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Why do males exist


How many of you have asked themselves this question?
This is the question of the book by that title. He doesn’t answer the question fully but there is reason to believe that it is possible for life to propagate without the males.

About makagutu

As Onyango Makagutu I am Kenyan, as far as I am a man, I am a citizen of the world

99 thoughts on “Why do males exist”

  1. john zande says:
    November 6, 2015 at 15:28

    Who else is going to eat all the sandwiches?

    Liked by 3 people

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  2. inspiredbythedivine1 says:
    November 6, 2015 at 15:30

    They exist to dribble pee on and around the toilet while going to the bathroom.

    Liked by 4 people

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  3. Hariod Brawn says:
    November 6, 2015 at 15:45

    Because parthenogenesis is no fun.

    Liked by 2 people

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  4. clubschadenfreude says:
    November 6, 2015 at 15:49

    to lift heavy things. or that’s what the idiot women in my office think. sad that they can’t lift 30 pounds….

    Liked by 2 people

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  5. archaeopteryx1 says:
    November 6, 2015 at 17:05

    To give women something to complain about.

    Liked by 1 person

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  6. N℮üґ☼N☮☂℮ṧ says:
    November 6, 2015 at 17:37

    http://www.iflscience.com/environment/why-do-men-exist

    Liked by 2 people

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  7. roughseasinthemed says:
    November 6, 2015 at 17:50

    My first answer is probably unprintable.

    My second is that they are fun to tease 🙂

    Liked by 3 people

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  8. orwell1627 says:
    November 6, 2015 at 18:35

    Hahah this post is particularly relevant to me at the moment. I think that I have a raging feminist on my hands in the comments section of my latest post about William James’ essay, The Moral Equivalent of War.

    My answer – males exist to go to the shopping mart, fill up the cart, and fart.

    Liked by 3 people

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  9. fojap says:
    November 6, 2015 at 20:18

    Ummm… ’cause we like ’em. 😉

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  10. Mystro says:
    November 6, 2015 at 20:45

    I guess it depends on what you’re comparing it to. If you’re asking why we aren’t all hermaphroditic, I think it has to do with resources. Carrying two kinds of sex-cell generators is a lot more resource heavy than only carrying one. Delegation and specialization. It’s why assembly lines are more efficient than each person doing the entire job on their own. If you’re in a species where meeting up is rare, however, the extra demand of being hermaphroditic is well worth the security of ensuring a mating, whoever you happen to run into.

    If you’re asking why we aren’t all asexual, I think it has to do with variation. Asexual things are usually quite small and reproduce exponentially in short order, so the very slow spread of variation in cloning isn’t a big deal. When something bad happens, there are billions upon billions of them – their numbers ensure their survival of catastrophe. When you reproduce much slower, as us multicellular beings tend to do, we don’t have those numbers, so we need to get our variation up much faster. Having males and females allows for gene mixing and far greater variation between generations. This greater diversification allows our populations to survive catastrophes that asexual organisms survive by sheer numbers.

    If you’re asking why we don’t kill off all the human males, have sperm developed in labs to ensure only genetically enhanced females are born from here on out, I can’t think of one good reason why we’re not doing that. I just have the selfish reason that I don’t want to be exterminated.

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    • makagutu says:
      November 7, 2015 at 07:57

      It’s not just human males, all males. At least among humans, most males participate in rearing offspring. In most animal species, they just donate sperm.

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      • archaeopteryx1 says:
        November 7, 2015 at 13:46

        Among Betas – Siamese Fighting Fish – the male does a flashy dance (think Travolta in ‘Saturday Night Fever‘) for the female, and once she succumbs to his charms, he wraps his body around hers and squeezes until some eggs pop out, at which time, he squirts a cloud of sperm into the falling eggs, fertilizing them. The act of squeezing temporarily paralyzes her, otherwise she would eat the eggs.

        She drifts down until paralysis wears off, while he swoops down, catches the eggs in his mouth, then blows them each into a separate bubble that then floats in a nest of such bubbles on the surface of the water. They repeats the performance until she is empty of eggs, at which time, she should find another place to be, otherwise, he will kill her.

        At this point, he remains, without eating, for however many days it takes for the eggs to hatch. As each bubble pops, he swoops once again, catches the egg carefully in his mouth, and again, blows it, encased in a fresh bubble, back into the nest of bubbles he has created at the water’s surface.

        Once the eggs hatch, he performs the same act for the young fry, until they are mature enough and strong enough to swim on their own. No deadbeat dads in the Beta family!

        It’s important that the baby Betas remain near the surface, as Betas are known as labyrinth fish – they have evolved an intricate maze of vessels in their heads that allow them to take in air directly from the surface and hold it in that labyrinth, extracting oxygen from it, until they require another breath, and the fry, until they are old enough, haven’t the strength to swim to the top for another breath, and can drown without his care. Although they do have gills, they are not sufficiently efficient enough to provide the fish’s entire oxygen needs.

