It Takes Big Balls to Be a Parent, Or Does It?

Photo Courtesy of Medical News Today

A study released in the fall of 2013 showed that men with smaller testicles tended to exhibit better parenting skills than their bulging counterparts.  It sounds ridiculous, but its true. The thinking that led to the study followed a train of thought similar to this one: previous studies linked lower testosterone levels to increased involvement in parenting, so this led researchers to question if the volume of the testicles (which is associated with sperm quality) also played a role in the parenting habits of fathers.

Their assumed reasoning sounds logical, right?

I read through multiple media treatments of this study, and the coverage was shameful.  Most outlets carried stories that basically said "Big Nuts, Bad Parent."

The fact that biology and behavior is connected isn't news.  The correlation is obvious, for there are many biological/behavioral relationships.  This one shows there is a linkage between mating effort and paternal involvement as indicated by the size of the testicles, but the truly interesting portion of the study comes in the later comments by the researchers themselves.

James Rilling, the study's author, says, "Event though some men may be built differently, perhaps they are willing themselves to be more hands-on fathers.  It might be more challenging for some men to do these kinds of caregiving activities, but that by no means excuses them" (Whiteman).

Obviously! In the news blurbs about this study, the nuance of the issue is completely downplayed.

It's fine for biologists to study the body/brain dynamic.  It's a wonderful exercise in exploring the world around us, but when news of this nature is being delivered, it needs to be tempered with a greater dialogue surrounding the mind/body relationship.

I can hear some of the men who frequent the bar where I work now.  "My wife wants me to (insert activity here) with my kid, but I got a pair."  Of course they'd be saying this in jest (at least I hope), but it is another arrow in the quiver of machismo, another way of closing the dialogue about what it means to be a man.  I'd like the media to sponsor a larger debate about how the biological, while the engine of many human behaviors, is not the driver behind the wheel, not the conscience that operates the engine.

Montana's Own Testicle Festival (Couldn't Resist)

Photo Courtesy of I Must Be Off

In the meantime, I think it takes a lot of balls to stand up and be proud of involved fathering.  I think it takes machismo to actively choose your children in ways that haven't, historically, been viewed as masculine.  I'm proud to say I'm a diaper-changing, doctor's-office-visiting, vomit-cleaning, dress-up-party-having, ballet-dancing type of father.  As to the size of my testicles? Well you can infer what you want.  This isn't Craigslist, people.

Whiteman, Honor. "Dads with Smaller Testes Are Better Fathers, Study Shows." Medical News Today. MediLexicon International, 11 Sept. 2013. Web. 24 Jan. 2014.