes, assuming the man can find it.*) It’s the genes’ way of encouraging them ignore the risks of childbirth.
*Lesbians should complain about being omitted from this to their MPs, not me.