Ronald Bailey | June 16, 2009
That's the tag line for the new film,
"The Baby Formula."
In the movie, two lesbians get pregnant using sperm derived from
each other's stem cells. Men become reproductively superfluous.
This scenario in which stem cells are transformed into sperm is not
too far fetched since it has already been done in
mice. Eventually possible? Maybe. Controversial? You bet. Makes
designer
babies look tame.
As a CNEWS article about the film notes:
Still, the mere idea of lesbian couples (or gay men using a surrogate mother) having a baby with their own genetic material is sure to horrify some people.
As the religious mother of one of the women in “The Baby Formula” says: “Who do you think you are, God? ... You’re stealing the Immaculate Conception from Jesus.”
Yet Caulfield wonders if safety issues could someday be overcome, “is there anything inherently wrong with allowing a lesbian couple to give birth. I don’t know that there is.”
“I think we have to move beyond the sort of yuck response,” he says. “When we start regulating and curtailing technologies and setting up barriers, I do think we need to do it on a principle basis.”
It wasn’t that long ago that sperm donation and test-tube babies were thought disgusting by some, he says. Now they’re accepted practice.
“I think the yuck response is a good reason for caution and a good reason for reflection, but it’s not a justification for prohibition.”
“We do evolve. There is social accommodation that occurs and I think with a lot of these new technologies, that’s also going to be the case.”
I'm betting on social accommodation.
Whole CNEWS article here.
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As the religious mother of one of the women in "The Baby
Formula" says: "Who do you think you are, God? ... You're stealing
the Immaculate Conception from Jesus."
I'm an atheist and I know more about this bimbo's religion than she
does, apparently. "Immaculate conception" means the belief that
Mary was born sans original sin; it has NOTHING to do with the
alleged virgin birth.
"I think we have to move beyond the sort of yuck
response."
Whaddaya mean we, White Man?
These frees up the lesbians from having to get their gay male friend to donate some sperm, so it means they're taking jobs from minorities, so Obama must ban this immediately.
How silly women are! Men, of course, will win this battle of the sexes by putting their brains in robot bodies.
As long as they pay for it themselves (from conception on),
I got no problem.
When men are illegal and the lesbian death squads of the Womyns'
World Government have me cornered, i'm using my next-to-last bullet
on you, RC.
Uhh, Jennifer, the "bimbo" you mention is actually a fictional
character in the movie, which is a mockumentary.
So the outrage over her ignorance isn't really necessary.
So after the baby is born, what man would they sue for child support?
Too bad dudes can't gestate*, because this could solve the sex
imbalance problem in China. All those extra dudes could hook up
[not necessarily in a homosexual way, NTTAWTT] and grow some baby
girls (or boys, for that matter).
* You know, like in that Schwarzenegger move. Kindergarten Cop.
Right?
When men are illegal and the lesbian death squads of the
Womyns' World Government
Now that's how I want to go... as long as they're hot, that is.
"When men are illegal..."
That'll never happen. They still need us to kill bugs, fix cars,
and to dominate them mentally, emotionally, and in some cases,
physically because they all crave it so...
Hehehehehe
You can quote me on Feministing SF.
Okay, so men are now - or will soon be - obsolete.
But how will this effect the Turkey Baster industry?
"Okay, so men are now - or will soon be - obsolete."
Not as long as there's oil needs changing.
Eventually possible? Maybe. Controversial? You bet. Makes
designer babies look tame.
Why is this somehow more controversial than making designer
babies?
I mean other than getting sperm from a non-traditional source,
there is no playing god going nor are these women selecting
specific characteristics?
Maybe it "makes designer babies look tame" to male reviewers who
are more alarmed/scared by the idea of becoming obsolete re
reprodution??
see also: Y - The Last Man
Marc - I can't remember the title, but I'm certain that wasn't in
Kindergarten Cop
"Boys have a penis, girls have a vagina."
Well, at least chicks still need us to lift heavy things, kill
spiders, and to open pickle jars.
But once they invent machines for that, we are sleeping in the
garage for the rest of our existence.
Uhh, Jennifer, the "bimbo" you mention is actually a
fictional character in the movie, which is a mockumentary. So the
outrage over her ignorance isn't really necessary.
Preemptive outrage. I'm a citizen of post-Bush America.
"Men become reproductively superfluous."
No one ever thinks to ask how MEN will react to this when it
becomes fact. Some think that things will continue as normal, save
that lesbians would be allowed to breed sans Y chromosome-carriers.
