“You fight like a girl” – Fruit flies and the playground

Fruitfly research is pretty hot stuff and this new study is sure to find its way on to late night television.

Fighting Like a Girl or Boy Determined by Gene in Fruit Flies

BOSTON, Nov. 20 /Standard Newswire/ — Fighting like a girl or fighting like a boy is hardwired into fruit fly neurons, according to a study in the Nov. 19 Nature Neuroscience advance online publication by a research team from Harvard Medical School and the Institute of Molecular Pathology in Vienna. The results confirm that a gene known as “fruitless” is a key factor underlying sexual differences in behavior. The findings mark a milestone in an unlikely new animal model for understanding the biology of aggression and how the nervous system gives rise to different behaviors.

I’ll bet the boy fighters call each other dude and drink Gatorade between rounds.

Reality show idea combining this and the last post – Get men and women to fight and have raters decide if they are gay or not by how they fight. The raters go off the show if they are wrong. The celebrity version of the show would be huge. Anyone want to suggest a name for it?

9 thoughts on ““You fight like a girl” – Fruit flies and the playground”

  1. Commentor #2848 – Then NARTH could write a paper about how helpful it was for the boy flies that fight like girls…

  2. I guess the really good names are taken (e.g., the View), but keep those second best ideas coming.

    It seems natural enough to look for categories – or at least that is what I teach in social psych – but it does lead to the biases I also teach about.

  3. I just can’t generate a lot of interest in gaydar. I’m more intrigued by the diversity of interests, aptitudes, and styles of expression among lgbtiq folks (and, frankly, people in general) than in any purported similarities.

    As the proportion of folks who are open and out increases, my guess is that gaydar will become an antiquated concept. Stereotypes may never die out entirely, but a few new ones will gain favor for a while and contradictory stereotypes (like butch vs. lipstick lesbians, limp-wristed vs gym-bunny gay men) will muddy the waters.

  8. I wonder what would happen if they could train the more masculine fruit flies to tease and ridicule the ones who fight like girls?

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