Brace yourselves

[pasithea]

I'm sure there will be widespread panic in the heterosexual community over this:

http://children.webmd.com/news/20091116/phthalates-affect-way-young-boys-play

They'll probably try to do away with plastic toys for kids and return them to the days where kids play with sharp jagged bits of metal (as it should be)


Oh... Also... 145 is a pretty statistically small number for such an arbitrary behavior set. Seriously, 'play with trucks' is a marker of masculinity? That would imply that until the last part of the 19th century, all men were too 'feminine' right?


Also, I can't help but think that 'don't play like boys' means that they're less assholish. OMG MY CHILD ISN'T BURNING ANTS WITH A MAGNIFYING GLASS! WHAT'S WRONG WITH HIM!?!?!?!?

Comments

[tracerj.livejournal.com]

A study finds that male children born to women deprived of phthalates during pregnancy were more likely to engage in aggressive, low-empathy behaviour....

[ff00ff.livejournal.com]

How are boys going to learn about the important duties of males in life, like rape and war and violent crime if they don't practice it in play as children? This is outrageous! Corporal punishment all around.

[ladyperegrine.livejournal.com]

I obviously did not get enough of these during pregnancy.

[circuit-four.livejournal.com]

Heh, well now Dr. Fear knows what to put in the water supply... ;)

[yetanotherbob.livejournal.com]

Wait, what? There's a heterosexual community?

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

This is far from the first study linking pthalates to feminization of boys. I do sometimes suspect that the huge amount of plastic in my life was a contributing factor in my gender issues.

[paka.livejournal.com]

You know... actual urogenital deformity or actual change in androgen levels would be an indicator that pthalates have an effect. But how exactly is "plays like boys" supposed to be quantifiable?

I'm sure pthalates do have an effect, but testing it on that is so subjective that I can only imagine this dude is riding the trendy research topic train.

[circuit-four.livejournal.com]

Also, if anything, this will cause panic in a small group of religious and environmental fanatics -- two groups with surprising overlap, the same people who insist that sodium lauryl sulfate causes leprosy. The "heterosexual community" is a bit of a silly term, like referring to the "sworn universal brotherhood of potato-chip eaters." Which is not to say there is not hidden ideology and politics behind potato chips... but I don't think you're gonna find signs of collective will there unless you're really determined to find it. And honestly... that's how people end up in a "small group of $CAUSE and $CAUSE2 fanatics" in the first place. *whimper* Just be careful, okay?