October 26, 2005

Evolutionary psychologists locate "humour gene"

Surprisingly (or not), it turns out to be located on the Y chromosome. One wouldn't think the tiny Y would code for all those sex-linked traits EPers keep finding on it -- aggression and competition, sense of humour, mathematical ability, physical prowress, hairy, etc. -- but these remarkable geneticists keep doing it!

Oh, wait. They didn't actually locate a gene. They just saw that women like men who make with the funny, while men like women who laugh at everything that comes out of their mouth like fucking trained seals, and spun some bullshit essentialism out of it.

Geoffrey Miller, an evolutionary psychologist at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque and author of The Mating Mind: How Sexual Choice Shaped the Evolution of Human Nature, argues that the humor divide is best understood as a result of sexual selection: Women are the choosier sex, and because they prefer funny men—a signal of cognitive fitness—men learned to deploy humor and wit to attract a mate and perhaps to outsmart other men.

No, that's not underdetermined by the evidence at all! You are a fine biologist, and not a hack who just makes shit up, Dr. Geoffrey Miller! Never mind feminist theories of gender socialization that have been around for about forty years now, or the existence of Janeane Garofolo, Wanda Sikes, and other incredibly successful female comedians; the power of your masculine mind has perceived Truth directly, in the real spirit of science!

1 comment:

MosBen said...

If only I could find a really sexy hot seal that would clap at me all day...