Why So Many Men?

There are so many men gracing the pages of the Darwin Awards, and so few women, that everyone wonders if there is an innate gender bias. Or is Wendy biased against men? There were so few women contenders that I had to drop a planned chapter on "Femme Fatalities." The cause of the disparity is unknown.

Smakee offers an interesting theory: "I just might be able to answer the mystery that the vast majority of Darwin Awards contenders are male. I've studied evolution, and there is an academic theory that males are, in a sense, evolution's playthings. Far fewer males than females are needed to propagate our species. Males can therefore be used as an experimental breeding ground, as we are more dispensible. In most species females tend to be close to the average in physical and mental dimensions, whereas males are seen to display extremes more frequently. With human intelligence this also seems to be the case, as there are many more male geniuses, though this may also be due to the sexism rampant in our societies. On the other end, there are also many more idiots, who often end up qualifying for the Darwin Awards."

What a thoughtful answer to a puzzling Question! The older a species is, the more varieties and richness shown in the genes. Humans are not all that old as a race.

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