Others envision a "end of men" scenario in which men are slowly
bred and even hunted into extinction and only a world of women
remains.
I think both of these scenarios forget to ask the question, "What
will MEN do about this?" and just assume we'll sit back and watch
our own potential demise.
Scenario one appears to present no threat to men; however the
tendency of many in the gay community to show their humanity and
become just as bigotted to "breeders" as the reverse had been might
indicate that there would be an overwhelming tendency for male
fetuses to be aborted. Think India in reverse.
Thus option one segues into option two and we're bred out of
existence: because there may start to also be a trend to abort
heterosexual FEMALES, there would see a rise of a strictly female
breeding population.
HOWEVER, in contrast to the adolescent fantasy scenario of being
the last man on a world full of hawt women, the fact would be that
we would see TWO distinct populations of homo sapiens form. One
would follow the breeding patterns of the species today, and the
other would be strictly female. The only members in danger of being
bred out of existence are homosexual males who CANNOT breed without
the aid of a female.
Darwin tells us the result of two distinct breeding populations
would be, eventually, speciation. I wonder what a homo lesbiansis
will look like 10M years from now? Will they replace sapiens, live
along side us, or die out with other failed experiments of
nature?
--MANIAC
PS -- I'd still love to be the only man in the valley of the women.
:p
From an earlier
post.
"I would not say this is a dangerous road. It's an uncharted
road."
"see also: Y - The Last Man
Marc - I can't remember the title, but I'm certain that wasn't in
Kindergarten Cop
"Boys have a penis, girls have a vagina."
Great book so far. I've only read the first two tpbs. And that line
was from Kindergarten Cop. It was one of the little bastard
children in his class that said it.
"So after the baby is born, what man would they sue for child
support?"
Obviously, the doctor.
In a few short decades, genetically engineered humanoids we can't even imagine now will be mainstream. Too bad those of us who turn down the "longevity fix" will be outta this vale of tears by then!
PS -- I'd still love to be the only man in the valley of the women. :p
The A-Side to Bill Haley's "Rock Around The Clock": "Thirteen Women (and
Only One Man In Town)".
The fact of the matter is that this is secretly the reason why
there is an asymmetric pornography desire - men enjoy watching
pornography of lesbians; women do not enjoy watching pornography of
gay men. Deep down inside, we all know that eventually men will be
not just unnecessary but extinct.
If you understand disequilibrium from hardy-weinberg criteria, it's
pretty clear that men will not just become superfluous, but be
gone. There won't be two distinct breeding populations, since
clearly the product of two lesbians is not necessarily going to be
lesbian, but probably is statistically more likely to be lesbian.
So the genes will get shuffled around, and men will slowly at
first, exponentially later, be shuffled out, when the hassle of
undertaking the procedure exerts less probabilistic pressure than
the probability of passing lesbian genes on.
I'm certain that wasn't in Kindergarten Cop
I know. It was one of my jokes poised at the very limit of
detectability. You know, like N-rays.
"Too bad those of us who turn down the "longevity fix" will be
outta this vale of tears by then!"
What longevity fix? Isn't senescence a cellular-level function of
the telomeres limiting the number of times a cell can divide?
"I wonder what a homo lesbiansis will look like 10M years from
now? Will they replace sapiens, live along side us, or die out with
other failed experiments of nature?"
I find the last to be the most likely scenario. The male-free
breeding requires some pretty fancy technology. I have a hard time
imagining a period of millions of years, or even thousands of
years, where there is no event which fucks things up enough to make
the necessary technology impossible. Old fashioned breeding isn't
going anywhere because all you need is two participants. And only
one, strictly speaking (not endorsing anything here), really needs
to be willing.
It seems to me that using sperm derived from your own stem cells would likely have the same genetic problems as say getting pregnant by your brother? This idea seems fairly retarded to me.
Kyle - I know that line was from KC, Marc was referring to which Ah-nold movie had a pregnant dude.
"The fact of the matter is that this is secretly the reason why
there is an asymmetric pornography desire - men enjoy watching
pornography of lesbians; women do not enjoy watching pornography of
gay men. Deep down inside, we all know that eventually men will be
not just unnecessary but extinct.
If you understand disequilibrium from hardy-weinberg criteria, it's
pretty clear that men will not just become superfluous, but be
gone. There won't be two distinct breeding populations, since
clearly the product of two lesbians is not necessarily going to be
lesbian, but probably is statistically more likely to be lesbian.
