The myth of the "supermale" and the extra Y chromosome

Key Takeaways

I was watching this episode of The Simpsons the other day where Alisa thinks she's going to get Dumber as she gets older because she has a Simpsons gene I can't just be bad day I feel like I'm getting Dumber by the minute her brother and her father and her uncles have it so she must have it right right genes chicken but she finds out there's a catch the defective Simpson gene is on the y chromosome so only men are affected and it got me thinking what do we actually really know about the Y chromosome and how did we get there what does the Y stand for there was a lot of fascinating TV shows about genetics in the 1950s we are about to unfold for you an adventure in the world of science nearly every person has 23 pairs of chromosomes and every male human being the 23rd pair of chromosomes is a mismatch one type has a long x chromosome the other type has a short Y chromosome early on we learned that girls have two x chromosomes and boys have an X and a Y and then this happened a man with XY Wireless discovered he was a normal guy living a normal life a few years later some researchers started drawing lines between having an extra Y chromosome and a life of violent crime some studies from the 70s said that an extra Y chromosome meant a man was more aggressive it all started at a Scottish mental institution where 315 men were genetically tested for chromosomal abnormalities nine of these men were above average height had severe mental impairments had criminal records and had XYY syndrome although these nine men had criminal backgrounds almost identical to men without XY Y scientists concluded that their history was directly related to their genetic disorder so is an extra Y chromosome that's the criminal gene then marry Topher a researcher in the u.s. began searching for the X Y Y chromosome and developmentally disabled boys and institutions in Pennsylvania they were tall and had moderate acne on their face and in her mind these were clear signs of XYY CODIS Research Center says he's an XY Y man do you believe in that theory around that time tall man in Chicago with visible acne scars on his face brutally raped and murdered eight nurses his name was Richard Speck it immediately made sense to tell her that he was XY Y to the New York Times latched on to this story and ran a series about the genetic disorder stating that specks criminal disposition was directly related to the fact that he was a super male with an extra Y chromosome genetic testing however concluded that he was XY but the damage was done the idea of a genetic mutant super male quickly became a cultural phenomenon well that phone I got some extra male chromosome not surprisingly there was this huge bias and research conducted on its YY men nearly all genetic testing of these chromosomes were conducted in prisons and mental institutions way so the extra Y chromosome doesn't lead to violence the fact is about one in a thousand men have XYY syndrome and a vast majority are completely unaware of their condition there's just no proven correlation between aggressive criminal behavior and having an extra Y chromosome most people know that there's not a murder gene in our bodies that make us criminals but we still use the Y chromosome as a huge cultural symbol for aggression and masculinity pick up a y chromosome while you were there you might be saltwater a lack of a wife Renzo means a guy is super feminine and more than one Y chromosome means he's a killer and then there's jenna maroney jenna is an Ashkenazi Jew with an extra Y chromosome Hasan huh when you're watching your favorite TV show it's really important to remember that masculinity and femininity are as much defined by the world around us as the genes inside us you