“Switching Sexes: The Aftermath”

Thanks to Stephanie, who left a comment on another post about Switching Sexes: The Aftermath, a documentary that aired last night on the Discovery Health channel. From the Discovery Health website, here’s the synopsis:

For people who find that their mind’s identity and physical sex are mismatched, sexual reassignment surgery is a viable solution. Follow two transsexual men as they struggle through the heartache and sacrifice of becoming female.

The show airs again on Saturday at 5:00 p.m. If you tune in, let us know your reactions by leaving a comment here.

The oldest profession: older then we thought

Last week’s film about sex and evolution raised questions about the similarities and differences between money, ape, and human sexuality. The issue has been in the news of late, too. According to news reports, a recent study suggests that male macaques pay for sex with grooming:

Selling sex is said to be humankind’s oldest profession but it may have deep evolutionary roots, according to a study into our primate cousins which found that male macaques pay for intercourse by using grooming as a currency.

Michael Gumert of Nanyang Technological University in Singapore made the discovery in a 20-month investigation into 50 long-tailed macaques in Kalimantan Tengah, Indonesia, New Scientist reports on Saturday.

On average, females had sex 1.5 times per hour.

But this rate jumped to 3.5 times per hour immediately after the female had been groomed by a male — and her partner of choice was likely to be the hunky monkey that did the grooming.

The report also suggests that the cost of obtaining sex varied with supply and demand. If females were abundant, males could woo a potential mate with just eight minutes of grooming. But if no other females were in the area, the male would have to spend twice as long grooming.

This example highlights one of the points of last week’s film—the importance of competition for mates in the evolutionary process. For more, see excerpts of the film on sexual selection in peacocks, polyandry in jacanas, and sex and social organization among chimps and bonobos.

Political context of sexuality research

Because of computer woes in class today, I wasn’t able to show you the political attack ad from Paul Nelson’s 2006 bid to unseat U.S. Representative Ron Kind from the Third Congressional District in Wisconsin. Thanks to YouTube, here it is:

Ads like this one were run in several other congressional races in 2006. For more on what’s misleading about such ads, go to factcheck.org. These ads are a testament to the political forces that oppose contemporary sexuality research in the United States, a topic addressed in Chapter 2 of your textbook.

And while you’re at YouTube, check out one person’s view of what Thomas Jefferson’s re-election campaign would have looked like if sexuality were a political issue in 1804.

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