Even though the science is wrong*, I still laughed:
*Zach presents sexual antagonism as having a lower chance of reproducing, but if you do reproduce, your daughters will be high quality so it makes up for your lower quality. But that’s not right. It’s that his sisters are so high quality, it doesn’t matter that he’ll never reproduce, because they’ll more than make up for it. His parents wouldn’t care that he’s an evolutionary dead end, since the sisters are pulling his weight in terms of grandchildren. Of course, never getting laid while watching your sisters fend off endless suitors doesn’t sound too great either, so the joke stands.
Though I’ve been attracted to three red-headed guys, so maybe Zach’s theory is bunk. Hmmm, his wife is also an evolutionary biologist. What does it all mean?!
30 comments
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Thomas Everett Haynes
December 26, 2010 at 6:56 AM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Yeah, every ginger male I have known was at least moderately attractive… if gangly…
plublesnork
December 26, 2010 at 7:20 AM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
One can’t talk about gingers without referring to this song:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…By the wonderfully skeptical and equally hilarious Tim Minchin.Oh, and merry Christmas and all that good shit.
Jessica Lee
December 26, 2010 at 7:52 AM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
there was a paper on the way male homosexuality runs in families that it is due to sexually antagonistic genes.
G.Syme
December 26, 2010 at 8:15 AM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
So like… women with male gay relatives are REALLY into men? Hmm.
Azkyroth
December 26, 2010 at 8:36 AM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Or men are really *ahem* into women with gay male relatives.
Azkyroth
December 26, 2010 at 10:11 AM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Slightly off topic, but WTF is the point of putting “password protected” posts on the “recommended reading” list? :/
Natja
December 26, 2010 at 11:06 AM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
This is very culturally biased, red haired people of either gender are very much considered unattractive in general this side of the big pond….I think this theory needs to be reconsidered.
Ben
December 26, 2010 at 11:40 AM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Im a ranga, newly married….. and now concerned about having daughters!
James Fish
December 26, 2010 at 12:21 PM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
In my experience it’s mainly other men who seem to have a problem with my glorious burnished copper tresses.
Philip
December 26, 2010 at 12:59 PM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Thanks for explaining the science. I don’t think the comic actually suggested the woman’s sons made up for her lower quality. Nothing does, from her point of view. In the extreme case of infertility in one sex with a doubling or better in reproductive success in the other, you’ve lost, from the evolutionary point of view, at the moment of conception.
David's Not Here
December 26, 2010 at 1:45 PM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
This has to be said:GODDAMN IT, CARTMAN!/obligatory
jose
December 26, 2010 at 2:10 PM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
It’s funny how he thinks a powerful jaw makes a woman less likely to reproduce.
Karen Rustad
December 26, 2010 at 3:54 PM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
My experience with ginger boys has been rather hockey-stick-graph-esque; yeah, the average redheaded guy I haven’t found very attractive, but after some inflection point (the 90th percentile? 95th?) I’m like ZOMG WANT NOW.
alex
December 26, 2010 at 4:04 PM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
They’re just links to blogs. If some of the current posts are password-protected, there’s nothing to be done for it; they’ll show up regardless.
Gilgamesh
December 26, 2010 at 4:38 PM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Not to mention that Zack is himself a ginger.
Jedipsychologist
December 26, 2010 at 5:34 PM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Dated three redheads (including current boyfriend, who I plan to marry.) I’d say, definitely not an evolutionary dead-end. Red heads are hott!
Azkyroth
December 26, 2010 at 6:14 PM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
The labeling and limited number of links would seem to imply they’re manually selected with the intention that other people read them. :/
Jen
December 26, 2010 at 7:14 PM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
I manually select which blogs I like, but then they’re automatically updated with their most recent post. I can’t control it if they occasionally make a post private.
Jeanette
December 27, 2010 at 4:44 AM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Haha I was going to link this if no one else did. Good work :)
Guest
December 27, 2010 at 10:23 AM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
this definitely made me laugh, and (kinda) relates to a discussion my significant other and i were having in the kitchen last night… we’re both redheads, and were discussing the idea that there are two types of redheads: HOT, and kinda weird-looking. but we both agreed that on the whole, most redheads are pretty hot. we’ve also debated at length that the reason we’re attracted to them is about 90% narcissism, so, food for thought…: ]
Ophelia Benson
December 27, 2010 at 4:53 PM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Hey women with powerful jaws are totally hawt.
