Monkeys Pay for Monkey Porn 391
An anonymous reader writes "Give a monkey some spending money, and he'll blow it on pictures of women monkeys. He'll also pay to see dominant monkeys. But you'll have to pay him to look at inferior monkeys. That's the upshot of a study out of Duke that was designed to explore the 'social machinery of the brain with an eye toward helping autism patients.' Next up -- seriously -- the researchers want to run the same test on Joe Sixpack (sans the monkey business)."
experiment (Score:5, Insightful)
Would there be anything wrong with this sentence: give a human some spending money and he'll blow it on pictures of female humans?
I guess I'm objecting to the notion that being male is the norm.
Humans already do this (Score:1, Insightful)
Personally, I think most sports fans are a little "gay". They'd rather watch a bunch of sweaty guys jumping all over eachother, than, say fashion TV - where hot models walk down the runway.
Re:Humans already do this (Score:5, Insightful)
Watching sports is not a sexual behaviour, but rather a herd behaviour. It strengthens the bond to the "herd", in this case the followers of the same team. It also appeals to the competitive side of humans, since sports (usually? always?) are a competition. It's hardly a display of gay sexuality.
Re:Humans already do this (Score:3, Insightful)
Let's look at this.
1. Both fans get dressed up as their favorite character/player.
2. They both will buy lots of memorabilia.
3. Both are always glued to the TV to watch their show/game.
4. Both talk non-stop with other people about their show/game...even with people that couldn't give a shit.
5. Both know minute trivia about their favorite show/game.
But one is generally accepted and welcomed in pursuing their passion while the other is shunned and joked and beat-up by the other.
Re:Humans already do this (Score:3, Insightful)
Personally, I think most sports fans are a little "gay". They'd rather watch a bunch of sweaty guys jumping all over eachother, than, say fashion TV - where hot models walk down the runway.
Insightfull start but why did you flush it down the toilet with nimwit remark. It even counters your starts.
Re:A is B; B is C; then A is C??? (Score:1, Insightful)
Not that I think porn is necessarily wrong, but we're definitely not "natural porn addicts", any more than we're "natural crack addicts".
Re:Humans already do this (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Humans already do this (Score:2, Insightful)
This is just homophobia driven to the extreme...
It is your reaction that is a extreme reaction to a post that said "little gay" and was nothing extreme about.
Why don't you try to ansver that post on the subject instead of attacking the author ?
Re:Humans already do this (Score:5, Insightful)
The sexualisation happens in your head, dude. Physical contact is not inherently sexual, it's just christianity's fucked up relationship with sexuality that makes it so.
In many cultures it is perfectly natural to take someone by the hand to show them the way somewhere, even if both parties are adult males. Most americans would consider it "gay". Now what sort of mental condition and view of sexuality does that require?
Not that many other cultures don't have their own serious hangups, of course.
Re:experiment (Score:3, Insightful)
> Would there be anything wrong with this sentence: give a human some spending money and he'll blow it on pictures of female humans?
>I guess I'm objecting to the notion that being male is the norm.
Why are there way more women on magazine covers than men? Because in general, men like looking at pretty women... and woman like looking at pretty women too, albeit for reasons other than sexual attraction in most cases.
Re:Humans already do this (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Missing the point: A cure is not needed (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Missing the point: A cure is not needed (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Humans already do this (Score:4, Insightful)
I'd say that rather your view of Christianity is rather fucked up. Somehow in Eastern, Orthodox Europe it is OK for males to kiss for greeting in the lips, somehow in Poland, supposedly extreme-Catholic country, it is OK for males to walk and talk hugging each other. OK, maybe walking hand in hand would be considered gay, or rather "feminine", not even gay, but many other physical contacts between males are really OK, without any homesexual undertones.
AFAIK it is the same (or even more) in Italy, Spain, Greece. I don't know...
So, have you considered, that this fuck-up happened rather in Anglosaxon culture than in "christianity"? OK, it might be something protestant in the background, but I don't know enough about Protestants to draw any conclusions.
And Christian (well, at least Catholic and Orthodox) view of sexuality, while it might seem restrictive from the outside, is coherent and based on viable basis. Of course, there are some devots who still think it is much worse to show a tit in TV than to show dead bodies of terrorist bombing victims, but I don't think it has much to do with Christianity either.
So before you rant, please do some investigation in the subject.
Raf
Re:experiment (Score:5, Insightful)
Well, women look at pretty women as at dominant females. It is the same as posters of Jordans and Beckhams and who else in male teenagers' rooms.
But true, this is weird. While guys like to watch sportsmen and actors (dominant males) and women like to watch actors and models (for sexual reasons), magazines with female photos on the cover sell better - and AFAIK it has been proven. Men are allowed on covers only if accompanied by a woman or with a baby or, seldom, if they are really, really mega celebrities.
Raf
Re:Missing the point: A cure is not needed (Score:5, Insightful)
Just because you find your boy easy to deal with doesn't mean everyone else's kid is the same. Some autistics can survive in the world, many can't. For them amelioration of the effects means not having a "normal" life, but having a shot at any kind of independence.
Re:Missing the point: A cure is not needed (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Missing the point: A cure is not needed (Score:2, Insightful)
Autism *Spectrum* Disorders cover such a broad range of levels of functionality, it really isn't fair to use the term "autistic" when someone says "Children with autism do not need to be cured." A lot of doctors have differing views on what actually constitutes a pervasive developmental disorder, and there can be motivations behind getting the diagnosis for your child.
A child I work with has broken bones in his feet and fractured bones in his face due to self-injurious behavior. He could stand to be cured, if it was possible. But if a child has problems with eye contact and perseverates on trains and is called autistic, it is a lot easier to say "There's nothing wrong with autism. YOU people are the ones who are going to need to change!"
Re:We have a delicate flower I see. (Score:3, Insightful)