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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   4655 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for February 26, 2023

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So I watched a tiktok about increased neoteny due to the domestication of humans and how it parallells the domestication of animals. The guy in the tiktok was arguing that an increasing number of males today are not physiologically male because they haven't been stressed enough. He notes that on a trip to Disneyland his school filled with affluent and comfy kids looked much younger compared to the poorer and more stressed out inner city kids.

My question is how come this never happened to me? I grew up in the city surrounded by crime, always stressed about being robbed, murdered etc. School was somewhat similar. Yet I still have a baby face.

The guy in the tiktok was arguing that an increasing number of males today are not physiologically male because they haven't been stressed enough.

I thought the same thing. If stress turned you more male, I would be the most masculine male to exist, I have had multiple career-ending instances with prolonged stressors in the last few years. Along the lines of getting kicked out of the country I'm an immigrant in, kicked out of university, family breaking apart, disease stress, etc.

Ironically abnormally high amounts of stress would make you less "male" because cortisol is a testosterone antagonist.

Just another instance of TikTok scientists doing TikTok science.

Perhaps only certain kinds of stress count, as in getting physically threatened, beat up, etc... And perhaps only at a young age as well.

Spending time worrying at night certainly doesn't code as masculine.

Isn't there some research that kids in bad areas go through puberty more quickly?

There is, but I don't think it adjusts for race- generally kids with more subsaharan african ancestry hit puberty earlier, and in America they tend to live in worse neighborhoods.

Environmental factors that cause early puberty are mostly sexual abuse and nutrition.

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