Men, Who Needs Them?

[Amanda Sandoval]

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/25/opinion/men-who-needs-them.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Main Idea: Women aren’t just becoming men’s equals. It’s increasingly
clear that “mankind” itself is a gross misnomer: an uninterrupted,
intimate and essential maternal connection defines our species.
Main Idea in my own words: We technically don't need men because all
women need is sperm and they can go out and buy that. Without women,
the world would become extinct. Are men's physical bodies necessary in
the reproduction process? But without men, we would all be a lot more
bored.

I agree to a point with the author, Hampikian. I just want to say that
i think this article is hilarious, however does make a good point.
While women are the ones who we need to reproduce, men are replaceable
by just their sperm. Technically, we don't need the physical male body
to have a baby, all we need is "the infinitesimally small packet of
DNA," that is "less than one-millionth of your mass." from them. A
mother is the one who carries, feeds, protects, and keeps the baby
alive for the first 9 months before they are born. After, "As a
parting gift, she swathed you in billions of bacteria from her birth
canal and groin that continue to protect your skin, digestive system
and general health. In contrast, your father’s 3.3 picograms of DNA
comes out to less than one pound of male contribution since the
beginning of Homo sapiens 107 billion babies ago." When explained this
way, it makes the man seem very in-masculine and irrelevant to the
human species. It is our mums who we need the most for the first
several years of our life. However i do think a father is important in
the mix. Parenting is something a mum and dad do together, even if
they are split up or divorced. They will still consult each other to a
degree. I don't think it is fair to say the father/male is completely
unimportant but logically, they aren't. The author makes a point of
saying that birth is a type of detachment or separating, it is
actually a new attachment to the female. Hampikian goes as far to make
his point by including cloning. There is enough male sperm to keep the
planet going for a while longer and once cloning come into play, if
need be necessary, we could always clone the sperm. Probably a lot
less expensive than cloning the actual man. "If all the men on earth
died tonight, the species could continue on frozen sperm. If the women
disappear, it’s extinction."

Funny Quotes:
"Your life as an egg actually started in your mother’s developing
ovary, before she was born; you were wrapped in your mother’s fetal
body as it developed within your grandmother."

"Then, at some point, your father spent a few minutes close by, but then left."

"Over the next nine months, you stole minerals from your mother’s
bones and oxygen from her blood, and you received all your nutrition,
energy and immune protection from her." (thief)

"The only technology the self-impregnating woman needs is a straw or
turkey baster, and the basic technique hasn’t changed much since
Talmudic scholars debated the religious implications of insemination
without sex in the fifth century."

"Meanwhile women live longer, are healthier and are far less likely to
commit a violent offense."

"When I explained this to a female colleague and asked her if she
thought that there was yet anything irreplaceable about men, she
answered, “They’re entertaining.” Gentlemen, let’s hope that’s
enough."