metaphortunate son

Noted as of interest a day or so ago, ‘I don’t want anyone to suffer like I did’: the intersex campaigners fighting to limit surgery on children - am a bit gloomed to think that this is Still An Issue because I look back and surely this was brought to wider attention, oh, at least twenty or years ago?

Ah. A little delving shows me that the person I remember as doing pioneering research on the subject, published around the late 90s, and also involved in intersex activism, has become A Figure of Controversy and I think we probably do not mention them.

But quite coincidentally this emerged today: who, according to work done by A Very Reputable Scientist sequencing DNA which does appear to be his, had a Disorder of Sexual Development (as intersex conditions are sometimes termed)? Did Hitler really have a ‘micropenis’? The dubious documentary analysing the dictator’s DNA.

Here is a thoughtful and nuanced piece by an actual scientist taking issue with some of the more tabloidy accounts A slightly different take on the news that Hitler’s DNA reveals some genetic anomalies. The most interesting thing to me is that history has a profound capability for irony.

That Hitler himself had a condition that was discovered and named by a Jewish man who also held some responsibility for the scientifically misguided murderous policies of the Nazis is at least a reflection that history is often imbued with a sense of complex and confusing irony.

I don't think I've ever posted this. I can't find the complete Lessons of War by Henry Reed online, but the most famous poem in the sequence, which I think was in school anthologies in my day, is:

Today we have naming of parts. Yesterday,
We had daily cleaning. And tomorrow morning,
We shall have what to do after firing. But today,
Today we have naming of parts. Japonica
Glistens likecoral in all the neighboring gardens,
And today we have naming of parts.

This is the lower sling swivel. And this
Is the upper sling swivel, whose use you will see,
When you are given your slings. And this is the piling swivel,
Which in your case you have not got. The branches
Hold in the gardens their silent, eloquent gestures,
Which in our case we have not got.

This is the safety-catch, which is always released
With an easy flick of the thumb. And please do not let me
See anyone using his finger. You can do it quite easy
If you have any strength in your thumb. The blossoms
Are fragile and motionless, never letting anyone see
Any of them using their finger.

And this you can see is the bolt. The purpose of this
Is to open the breech, as you see. We can slide it
Rapidly backwards and forwards: we call this
Easing the spring. And rapidly backwards and forwards
The early bees are assaulting and fumbling the flowers:
They call it easing the Spring.

They call it easing the Spring: it is perfectly easy
If you have any strength in your thumb: like the bolt,
And the breech, the cocking-piece, and the point of balance,
Which in our case we have not got; and the almond blossom
Silent in all of the gardens and the bees going backwards and forwards,
For today we have the naming of parts.

This one, true, does sound like A Good Egg, The pioneering medic and campaigner for reproductive choices, in Ireland before these were legal: until right at the end, 'he has continued to campaign on controversial issues, including fluoridation of drinking water', masking during the Covid epidemic, and other things not specifically mentioned. Okay, some of the early Malthusian pioneers were also into things like anti-vax - voila T R Allinson - but just possibly there was a certain getting locked into the role of being 'He's A Rebel'.

Not sure that was quite the same trajectory with DNA James Watson, who seems to have had an interesting arc from being Very Successful at a Very Early Career Stage and never quite achieving the second album and becoming Weird. The Guardian obit mentions his being taken up as a very young researcher by Naomi Mitchison, but not that she dedicated Solution Three to 'Jim Watson who first suggested this horrid idea'.

On the subject of breeding, which sort of springs out of that, do we think that anyone would WANT the seed of these charmers: inside the hidden world of social media sperm selling:

One common tactic often warned about in these communities is that men will pressure women into sex, telling those who want to use “artificial insemination” with a syringe or baster, that sexual intercourse is more successful at producing pregnancies, which is not true. Sex, euphemistically referred to as “natural insemination” in these groups, is not the preferred method for most women, and yet recipients who are desperate to get pregnant can be persuaded to allow their boundaries to be crossed. Many of the posts in the groups are from people who will donate only through sex or through a method they call “partial insemination”, where the donor’s penis is inserted immediately before ejaculation.

Plus also just plain scammers. And

While sexual assault and harassment is rife, there are also risks of serious sexually transmitted diseases, hidden genetic disorders and creating a child with someone to whom you could end up being legally bound for life.

Testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) is a prescription-only treatment recommended under national guidelines for men with a clinically proven deficiency, confirmed by symptoms and repeated blood tests. But a wave of viral videos on TikTok and Instagram have begun marketing blood tests as a means of accessing testosterone as lifestyle supplement, advertising the hormone as a solution to problems such as low energy levels, poor concentration and reduced sex drive. Doctors warn taking testosterone unnecessarily can suppress the body’s natural hormone production, cause infertility, and increase the risk of blood clots, heart problems and mood disorders.

This week's bread: Dove's Farm Organic Seedhouse Bread flour, nice.

Saturday breakfast rolls: brown toasted pinenut with Marriage's Light Spelt - perhaps was a bit too sparing with the pinenuts after the excess of last time?

Today's lunch: pheasant breasts flattened a little and rubbed with coriander seeds and juniper berries crushed with salt and 5-pepper blend, panfried in butter and deglazed with madeira, perhaps slightly overdone; served with kasha, garlic-roasted purple sprouting tenderstem broccoli and 'baby' (adolescent) leeks halved and healthy grilled and dressed with a grain mustard vinaigrette.