        It was likely a similar type of fish that first came onto the land – possibly originally caught in tide pools – to ultimately evolve into reptiles.

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  11. KIA says:
    November 7, 2015 at 01:11

    So, the question may be malformed. Are you asking why there are two genders and why sexual reproduction originated? That would be a great question and post for someone in my opinion… but then again, I’m a guy.

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  12. shelldigger says:
    November 7, 2015 at 01:58

    We exist to open tough jars. Work on cars. Get things from the high shelves. And to generally annoy the women. 🙂

    I have no idea why, but this old joke popped into my head, and you will have to suffer through it.

    A Frenchman, an Italian, and a redneck were talking at a bar. The Italian guy remarked that he was such an amazing lover, that when he was done his woman was floating 3 inches above the bed. The Frenchman remarked that indeed he was the better lover, when he was done the lucky gal was floating six inches off the bed. The redneck replied, ‘heck when I’m done she is all the way to the ceiling”

    The other guys were awed with the rednecks powers and asked how did he accomplish such a feat? The redneck replied “when I’m done I walk over and wipe my pecker on the curtains!”

    Liked by 2 people

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    • makagutu says:
      November 7, 2015 at 07:48

      How are you my friend?
      I think you should have started with to generally annoy women

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      • shelldigger says:
        November 7, 2015 at 15:30

        I’ve been good Mak. Just busy as hell. The leaves, the fucking leaves! I have PTLD (post traumatic leaf disorder) Spent 3 days cleaning up the yard, then a storm system moved through and you can’t tell I did a damn thing.

        Plus had to put a fuel pump in the car. Sister in law had a caliper lock up to the point it was red hot and almost a fire, had to do an emergency front end brake job… too busy to enjoy my blog time much, but I am trying.

        Yeah, I fear us men have been rendered nearly obsolete. About the best we can hope for is an ounce of sympathy once in a while…

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        • makagutu says:
          November 8, 2015 at 15:38

          Those leaves, if they were animate, I would have said they hate you. That sounds like too much work for nothing.
          I wish I could be able to change things to my car at whim. I think I would have a field day whenever there is money to spare.
          I have been well. Busy with work and catching up with books.
          Have a pleasant week friend

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          • shelldigger says:
            November 8, 2015 at 19:56

            Well it seems for nothing, yes. But the good news is Im down to one, maybe two more yard cleanups for the season. I can’t wait to be done with this chore. It is my nemesis.

            Nice to know you have been well, and not having to work on the car 🙂 I wish I had time for books…

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            • makagutu says:
              November 8, 2015 at 21:05

              30 to 40 minutes a day is enough to dedicate to books. You can get it during long commute, a lunch break or just before falling asleep if you are not tired as a work horse by then

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    • roughseasinthemed says:
      November 7, 2015 at 13:07

      Tis indeed an old joke 😀

      However, 1) tough jars can be opened by banging heavily on the lid. 2) men working on cars need the brains to read the manual. 3) tall women reach the shelves on their own 🙂

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  13. nannus says:
    November 7, 2015 at 20:00

    Indeed some species reproduce without males. However, sexual reproduction makes it possible to evolve faster. If several individuals of a population contain partial solutions to an evolutionary challenge, these can be recombined into a single individual by sexual reproduction. Without sex, all the innovations that are required have to be made in a single line of development. As a result, sexually reproducing species should normally win the race for new ecological niches or have a higher success rate to cope with changes in the environment.
    You may think of evolution in sexually reproducing species as co-evolution of different genes that filter each other. This should be much faster than non-sexual reproduction.
    Once sexual reproduction is there, one possible strategy is to mate with very many partners and let them take care of the offspring. This possibility leads to a differentiation into several sexes.

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    • makagutu says:
      November 8, 2015 at 15:45

      In some bacteria that produce asexually, they resort to a kind of sexual reproduction when there is stress in their habitat.

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      • inspiredbythedivine1 says:
        November 8, 2015 at 15:54

        That’s the exact opposite of sex when married. Stress in the habitat = no sex at all.

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      • nannus says:
        November 8, 2015 at 18:03

        Exactly, maybe bacterium a has a partial solution and bacterium b has a partial solution. So exchanging some genetic information is worth a try. Its like people talking to each other, instead of trying to solve every problem alone. Innovations of different lineages can come together. Organisms that do it have a chance to adapt faster, follow the change in the environment or get at a new niche first.
        When there are a lot of resources, asexual reproduction might temporarily better, so some species (like these bacteria you mentioned) combine both methods. For example, some kinds of aphids reproduce asexually during the main season because that way they can produce a lot of ofspring quickly. Towards the end of the season, before winter or the dry season, they reproduce sexually and then produce special eggs that survive until next year. However, for such a strategy, you need small individuals.

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