5 ms·
> And, I will be the first in this direct line of descent NOT to have a son. Why focus on just the male side?
by RC_ITR 5y ago
> And, I will be the first in this direct line of descent NOT to have a son.
Why focus on just the male side?
- shakow 5y agoBecause he is talking about the male lineage.
- RC_ITR 5y agoReiterating without adding detail
- lftl 5y agoHe's talking about tracing your male lineage. So if you just follow the male side of your family tree -- your father, his father, his father, his father, etc. Everyone one of these men by definition had a son.
- RC_ITR 5y agoSure, and every parent had a child. Just weird to gender it.
- somehnguy 5y agoIt isn't weird to gender it, I think you still don't understand what they are saying.
- BitwiseFool 5y agoI gendered it because I am male. If I were female I would write how I would be the first in a direct line not to have a daughter.
- ectopod 5y agoWho mentioned gender? He's talking, very literally, about sex.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- zdragnar 5y agoBecause he himself is male, and got the Y chromosome that makes him biologically male through the biological male line. His X chromosome from the mother could have come from either her maternal or paternal lineage, so it seems less "direct". Edit: I presume a biological focus given the other comment on how by not having children, he becomes a dead end of 4 billion years of reproduction.
- RC_ITR 5y agoSure, but why not Mitochondrial DNA? It just struck me as weird to gender it. I will hold my tongue on the romance point.
- floatingatoll 5y agoWell, it’s not weird, it’s predictable and an inherent outcome of many current societies overwriting the female lineage with their male mate’s. I do agree with the point you’re trying to make, but, it’s just a patrilineal mindset. Not weird, but problematic all the same. I find it’s best to be plain and direct about these things so that everyone else is on the same page about your beliefs, as otherwise we all end up in arguing about rhetoric instead of reevaluating unconsidered beliefs.
- zdragnar 5y agoGender has nothing to do with it. He has no chance of passing on his mitochondrial DNA, whether or not he has children. On the other hand, should he choose not to have children, he will represent a change of behavior that has lasted as long as the Y chromosome has- he is the end of the line. The same would be true if by chance he only passed on his X chromosome, but at least then the attempt was made, and he could keep trying as long as he had willing partner(s).
- klipt 5y agoIf OP is a man and has no sisters, then he can't say "first in this direct line of descent NOT to have a daughter" because his parents had no daughters either.
- dang 5y agoPlease don't take HN threads on generic flamewar tangents. We're trying to avoid those. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html