Friday, January 28, 2011

Men and Masculinity in the News - Random Articles

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I need to clear a few tabs so that Firefox will crash less often, so here are a few things I have come across that I have not had a chance to blog about. Follow the title links to see the whole article.

This first one is interesting to me - it says a lot about our culture accepts bisexuality in women, but not in men. It also suggests that there is an assumption that if a man cheats with another man, then he most likely is gay, so best to kick him to the curb.

Men more likely to stick with girlfriends who sleep with other women than other men

AUSTIN, Texas—Men are more than twice as likely to continue dating a girlfriend who has cheated on them with another woman than one who has cheated with another man, according to new research from a University of Texas at Austin psychologist.

Women show the opposite pattern. They are more likely to continue dating a man who has had a heterosexual affair than one who has had a homosexual affair.

The study, published last month in the journal Personality and Individual Differences, provides new insight into the psychological adaptations behind men's desire for a variety of partners and women's desire for a committed partner. These drives have played a key role in the evolution of human mating psychology.

"A robust jealousy mechanism is activated in men and women by different types of cues — those that threaten paternity in men and those that threaten abandonment in women," says Jaime C. Confer, the study's lead author and a doctoral candidate in evolutionary psychology.

Confer conducted the study with her father, Mark D. Cloud, a psychology professor at Lock Haven University in Pennsylvania.

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Men With Macho Faces Attractive to Fertile Women, Researchers Find

ScienceDaily (Jan. 12, 2011) — When their romantic partners are not quintessentially masculine, women in their fertile phase are more likely to fantasize about masculine-looking men than are women paired with George Clooney types.

But women with masculine-looking partners do not necessarily become more attracted to their partners, a recent study co-authored by a University of Colorado at Boulder researcher concludes.

Meanwhile, a man's intelligence has no effect on the extent to which fertile, female partners fantasize about others, the researchers found. They say the lack of an observed "fertility effect" related to intelligence is puzzling.

The findings augment the emerging understanding of how human sexual selection evolved over time, and how the vestiges of that evolution are evident today.

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Antioxidants may improve male fertility

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Couples who struggle to conceive could find baby-making help from antioxidants such as vitamin E and zinc, hints a new review of more than 30 studies.

The researchers focused on men who were subfertile -- less fertile than average but still capable of making a baby -- and found that those who took antioxidants were more than four times as likely to get their partners pregnant than subfertile men who did not take the supplements.

The New Zealand team stops short of saying that antioxidants actually improve fertility, however. More research is needed to be sure.

Subfertility affects one in 20 men and is responsible for half of delayed conceptions. Up to 80 percent of cases are thought to be due to the effects of oxidative stress on sperm cells, lowering both their numbers and their quality.

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Extra calcium, vitamin D no bone booster for men

(Reuters Health) - Taking extra vitamin D and calcium doesn't seem to prevent bone-thinning in older men, according to Australian researchers.

However, exercise did boost bone mineral density, a proxy for bone strength, their report shows.

Despite the findings, people still need to get enough calcium and vitamin D to reduce the risk of osteoporosis, or bone thinning, said Dr. Mone Zaidi, an osteoporosis researcher at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, who was not involved in the study.

"It's like the four legs of the stool: vitamin D and calcium, exercise, medications if a person is losing bone, and the fourth leg is telling people how to prevent fractures," Zaidi said.


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