# Would you be castrated to advance your career? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 25, 2014, 9:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-be-castrated-to-advance-your-career/682211 "2014-02-25T09:55:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2014, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-be-castrated-to-advance-your-career/682211/41 "2014-02-26T13:32:21Z")
Why castration? I have already volunteered for sterilization and had a vasectomy. And not you want my boys too? Forgetaboutit. ---
**Author:** ![drastic\_quench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e36b37/32.png) [@drastic\_quench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drastic_quench)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2014, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-be-castrated-to-advance-your-career/682211/42 "2014-02-26T16:49:28Z")
I’m too cheap to be talked out a cent. Ain’t nobody talking me out of my boys - especially at 18. Think they’d fashion it into a little cured leather coin purse for you? Like those kangaroo scrotes some tourists bring back from 'stralia. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2014, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-be-castrated-to-advance-your-career/682211/43 "2014-02-26T17:18:55Z")
Back in '86 I met a woman who had been a hooker. In order to get that “nice job abroad” she had to let herself get hysterectomized. Her husband, a cop, had met her as a john during his vacations abroad (they were from the same country, she’d worked in mine). Their little girl was adopted. Could it have been a completely invented story? Yeah, but too many details fit, from the things she did and didn’t know about the area where she’d worked, to how she jumped to defend us foreign “guests” when our “hosts” refused to believe that a good-looking 15yo could be a virgin and want to stay one for a while longer. And I’ve heard too many stories of women being offered that kind of deals. If I get to be as old as the Coliseum I’ll never forget Eileen or forgive the people who put her in a situation where that actually looked like a good deal. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2014, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-be-castrated-to-advance-your-career/682211/44 "2014-02-26T18:33:04Z")
> [@coremelt](#): > > Thats only for the eunuch civil service. The nobility of course have children and own all the land, own all the businesses etc. How you get to be one of the patriarchy, be born into that class of course. However for the purposes of this poll, you weren’t born into the ruling classes so your only chance of advancement is to sign up and lose the nads. But this was never the case in real-life societies that had a eunuch civil service. There were still middle class families, middle class businesses, middle class tradesmen, middle class soldiers, middle class religious functionaries, and so on. It was never a case where there was a noble class, a eunuch middle class, and the impoverished peasantry. Didn’t happen. Yes, there was a small caste of eunuchs servants and slaves who held important jobs of trust for various members of the ruling class. But very few people volunteered to be castrated, it was done to slaves, servants, political prisoners, or rebel families. Lots of the Chinese eunuchs were actually non-Chinese boys taken as tribute and forcibly castrated. Same with Eunuchs in the Ottoman Empire. Yeah, various rulers would use castrated slaves as confidential servants, but eunuchs were almost always looked down upon. Their condition made them fit to be slaves, maybe powerful slaves, but slaves nevertheless. That was the whole point of using castrated men in the first place. ---
**Author:** ![Habeed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a587f6/32.png) [@Habeed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Habeed)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2014, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-be-castrated-to-advance-your-career/682211/45 "2014-02-26T23:47:30Z")
The real problem with this scenario : you are taking the most meritorious people, and making sure their genes don’t continue on. Over a long period of time, you society will become dumber and dumber. You’ll have to lower your standards for admission to the Eunuch elite. ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2014, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-be-castrated-to-advance-your-career/682211/46 "2014-02-26T23:59:54Z")
The best part is, when you wake up in the recovery room your balls are still there–TPTB just wanted to test your dedication. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2014, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-be-castrated-to-advance-your-career/682211/47 "2014-02-27T00:58:49Z")
> [@coremelt](#): > > He’s implying that life is not worth living if you can’t reproduce and as you might imagine quite a few people might have a problem with that. No, he isn’t. > [@ekedolphin](#): > > HELL. NO. If I was ever in a situation where I was physically incapable of ever having kids, I would probably want to kill myself. No “you”, “one”, “they”; nothing but “I”. ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2014, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-be-castrated-to-advance-your-career/682211/48 "2014-02-27T07:09:07Z")
The ancient eunuch societies were so great and powerful, they continued to flourish through many generations…_wait, somethings not quite right about that statement._ I’m gonna vote keep. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-be-castrated-to-advance-your-career/682211.md?page=2)