eunuchs...

[hillbillycavewoman]

Oh come now...
Isn't Wayne Newton a castrato as well?

Btw--one of the less-touted benfits of castration:
it cures, or at least prevents, male "pattern" baldness.

So I've heard.

[AskNott]

After rejecting several lame jokes and head-spinning "possible benefits," I can only offer a link to Cecil's column. http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_058.html

[ThreeSarahBirds]

Oh we are mere onions compared to this!

[hillbillycavewoman]

Originally posted by AskNott
After rejecting several lame jokes and head-spinning "possible benefits," I can only offer a link to Cecil's column. http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_058.html

Well DUH-uh...

What did you think I was commenting on in the first place?

Don't send me in circles.

[Ben]

All the jokes about a "little jar" reminded me of a tidbit from Chinese history. On a particular day each year, Chinese eunuchs (whose entire external genitalia were amputated, not just the testicles) were expected to prove their eunuch-hood to the appropriate bureaucrats by producing their pickled genitals in a jar. Apparently there was a class of merchants who would keep the jars in a secure place until eunuch-testing day came, and would charge the eunuchs outrageous prices to get their jars back.

I should also mention that the greatest explorer in Chinese history, Zheng He, was a eunuch. Ultimately, China's exploratory voyages were shut down as a result of a power struggle between the palace eunuchs and the Confucianist scholars.

-Ben

[ThreeSarahBirds]

They say Margaret Thatcher was a eunuch, but we don't believe them.

[Irishman]

Ben, wouldn't there be an easier way to prove one's eunichhood?

hillbillycavewoman, in this forum it is expected to include a link to the column so that everyone will be on the same page. Any moment a moderator will come along and chastise you all official-like. AskNott was just being helpful.

[Neurodoc]

I presume you meant "eune" and not "enue" (sorry, I can't access Greek characters in this response).

[Czarcasm]

Advantages:

1. It frees up your weekends
2. No Viagra bills

[John Bredin]

"Apparently there was a class of merchants who would keep the jars in a secure place until eunuch-testing day came, and would charge the eunuchs outrageous prices to get their jars back."

Cite? Why would someone deposit *anything* valuable with a person they knew was going to extort them to get it back?! :confused:

[hillbillycavewoman]

Originally posted by Irishman
...

hillbillycavewoman, in this forum it is expected to include a link to the column so that everyone will be on the same page. Any moment a moderator will come along and chastise you all official-like. AskNott was just being helpful.

Oops.

Sorry.

I stand chastised.

[Duck Duck Goose]

http://www.drkoop.com/conditions/ency/article/003246.htm
Both men and women lose hair density as they age. Men develop a typical pattern of baldness, associated with the presence of the male hormone testosterone . Men who do not produce testosterone (because of genetic abnormalities or castration) do not develop this pattern of baldness.
Woo-hoo! At last--a cure for male pattern baldness! :D

[PlanMan]

The column talked about how there aren't many jobs specifically for the castrated, but it didn't touch on how that "condition" would affect holding "normal" jobs. Except in a few cases (singing bass [no,not that stupid fish you hang on the wall], Chippendale dancer, etc.) doesn't seem that it would matter one way or t'other.

[Hazel]

Well, PlanMan, I think hiring eunuchs would seem to most employers to be a good strategy. None of this annoying business of having wives and kids to distract them from their jobs.

[Pablito]

I'm a little unclear on the eunuch=soprano voice concept. Wouldn't an adult man's voice, since it has already changed, stay the same, following a castration?

Also, I thought I remembered hearing (not quite a reliable cite, I know) that castration would increase the recipient's lifespan, something about not being subject to the supposedly deleterious effects of all that testosterone running around. True?

[RiverRunner]

Also, I thought I remembered hearing (not quite a reliable cite, I know) that castration would increase the recipient's lifespan, . . .

Well, it could certainly make life seem a lot longer.


RR

[Chronos]

It's an indisputed fact that women live longer than men, and this is usually attributed to testosterone. So, a longer lifespan would not be an unreasonable thing to expect.

[AskNott]

hillbillycavewoman, I'm not above posting lame jokes (a few real groaners.) Sometimes, though, my lame-joke filter kicks in, and I tell myself things like, "Nope, nope, not funny, get out, nope, that won't do." When that happens, I can't release any but the truly funny stuff. Sometimes, it's hard to tell the filter from depression. Recently, some friends told me I couldn't sit with them at the bar anymore because the filter wasn't working. Sorta threw a kink in my style. Now it's working too well. It's a bloody nuisance. I was too serious before, but at least I was funny.

