site banner

Small-Scale Question Sunday for February 26, 2023

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

1
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

The guy in the tiktok was arguing that an increasing number of males today are not physiologically male because they haven't been stressed enough.

I thought the same thing. If stress turned you more male, I would be the most masculine male to exist, I have had multiple career-ending instances with prolonged stressors in the last few years. Along the lines of getting kicked out of the country I'm an immigrant in, kicked out of university, family breaking apart, disease stress, etc.

Ironically abnormally high amounts of stress would make you less "male" because cortisol is a testosterone antagonist.

Just another instance of TikTok scientists doing TikTok science.

Perhaps only certain kinds of stress count, as in getting physically threatened, beat up, etc... And perhaps only at a young age as well.

Spending time worrying at night certainly doesn't code as masculine.

Isn't there some research that kids in bad areas go through puberty more quickly?

There is, but I don't think it adjusts for race- generally kids with more subsaharan african ancestry hit puberty earlier, and in America they tend to live in worse neighborhoods.

Environmental factors that cause early puberty are mostly sexual abuse and nutrition.