urth Digest, Vol 26, Issue 23

It may be off topic, but I'm really enjoying the misogyny discussion. Adam Thornton is exactly right when he points out "Chivalry is biology". This ethic may have made sense when we needed to increase the number of villagers or be eaten by wolves, but with 6.5 billion people in the world and a human-induced mass extinction being the current situation, maximizing our numbers is no longer a desirable outcome. I'd also like to agree with Hmph when she says:

Oh, yes. Absolutely. I've met men who love children and women who genuinely can't stand the little bastards. Theodore Sturgeon wrote a book called "Venus Plus X" which touches on this theme. I think the any differences that may exist are amplified by people's desire to see themselves as part of groups with defined roles and behaviors, rather than just another dumb human. Aside from childbirth and castration most behaviors can be found somewhere in both men and women. Thank you all for some very interesting discussions. "The more I know people, the more I like animals". Anyone know who said that? Muskrat

Nonetheless, to the extent that "women and children first" is an evolved behavioral tendency ... and I have some anecdotal evidence (from, among other things, the '89 Loma Prieta 'quake) that suggests to me that it really is ... the fact that we're overpopulated isn't going to change that. Each successful gene in the genome has been selected over billions of years to maximize its own replication. Fortunately, as brilliant biologist and idiot philosopher Richard Dawkins has pointed out, we are emphatically not the slaves of our genes. We prove that every time we use any form of birth control (including voluntary abstinence).

It was "The more I know of men, the more I like my cat." Voltaire.