LS
December 27, 2010 at 8:21 PM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Zach does a lot of comics which demonstrate what I assume, as an untrained reader, is a remarkable understanding of a variety of fields. He’s certainly dead-on with most of his philosophical references. Even the more obscure ones. It’s good to know he gets stuff wrong now and again. I was beginning to think he was Batman.
Tom Zombie
December 28, 2010 at 3:46 AM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
It’s an autosomal recessive trait (thank you wiki); both parents must be red heads or carry red head recessive traits. The last numbers I saw said that we red heads are fewer and fewer in number with every passing observation and that there are only 1 to 2% of us in the world.Oh well, off to the sperm bank with me.
Jessica Lee
December 28, 2010 at 4:07 AM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
yea… female relatives of gay men tend to have a higher fecundity [more kids], and they believe its to the higher levels of attraction and wanting to procreate…. let’s just say they’re all slutty then. jk jk
Georgia Sam
December 28, 2010 at 2:55 PM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Um … do I misunderstand, or does that comic imply that most men think red-haired women are hot? I tend to be attracted to women with red hair (now married to my second red-haired wife), but I haven’t heard a lot of men expressing attraction for that trait. The stereotype, of course, is that men love blondes.
jimmyboy99
December 31, 2010 at 9:56 AM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Spent my life getting serially abused about being a ging-er. These days I’ve thick skin and I suppose it’s just banter (if always with an edge). But school was a proper nightmare. I’d rather have been a fat kid I think which I assume is pretty bad.If you’ve got red hair then it appears OK for friends and strangers to make comments about you being ugly (or if they are trying to be nice, how surprisingly you aren’t as ugly as most ging-ers), about ensuring you don’t have any kids and pass on those unfortunate genes (ho ho ho: what a funny joke. Good job no one has made it before), etc. Eventually I am more than tired of it.Given the history it would be better if no one made any comments about ging-ers being ugly (or not ugly). Even if it’s only to say – well, how cool am I, I actually like them. Still makes us freaks.There is a very real issue here.
Azkyroth
December 31, 2010 at 10:06 AM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
This is the first I’ve heard about red haired men being supposedly unattractive. I guess I’m sheltered. >.>I can somewhat relate, though, especially to the “good job no one has made it before” thing. I’m not a ginger, but I have a middle name. It’s a traditional English name. Solid, respectable, if a little old-fashioned. Ultimately unremarkable.Except some fucking asshole made this fucking movie…And now I am literally ready to assault, batter, and DEEP FRY ALIVE the next dumb fuck who quotes the most famous line from it at me. Especially with a fake Southern drawl.There’s room in the deep fryer if needed. :)
jimmyboy99
December 31, 2010 at 12:35 PM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Well – the ging-er has been more than a theme all my life. Anytime I was getting beaten up at school by some gang of nasty thugs (happened plenty), the “ugly ging-er” thing was always there. It was an easy way of differentiating a small group of kids. We’d get the whole, “oi ging-er – you got ging-er pubes?”; or “you got freckles on your dick?”; or “if your Mum’s a ging-er, how come your Dad fucked her?” – all the time and always publicly. Constant public humiliation was just part of daily part of life – together with quite a lot of violence around being a ging-er.Obviously, this happens to lots of kids for lots of reasons. Colour, race, sexuality, disability. But this is also a very common story for folks with any red in their hair. (Before any one jumps on me: I’m not equating the bullying of ging-ers with the struggle of any of the other groups mentioned. It’s very different, and the resources available to individuals to deal with whatever hassles they may have are in direct proportion to their general state in life, privileged, not, etc).So as an adult, somehow I have to try to react reasonably when this comes up. But any repetition of the ging-er =, or does not = ugly line hits a seriously fucking sore spot.Cheers,Jim(I’ve got two middle names …not uncommon in the UK so no specific hassle about that: one of them is an RCC martyr from Auschwitz though , which was pretty chirpy of my folks…).
Francesca
January 3, 2011 at 12:32 AM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
I love gingers! My cohabiting boyfriend is a curly haired ginger, even. Ginger men are totally handsome and there are a ton of women who prefer them, me included. There are women and men who prefer all kinds of things and honor them for their valuable uniqueness!
Sunny Lane
August 19, 2012 at 6:39 PM (UTC -7) Link to this comment
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