Egad! Shut up, Nott! These people are going to call me a lachrymotormouth.

[hillbillycavewoman]

Do it
Because of the fish...

You know,

for the halibut.

[JillGat]

Originally posted by Chronos
It's an indisputed fact that women live longer than men, and this is usually attributed to testosterone. So, a longer lifespan would not be an unreasonable thing to expect.

I think it's more a case of lack of estrogen than presence of testosterone. .. though I'm sure it's more complicated than that.

[AskNott]

Okay, for the fishes. Most eunuchs had their career paths chosen very early, by their parents, for money. As for the pickled specimens, they'd be very small. And like them, the grown eunuch spoke in a...ballssetto. The European castrati's voices were valued not only for that frozen-in-time soprano, but for the emotional pain of being a chick magnet and being powerless to do anything for one's fans after the concert.

[Arnold Winkelried]

Originally posted by Irishman
hillbillycavewoman, in this forum it is expected to include a link to the column so that everyone will be on the same page. Any moment a moderator will come along and chastise you all official-like.Well, several days late and several dollars short, here I am! hillbillycavewoman, please read the sticky thread in this forum asking posters here to please provide a link.

[Irishman]

John Bredin said:
Why would someone deposit *anything* valuable with a person they knew was going to extort them to get it back?!

Maybe because they didn't have safety deposit boxes?

PlanMan, one of the other threads on this topic has a link to a guy who did this. It mentions some of the effects as being a loss of general energy, and a loss of physical strength. Muscle mass reduces. The guy in question had trouble doing some heavy lifting after the surgery, and eventually quit that job.

Pablito, you are correct, losing your balls does not make your voice go higher. If you lose them in childhood, however, it will prevent the voice change. Same comment applies to being kicked in the balls - a common slang usage being "made him sing soprano".

Nobody seems to have mentioned this column yet:
Why are Indian eunuchs warned about unsafe sex? (http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a4_212.html)

[blandart]

While skating all over this pond, I want to know if this is true or not:
I have seen references to the effect that loss of testes only does not prevent erection, ability to penetrate, and produce orgasm, albeit a spermless affair. Anne Rice describes such in a novel, "Cry to Heaven." That was before she got hung up on stupid vamprire tomes. Far Out!

[AskNott]

Originally posted by blandart
While skating all over this pond, I want to know if this is true or not:
I have seen references to the effect that loss of testes only does not prevent erection, ability to penetrate, and produce orgasm, albeit a spermless affair. Anne Rice describes such in a novel, "Cry to Heaven." That was before she got hung up on stupid vamprire tomes. Far Out!

Testosterone is also produced by the adrenal glands, though in smaller quantities. That's how women get their share. I have read that a woman's sex drive is in proportion to her testosterone count. Anyway, it's conceivable that a guy without his balls would still have enough to get the job done, if his adrenals are thriving.

--Nott

[Irishman]

Another thread ( More info on eunuchs (http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=117525) ) refers to this site ( http://www.geocities.com/sherrylanina/Castration.html ) which states:
I still have occasional nocturnal erections at night, and less often I even have orgasms in my sleep. About half of these are dry orgasms while the others are accompanied by only a small amount of clear fluid. Otherwise I don't feel aroused unless I want to.

The following link describes the male anatomy.

WARNING!!!! This page does include pictures of the male sex organ. I included it for the diagram and descriptions below, but the top of the page has three pictures for comparison (circumcised, uncircumcised, erect). PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK. (I hope that's enough disclaimer.)

http://www.luckymojo.com/faqs/altsex/penis.html

The corpora cavernosa are blood vessels inside the penis that become engorged with blood to cause an erection. This is isolated from the scrotum (nut sack). Similarly, the prostate gland, the cowper's gland, and seminal vesicles are all located in the torso behind the pubic bone, below the bladder and in front of the rectum. These are not included in the scrotum. Each of those glands creates some of the fluid that makes up the semen. Only the sperm itself comes from the testes. Note that a vasectomy cuts the vas deferens, the tube from the testes to the seminal vesicle which leads to the eurethra. As such, it does not affect the contribution of testosterone to the body from the testes. Whereas a castration does remove the testicles.

So the nerve endings for stimulation, the erectile tissue, and the glands that create the seminal fluids are all intact. While sex drive is reduced by the reduction of testosterone, the equipment is still functional (except for the reproductive part), if slower to respond.