So sad: semen isn't an anti-depressant (at least not pharmaceutically)
There's no way I'm linking to the original website, but it looks like once again the "Psychology Today reports that men's semen reduces depression in women" is on the move.
Like a lot of other stories along these lines this one continues to circulate not because the research was credible (it wasn't!) or the researcher widely respected by his peers (he doesn't appear to be.) Instead it circulates because it's too good to fact check. Too good for lad-magazines and anti-feminists to pass up because, hey, it's another line for doods to use on chix. Too good for for feminists to pass up because, hey, it's outrageous. Too good for health professionals because, hey, it's a chance to fret about increased risk of infectious disease.
I'm not exactly sure why it's cropped up again this week, but it's been popping up all over. 30 seconds with your favorite search engine should turn up dozens of breathlessly excited, fulminating, and/or concerned posts, all carrying on as if Jonas Salk, Alfred Kinsey, Carl Jung, and Rosalind Franklin all arose from the dead, last week, with the news.
Instead it's not even new. The Psychology Today article cited was published in 2002! Not 2004. Not 2006. Definitely not 2007. But, like some sort of annual migration of statue-shellacking pigeons, the story returns year after year.
Instead it's not even *news!* First clue that it's not true: all references to this research, new or old, this year, last year, the year before, etc., cite the same magazine article. If the research had been well-founded additional research would have been undertaken and published. It hasn't. Get over it.
If you like semen that's just great. If you don't, well, that's great too. If you're hungry for it, well cool, but it's not addictive. If you wouldn't go near the stuff, it's not like you're missing out on anything. I propose that you should enjoy it, or not enjoy it because it's semen, not because it might cure anything.
Right with you on that one figleaf.
[Thanks, Cathy. --fl]
My partner: "If semen were an anti-depressant, why would guys be so eager to unload it on someone else?"
[Heh. That's just part one of a list of problems with the "research," P. Thanks. --fl]
When will we as a society and the media that purports to serve it grow up?
Seems to me to rank alongside the the report that semen makes a woman's breasts bigger if rubbed into them*.
*{I just made that one up but I wouldn't be surprised to find it hasn't been claimed by someone!}
[I'm not sure one can make up a story wild enough not to have already been believed by someone or other at some time or another. The semen-on-breasts idea has been going around for years. And every now and then you run across urban-legendy stories about elite aristocracy- or celebrity-only cosmetics or skin-care products with semen or semen-like (maybe caviar milt or eggs) materials in t should just rub it in because they... want to. :-) But not under a pretense that they only do it for their health. Thanks, LR. --fl]
Of COURSE semen is an anti-depressant! All the sex I've been having lately has been making me very, VERY happy, after all:)
[Yup. So's saliva. So's rubbed-off skin cells. So's the scent of a beloved partner's body on our pillows. :-) Amazing, huh? Thanks, WG. --fl]