Lobsters hate other lobsters.
In fact, they only interact with other lobsters for two reasons - fighting and fucking.
Every male lobster fight is a status fight. The winning lobster increases its status. It takes ownership of the best shelter. It exudes hormones that attract females. This engenders the mating interaction.
When mating, female lobsters molt their shells. They are soft and defenceless. If they are pregnant, male lobsters will kill them if they find them.
/2
Other than a two-week shell-free period, female lobsters are just as tough and strong as male lobsters.
Perhaps tougher, as they have to leave their shelters to distribute their eggs over as wide an areas as possible to better enable survival rates. This takes them into dangerous waters. Male lobsters stay local.
They also fight just as hard, if not harder and longer, as defensive swimming causes them to lose eggs.
There's also a memory issue.
/3
Experiments show that male lobsters can remember who they fought and avoid them for between one-to-two weeks.
After that, they will fight again.
While it is possible that this memory is longer-term in stable lobster communities, the impossibility of complex socialisation suggest there might not be any stable lobster communities.
Fighting and fucking is all there is.
All of the time.
/4
Let's go downstream from #JordanPeterson.
While I agree that the discourse about men and masculine behaviours in today's world lacks positive descriptions or role models that can inspire young boys to mature into competent adults, and that a radical solution is required, the lobster metaphor has become even more troubling than the issue it is trying to address.
/5
What happens if the male role model so hates other members of its species that it is only motivated to fight males and fuck females?
Some influencers have taken us down this path.
Andrew Tate is a professional kickboxer accused of raping women.
100% the male lobster in human form.
/6
@paninid The lacking role models is such a weird statement to me. Men are 99,9% of heroes and role models from every form of media humans have ever created. Most positions of notoriety have been held by men. I am AFAB and most of my role models are cis-men, real and fictional. The western world is overwhelmingly male-centric. The eastern and southern worlds stiflingly so.
Please clarify what you mean.
He has circa eleven million followers on X!
How do we counter that?
We need positive stories about males and male behaviours in today's media.
Lots of them.
Sadly, I don't see m/any.
If we don't have them, such grotesque interpretations of masculinity will fill the void.
With horrific consequences.
I don't want to live in a world like that.
I don't want my daughter to grow up in a world like that.
/7
@paninid Where does the funding for these influencers come from? It isn't advert sales.
@paninid this spring mountain bike season I will work ten races, 12hr days each day, putting on middle school and high school races for kids in 6th - 12th grades, in northern California, USA. Our sport is for everyone, a team sport, outdoors, in nature, away from screens. I work race crew because it makes me feel good about the world, giving kids this opportunity. I work Monday - Friday for money, weekend for high fives, and enough money to cover gas. The other race crew members, men and women, feel the same way. It is hard work. Somewhere around 700 kids will participate each season. We're just grown-ups with walkie talkies announcing, restocking tp, setting and tearing down course, helping their mom park, helping them on course if they're hurt, running the podium ceremony. We are a background to their fun day, their big adventure, their challenge. They might never see us, or remember us.
This is how.