So the genes will get shuffled around, and men will slowly at
first, exponentially later, be shuffled out, when the hassle of
undertaking the procedure exerts less probabilistic pressure than
the probability of passing lesbian genes on."
Again, assuming your correct (and that straights and breeding
lesbians won't just speciate), this ignores the "what will MEN do?"
question. The male of the species is characterized by
testosterone-fueled tendencies to NOT lie down and take it. Which
means the scarcer they become, the more men will be cranking out
the baby juice into straight females and even the occasional bi or
unwilling lesbian. Which would form an enclave population of
straight breeders which goes back to the speciation argument.
Wade - that idea is as retarded as the offspring of such a fertilization would be :)
"And only one, strictly speaking (not endorsing anything here),
really needs to be willing."
Which is why men are going nowhere.
"Wade - that idea is as retarded as the offspring of such a
fertilization would be :)"
So homo lesbiansis will be a bunch of homely retarded dykes? I'm
imagining Special Ed from "Crank Yankers", but with bewbs.
"I eat carpet, YAAAAAYYY!!"
"This movie is clearly fantasy. No lesbians are that hot."
"I'm a girl, YAAAAAAY"
Yonemoto - I do understand Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium, but it's irrelevant.
Have no fear men. There's still fruity drinks with high alcohol
content, BMWs, and gold diggers.
"I eat carpet, YAAAAAYYY!!"
Priceless.
How fucking cool is that?
genetic modification is the future
once we can control GM every other form of engineering becomes
obsolete
we're just using bones to hit each other on the head right
now
true anarchy is coming
"So after the baby is born, what man would they sue for child
support?"
They will do away with child support and all men being taxed at a
higher rate with the fund being dispersed as a stipend to those
with children.
Junior was the Arnold movie.
I don't quite get the "men will be obsolete" argument. Male and
female populations of homosexuals are approximately equal right?
The highest number I've ever seriously heard was about %10. So that
means about %95 of people are either men or hetero/bisexual women.
Most of them would probably want to keep men around. There would
probably be an increase in the number of lesbians, but not that
huge. A few factors would probably cause a lower birthrate among
lesbians: The chances of accidental pregnancy would be zero. It
would be more expensive and planned in advance.
"Yonemoto - I do understand Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium, but it's
irrelevant."
Agreed. In fact, it's irrelevant even in nature precisely because
the "disturbing influences" which break the equilibrium are
OMNIPRESENT IN NATURE!
And, indeed, the very fact that homo lesbiansis represents by
definition one of the "disturbing influences" (non-natural
breeding), the HW Principal is moot from the starting line.
"There would probably be an increase in the number of lesbians,
but not that huge. "
Disagree. As a breeding population they would, by nature, grow.
Additionally, there's another factor negating your argument:
natural behavior can be disturbed by other factors suchas (drum
roll) politics.
PC or not, there are many in the lesbian community who harbor
outright antipathy to men. As such they would feel encouraged
(obligated even) to breed more lesbian females to bring about
precisely the scenario you seek to avert, i.e. the eradication of
men by a lesbian-only population.
The presence of male homosexuals is irrelevant, as they are a
nonbreeding population without the aid of a female. Homo lesbiansis
would have to conciously keep men in the breeding process (the
OPPOSITE of the hypothetical scenario of this movie) to make them
relevant.
"thanks, I never saw Junior"
Watch it. C'mon... you know you wanna... you wanna see Arnie's big
round preggo belly!
Jordan | June 16, 2009, 4:31pm | #
This movie is clearly fantasy. No lesbians are that hot.
Maybe in your town. I'm afraid there are more than a few good
looking lost causes out there.
I recall a heterosexual female friend once brought up a similar
scenerio, and declared teasingly, that many men are unnecessary. I
told her I wasn't worried, and suggested that she just try to go
through the day without thinking about penises.
Eventually Men will wise up and start using the Gorean
answer:
We Men ARE 'useless'. WOMEN are useful, men use. Women are taken,
Men take. We need them and they need nothing. The Master needs the
slave to be the Master, but the slave needs nothing to submit
to.
How about good old fashioned boinking? There's no substitute for a man's eager thrusting body.
I'm waiting for the inevitable link to Da Pr0N. Bailey must've known where that would lead. :p
Would MANIAC stop posting if we told him his posting was neither
cute nor funny?
