Testosterone
"At least once in her life, every woman should have a large shot of testosterone - just to see what men are trying to cope with," remarked a man to a close girlfriend of mine ten years ago. His remark often echoed in my head, sparking compassion for male behavior (and my own in prior lifetimes as a man?).
"This American Life" (Chicago, WBEZ) accomplished almost the same end with its radio show "Testosterone." It's a four-segment show, but the first two segments are the most interesting. In the first, a man's medical care blocked his testosterone for four months, shifting his outlook to a more spiritual perspective.
The second segment would give anyone compassion for "testosterone sufferers." It features a former lesbian who took mega doses of testosterone seven years earlier in order to become a man. He describes in graphic detail its effects. It was heart-rending to hear an arch-feminist chiding himself for the sudden barrage of pornographic images that flooded his mind, confessing a newfound passion for science, physics, and fast cars, and struggling with an inability to find the right words to talk to new women. The best moment was when a recent female acquaintance, ignorant of his dyke past, called him a "misogynist!"
The show is a "must listen" for all human beings. Also, be sure to check out the last article in this newsletter. Being in love brings testosterone levels up in women and down in men, encouraging harmony between the sexes. Staying in love could be good news for men's health, as another study has just found that high testosterone levels are a risk factor for prostate cancer.
The one, single, enduring, and nightmarish task of all...civilization [is] the taming of testosterone." Ken Wilbur, "Sex, Ecology & Spirituality"
Link goes to radio show site. Then use "search" tool at lower left and enter "testosterone" to find page.
Have A Laugh at the Gender Gap
BUTT (but) n. Female: The body part that every item of clothing manufactured makes "look bigger." Male: What you slap when someone has scored a touchdown, home run, or goal. Also good for mooning.
COMMUNICATION (ko-myoo-ni-kay-shun) n. Female: The open sharing of thoughts and feelings with one's partner. Male: Scratching out a note before suddenly taking off for a weekend with the boys.
Entire joke
Letters from the Trenches (c.1900)
Dear Dr. Stockham,
The teachings (sex without orgasm) came to me in a critical and trying time of my life. I had been married several years, and the harmony between my wife and self seemed dying out. She had loved me dearly, but the old sex embrace had no attraction for her, and grew more and more repulsive.
The new teaching brought us into a new heaven and a new earth. I cannot tell you how happy we became. We were simply lovers, but such lovers as we had never been before. An indescribable tenderness pervaded all our relations. My wife showed a sexual power and perfection rare and wonderful. Her mental and moral nature both developed until I hardly knew her, and I for the first time was sure I was a poet. And all this ever increased.
This practice seems to me to be the sex-blending of the moral natures, it seems to call out and arouse to an ecstacy of delight and power the spiritual and poetic nature of both man and women. It gives strength as if it were the key to unlock powers. It is perfectly successful where the two come together with a mutual loving desire to assist and bless each other, to blend and exchange spiritual gifts, to inspire each other to the noblest moods. Then the "heaven" stage is easily reached. JWL
PEACE BETWEEN THE SHEETS News
Join us for an hour of public radio about "Peace Between the Sheets" on "The Jefferson Exchange" with Jeff Golden. We're scheduled for June 9th from 9 - 10 am Pacific Time (re-broadcast from 9 - 10 pm the same evening).
Hormones Converge for Couples in Love
Men are from Mars and women from Venus - except when they are in love. During this intense period, men and women become more like each other than at any other time. ...Now [Donatella Marazziti of the University of Pisa in Italy] has looked at the hormonal changes that occur in people who are in love. Her team measured the blood levels of several key hormones in 12 men and 12 women who said they had fallen in love within the past six months. The researchers compared these hormone levels to those in 24 other volunteers who were either single or in stable long-term relationships. ..."The most intriguing finding is related to testosterone," says Marazziti.
Men who were in love had lower levels of the male sex hormone testosterone - linked to aggression and sex drive - than the other men. Love-struck women, in contrast, had higher levels of testosterone than their counterparts, the team will report in Psychoneuroendocrinology. "Men, in some way, had become more like women, and women had become like men," says Marazziti. "It's as if nature wants to eliminate what can be different in men and women, because it's more important to survive [and mate] at this stage."...
Entire article from "NewScientist.com"
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To Bring about a True Union of the Sexes
The second half of the 1800's saw the rise and fall of a surprisingly successful--and once notorious--social experiment. In 1848 the Oneida community commenced operations in upstate New York. It grew to 250 men and women before its conversion, in 1881, to a joint stock company that still operates today. Its founder, John Humphrey Noyes, was a nonconformist graduate of Yale Divinity School.
According to him, "The Oneida community, in an important sense, owed its existence to the discovery of Male Continence." Noyes stumbled upon Male Continence as a consequence of his marriage. During its first six years his wife went through the agonies of five births. Only one child survived; four were premature. He pledged never again to expose her to such fruitless suffering. While struggling with his self-imposed celibacy, he
conceived the idea that the sexual organs have a social function which is distinct from the propagative function….I experimented on this idea, and found that the self control which it requires is not difficult; also that my enjoyment was increased; also that my wife's experience was very satisfactory, as it had never been before; also that we had escaped the horrors and the fear of involuntary propagation. This was a great deliverance. It made a happy household. I communicated my discovery to a friend. His experience and that of his household were the same.
When the Oneida Community began two years later, intercourse without ejaculation became a tenet. Lads who had not yet learned self-control made love with post-menopausal women. Noyes' approach served as an effective birth control measure.... Noyes saw important spiritual implications for Male Continence. Second only to bringing about reconciliation with God, man must "bring about a true union of the sexes" in order to create the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. Notice below how clearly he makes the connection between lovers' post-orgasmic let down and feelings of self-reproach, even (correctly) suggesting that it lies at the heart of the Judeo-Christian association between sex and guilt. He also acknowledges how this natural uneasiness from ordinary intercourse can destroy the spiritual or loving feelings between partners as they project their uneasiness onto each other and grow cold or disgusted....
Ordinary sexual intercourse…is a momentary affair, terminating in exhaustion and disgust. If it begins in the spirit, it soon ends in the flesh; i.e., the amative, which is spiritual, is drowned in the propagative, which is sensual. The exhaustion which follows naturally breeds self-reproach and shame....
Entire article
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