Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

Feminism: chat

Original poster

'Men are the secondary sex'

82 replies

ArabellaScott · 09/02/2026 10:27

https://designmom.substack.com/p/males-are-the-secondary-sex

I'd call this a bit of a thought experiment.

Author describes the 'drone behaviour' of men, and considers a shift in how we see men and women's roles.

I've not looked deeply into the assertions she makes, some of them seem a bit wild, but thought it may be of interest.

Males Are the Secondary Sex

Don't believe me? Let me walk you through it.

https://designmom.substack.com/p/males-are-the-secondary-sex

OP posts:
theilltemperedamateur · 09/02/2026 10:53

Y chromosomes are passed down virtually unchanged from father to son. Mitochondria are thought to be bacteria that got included in the human germ line early on - so obviously they have to be stored in the larger gamete. Their dna is dedicated to cellular energy processing, and nothing to do with directing development of the host organism, unlike Y chromosome dna.

Original poster
ArabellaScott · 09/02/2026 10:47

TwoLoonsAndASprout · 09/02/2026 10:41

I used to have a certain amount of respect for her - she wrote a lot about the cure for unwanted pregnancies being to stop unwanted ejaculations, not to police women’s bodies. But then she started spouting this sort of nonsense and, well…

designmom.substack.com/p/the-existence-of-trans-people-is

Ha! And turned comments off, I see.

Like I said, some of it seemed pretty wild. I doubt she's the first feminist to come up with the idea - although she's not cited any references, afair - but still maybe an interesting premise for a thought experiment.

OP posts:
Original poster
ArabellaScott · 09/02/2026 10:43

The first assertion made me raise an eyebrow: on hunter -gatherer societies:

'Social structure was simple and egalitarian. Groups needed all hands to ensure an adequate food supply, with men responsible for hunting large animals and women, for gathering plants and small animals. The ubiquity of so-called Venus statuettes and the central position of female figures in Paleolithic caves indicates that hunter-gatherer societies roughly balanced gender power.'

It does? Would like to see a wheen more evidence and reasoning.

One thing that springs to mind is Elaine Morgan's 'Descent of Woman', which also had.some kind of whacky hypotheses, but did, I think, make the very strong point that the primary unit and strongest bond in humans is not the man-woman, or father-mother, but the mother-child dyad.

OP posts:
TwoLoonsAndASprout · 09/02/2026 10:41

I used to have a certain amount of respect for her - she wrote a lot about the cure for unwanted pregnancies being to stop unwanted ejaculations, not to police women’s bodies. But then she started spouting this sort of nonsense and, well…

designmom.substack.com/p/the-existence-of-trans-people-is

singthing · 09/02/2026 10:38

Sad times for men, eh?

Giggorata · 09/02/2026 10:37

I have thought this for years.

Noshowlomo · 09/02/2026 10:30

I LOVE this. I reposted it on my instagram, and loads of my friends read it and said it was great.

Spot on if you ask me