Because I'll be the first to say so. Let's get the ball
rolling...
> What longevity fix? Isn't senescence a cellular-level
function of the telomeres limiting the number of times a cell can
divide?
I've been told that telomeres can be, um, messed with, albeit with
increased risk of cancer. However, this science is beyond me. I
*may* turn down the fix that involves offloading my mind to a nice
robot. Still thinking about that one.
Wow, the trolling begins already? You know, not EVERYTHING I've
said has been for comedic value.
@Rich
OK, so we can avoid aging by catching cancer? Isn't that like
alleviating your itching, watery eyes by gouging them out?
Longevity fixes are a myth. We can stretch things out SOME, but in
the end time wins.
Might I suggest more mentions of the phrase "hot lesbians"? The ads on the sidebar are still about in vitro fertilization and surrogate motherhood, not hot lesbians.
Tobias: I'll call the hot cops to provide entertainment on the
Queen Mary. I better have them dress up like hot sailors. Better
yet, hot sea-
Michael (interrupting): I like hot sailors.
Tobias: Mmmmmmmm...me too.
See, MNG? And you thought I was just playing!
Now, can we please talk about speciation? I'm really thinking
that's a neato idea, Special Edwina aside.
Scenario one appears to present no threat to men; however
the tendency of many in the gay community to show their humanity
and become just as bigoted to "breeders" as the reverse had been
might indicate that there would be an overwhelming tendency for
male fetuses to be aborted.
Women carry the XX sex genotype, and do not have a Y chromosome.
Hence, any sperm created from their stem cells would also never
have a Y chromosome, hence there would never be a male produced by
this process, ever, hence no male fetuses to abort.
"Women carry the XX sex genotype, and do not have a Y
chromosome. Hence, any sperm created from their stem cells would
also never have a Y chromosome, hence there would never be a male
produced by this process, ever, hence no male fetuses to
abort."
If Lesbian women do away with males, then we'll have women fighting
wars for the few remaining cocks the bi-fems love so well.
But since they brought it on themselves then I'm fine if millions
of women kill each other because Lesbian culture devalues
males.
I will not shed a tear. Not one.
Men won't be obsolete. Who is going to teach driving, lawn care,
how to fix shit, fight useless wars (then again an all female
strike centered around a collective PMS stint would be
scary).
The US infrastructure couldn't handle an all female population. The
roads, electric lines (hot, no cold, no hot, no cold), the phone
lines, the retail outlets, the online retail outlets, the credit
agencies, the poor little Chinese kids sewing shoes, the concrete
parking barriers, etc...
Worst of all could imagine the bitching? One fucking thing out of order and you now have two people bitching instead of one bitching and one not giving a fuck.
How about the title, "Licks not Dicks"
or, to the tune of Barney, "I munch you, you munch me. We're one
happy family!"
or "Starsky and Hatchet Wound"?
This comment thread stinks of rancid testosterone, loneliness and dried cum flakes.
"When men are illegal and the lesbian death squads of the
Womyns' World Government have me cornered, i'm using my
next-to-last bullet on you, RC."
Whatever. There are going to be at least a few countries that still
have men (bioconservative nations, China, et), who will be happy to
walk all over the mostly-chick nations. It's going to be like the
Morlocks and the Eloi, except with sex instead of cannibalism.
This comment thread stinks of rancid testosterone,
loneliness and dried cum flakes.
I didn't know cum flaked.
Learn something new everyday.
We have nothing to fear, most women can't hit the broad side of a
barn with a howitzer. The few that can are generally annoyed by
those that can't. We dangly genital people will always have a place
on the earth if for nothing else than to kill each other.
If this is allowed to go forward, I predict, within three generations, a race of humans so ugly that they cannot bear to reproduce, thus bringing about the extinction of humans.
Rick H.,
No matter how much you kiss their asses, the lesbians won't want
you, either.
Limited time offer:
Grow your own army and teach those bitches a lesson.
1 Gene sequencer + 16 synthetic wombs + 1 cannister of accelerated
growth hormones + 200 lbs. pulverized human fertilizer (100%
recycled old person). Just add water!
Only $19.95 + S&H (NY residents add 85% tax)
We can't even clone safely, and it's not likely in the near future. On the other hand, I won't be shocked to see a gay gene identified within the next couple decades. My thinking is that once that gay gene is found, we can expect abortions to eliminate a large number of potential homosexuals because of the stigma parents might have. Well before the technology to safely create children with only two women comes about.
