Science says women are closer to chimps than men. What does this mean for feminism?

Question

WHAT MAKES US DIFFERENT FROM THE CHIMPS
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1541283-4,00.html

Although the news was largely overshadowed by the impact of Hurricane Katrina... the publication of a rough draft of the chimp genome in the journal Nature immediately told scientists several important things. First they learned that overall, the sequences of base pairs that make up both species' [i.e., humans and chimps] genomes differ by 1.23% - a ringing confirmation of the 1970 estimates -- AND THAT THE MOST STRIKING DIVERGENCE BETWEEN THEM OCCURS, INTRIGUINGLY, IN THE Y CHROMOSOME PRESENT ONLY IN MALES.

There it is in black and white girls. Men are more evolved than women. Women are more like chimps than men are.

Maybe THAT is the reason for the stereotype that women are inferior. Because genetically speaking - THEY ARE.

What does this mean for feminism?

Teeleecee, you sound irritated. Perhaps you should look at the first word in the link, it says time.com. That indicates it points to a source at Time Magazine. Please try to compose yourself. Thankyou.

Offkey - You seem to believe that dna is separate from a genome, that genes to not contain dna and believing you have made can make a valid point based on that premise. Would you like another block?

knowitall: For that point to stand you have to be saying that the chances are good that none of that mutation actually affected coding dna and by miraculous coincidence it all occured in non-coding dna. Unlikely.

Teeleecee: You keep getting upset about this. Look, if you want the context of the quote, the link - you know, the one that you refused to click on because I quoted out of context even though I provided the link which you refused to click on etc. - is right there.

Answer 1

I think the proper way to say this would be that chimps are closer to women than they are to men. And, when you say it that way I'm not really bothered by it. I think science is a wonderful thing....

"Perhaps the most important thing we can say regarding this evidence is how much scientists still don't know about DNA and its supposed evolutionary connections. Recent research shows just 2.5% of DNA is different between people and mice, and only 1% different from a chimpanzee.6 A UK chief scientist said, "We share half our genes [DNA] with the banana."7

(Personally, the banana thing worries me more.)

Answer 2

Actually mankind did not descend from Apes. During man's evolutionary path it reached a point where the trail split and took two seperate paths. One which became the first humans and the other which became the Apes. We are related as we are all Primates but we are cousins to the Apes. Our common denominator anscestors are actually Lemurs and both branches came from them. The Human branch of evolution was a QUANTUM LEAP, that means that an evolutionary jump took place spontaneously producing the first humans (meaning hairless, larger brain etc. just like a pair of normal cats spontaneously produced hairless kittens and from them we now have a hairless cat breed) The other branch continued evolving at the normal rate culminating with the ape types. That is why Science can't find "The Missing Link" because there is none. Nature had already encoded the blue prints of humans to evolve from the first single cells in the sea via plant and animal kingdoms until the time was right for a particular pair of lemur types (different to modern day lemurs) to produce a pair of human offspring. From them was born all of mankind.

Answer 3

It seems that you have forgotten quite a few interesting and, actually, vital information to understand what the article meant. Either you did it on purpose, or you don't know how to read properly (ie know how to find relevant information):

"they learned that overall, the sequences of base pairs that make up both species' genomes differ by 1.23%"

AND "The genetic differences between chimps and humans, therefore, must be relatively subtle. And they can't all be due simply to a slightly different mix of genes"

AND "genes alone don't dictate the differences between species; the changes, they now know, also depend on molecular switches that tell genes when and where to turn on and off" etc...

Basically, genes are not what is important. the differences lie in our DNA.

Answer 4

That's interesting because one would expect the Y chromosome to change the least, since it's passed intact from father to son.

However, it's a bit of a leap in logic to go from that to assuming the altered genes on the Y chromosome are associated with higher cognitive function. There's no evidence for it, especially given that as far as we can tell the Y chromosome is mostly devoted to genes that determine gonad development.

Answer 5

Just to clarify some confusion on this thread:

An organism's genome (which is all DNA) is composed of genes (which themselves have coding and non coding regions) and non-gene fragments such as promoters (turn on genes) and repressors( turn off genes).

I think Brooke gave the most reasonable answer.

Answer 6

I find it rather funny that you read that article and all you could come away with is the idea that women are closer to chimps than humans, especially given that no such claim or conclusion was made in the research.

Keep twisting words all you like...it merely shows off your ignorance of the science. Have fun playing at being a trollboy

Answer 7

Obviously, drawing the conclusion that women are "less evolved" shows a complete lack of understanding of what evolution means. The article it self states "...even the most ardent proponents of genome comparison research acknowledge that everything we know so far is preliminary."
So the scientist themselves don't know everything there is to know yet. Yet you claim that "Science says..." It says no such thing. And to draw that conclusion from this article is completely illogical.
As for what it means for feminism, it means absolutely nothing. Your entire post means nothing.

Answer 8

Evolution is a random process of genetic changes that interact with random environmental conditions to produce an organism which is better suited to the environment. The Y chromosomes had to change more because they were "less fit" the X chromosome was better suited to the environment or "more fit". Your question seems to suggest you think humans evolved from apes... which we didn't, but we share a common ancestor.

Answer 9

I think the scientists are men who made such a biased comment. When men and women go out for the evening and get a little drunk, you don't normally see the women beating their chests and hanging from chandeliers, do you? It's a definite male thing. Woman have more class than that.

Answer 10

Hey dude, you have serious problems.

Being a teenager is not easy I know. I hope you grow from all this. Being intelligent has many advantages did you know this?
Perhaps some day you will find out