Aswad
Posts: 9374
Joined: 4/4/2007 Status: offline
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First adressing the testosterone bits here... Yes, there has been a drop. No, that is not directly related to equality (my preference) or feminism. Period. However, it may very well be an indirect consequence. Women adapt their testosterone levels from generation to generation, amounting to a non-genetic inheritance (PM me rather than criticizing this point; this is already slightly off topic) based on their status in society, and as they are the only ones able to give birth, this provides a hardwired and gradual "flipswitch" between patriarchy and matriarchy. Basically, the same things that would cause a female baby to be born with raised testosterone levels would cause a male baby to be born with lowered testosterone levels, although they'll most likely catch up come puberty. However, I find it a lot more likely that there are environmental factors dominating this equation. Consider the increasing use of medications that lower dopamine levels and thus testosterone, increasing prevalence of sleep disorders, increasingly poor dietary habits, a sedentiary lifestyle, etc... Then on to the relevance to "domliness" ... Being biologically wired for dominance is related to the development of your 5HT neurons, not testosterone. Yes, more testosterone will generally increase aggressive behaviour. It will also raise your libido. And it will help you gain and sustain muscle mass. These things are not relevant to biological dominance, although they bolster confidence in those who lack confidence in other aspects of themselves. I'm not going to turn this into a 101 on neurobiology and psychiatry, so if you need the details, PM me with a "level of detail" preference. Instead, I'll ask you to take this at face value, coming from a Dominant that has experienced an iatrogenic drop in testosterone by a full order of magnitude for two years. That is, due do doctor error, my levels dropped from above average relative to my young age, down to something that would be an abnormal finding in a 70 year old, and vaguely appropriate for feminine women. Consequence? Loss of mass, feminization of fat distribution, loss of libido with ED, and a loss of agression. Dominance traits were unaffected by this. Executive summary for men: testosterone is no more the source of your dominant nature than your penis is.
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