So long as the world contains jars in need of opening and
spiders in need of squashing, men will never be obsolete.
I'm going to go kiss my boyfriend. He is currently -- this is true
-- in the kitchen making dinner.
I totally won the relationship lottery.
But when the mechanical jar opener breaks down, am I expected to
fix it myself? Not bloody likely.
And what about the spiders, huh?
Gotta go. Dinner's ready.
This dystopian fantasy shit is ridiculous.
Here's how it would work:
Lesbians are overwhelmingly left wing peace love tree hugging
types. They would breed more of the same. The more of them there
were, the more they would alienate the right, both men and
women.
Alienated, threatened right wingers form militias. Militias like to
play with guns. The bigger the militia gets, the more likely it's
members are to engage in senseless violence. Plus, they will have
people among them who actually study tactics and strategy because
they think they're cool.
It would be a slaughterhouse.
It's too late to help Valerie Solanas, but this really does point the way to the elimination of the Y chromosome. The males can still revert to form and engage in the murder and rape spree Publius envisions, but you can't murder your way out of obsolescence. Unless men can figure out how to become mothers (this is Bloomsday, after all), the gender will eventually go away.
Tim - we could do like the Bene Tleilax in the Dune universe and
just force women to be wombs.
nah, we tried that already.
MNG | June 16, 2009, 5:18pm | #
Would MANIAC stop posting if we told him his posting was neither
cute nor funny?
Because I'll be the first to say so. Let's get the ball
rolling...
As MNG calls out for the ostracization of another poster, the hours
roll by with out a response, along with the tumble weeds.
"Okay, so men are now - or will soon be - obsolete.
But how will this effect the Turkey Baster industry?"
You would sell more finger towels, pillows, and lesbain romance
novels, but fewer power drills, video games, and sit-down
lawnmowers.
Actually, if men did disappear, I think women would end up becoming
more like men.
The 10% figure for homosexuality is standard across a lot of
species, is a large non-reproducing segment of society necessary
for a healthy population?
Homosexual necrophilia in mallards:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2005/mar/08/highereducation.research
Uhhhh, really? It's MOVIE people. A MOCKUMENTARY. It AIN'T REAL. Sometimes - and I know this is hard for many of the people posted here to believe - a movie is just a movie and it's meant to provoke thought and entertain.
A MOCKUMENTARY. It AIN'T REAL.
Well, Spinal Tap wasn't real, either, but it might as well have been.
No one ever thinks to ask how MEN will react to this when it
becomes fact.
We will rejoice. In the streets. Your pregnancies, your problem.
Leave us out of it.
Next controversy.
The question that's on my mind: Are those two ladies in the picture pregnant or just... well...
I feel compelled, having seen another John Saxon clip on another
thread just a moment ago... to show you how it will look.
Welcome
to Planet Earth
Don't worry when they call you "dink." It isn't personal, they're
probably just size queens.
# strat | June 17, 2009, 4:23am | #
# I feel compelled, having seen another John
# Saxon clip on another thread just a moment
# ago... to show you how it will look.
It's coincidental, I suppose, that Dylan Hunt -- whose name was
used in another pilot based on the same Gene Roddenberry ideas
(Planet Earth) as well as a future Roddenberry-created series
(Andromeda) -- was looking for Jon(athan) Connor, whose name gained
prominence some years later, in the Terminator films and TV
series.
The 10% figure for homosexuality is standard across a lot of
species,
[citation needed]
For those positing the silly idea that women need men to "fix
things" etc...
Dykes On Bikes MC
Look it up.
--PS: I have a weiner, too, so I'm not just propping feminazi
agitprop.
"Lesbians are overwhelmingly left wing peace love tree hugging
types."
Dykes on Bikes MC
"The 10% figure for homosexuality is standard across a lot of
species,
[citation needed]"
Agreed... in fact, I think in most species that evince homosexual
behavior, it's also rare for members to be EXCLUSIVELY homosexual.
Gander bangs even one goose and he's BIsexual not HOMOsexual.
I would like to see a citation that includes evidence that
"homosexual" members are EXCLUSIVELY homosexual and not merely
bisexual.
If not one more male was ever born, I think that would be pretty cool. Less competition for me.
Tim - we could do like the Bene Tleilax in the Dune universe
and just force women to be wombs.
Poor form just throwing that one out there. Come on man, it took
5-6 books to find out where their women were.
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