Re: OT: What? the clean-shaven outnumber the bearded? "Yer Ugly Mug," etc.

Quoting Jake X <starvingpoet@...>:

> [an'dr\e@s r\oUt}:
> > PS There are Darwinistic explanations of homosexuality. The latest I
> heard
> > invokes the "big brother effect", namely that gay men tend to have
> more
> elder
> > borthers than other men, and asserts that homosexuality is a
> side-effect
> of
> > actions by the foetus to defend itself from the mother's immune
> system,
> which
> > is assumed to be on its guard against male signatures since the
> earlier
> male
> > foetuses.
> I've never heard this explanation before.  I'm interested to know how
> many
> of
> the gay men on this list have older brothers?  I have none, though my
> mother
> had two abortions before I was born, which may have been male, but I
> don't
> think they'd have been old enough to have a recognizable gender
> identity?
> So does that count?
I'd guess "yes", but I simply do not know. The hypothesis did not come with any
specific mechanism provided.

I should perhaps add that when I say that there are explanations for something,
I'm not necessarily implying that these explanations are true, nor that I
believe in them. I'm in no position to judge this one on its scientific merits.

                                                     Andreas