The Y Chromosome: My Patriarchal Inheritance

The Y chromosome is a small, but powerful piece of my dad that, love it or hate it, I get all to myself. Besides the obvious characteristics that I inherited from my father (stunningly good looks); I believe the Y chromosome contains more. I believe on a general level the Y chromosome could be labeled as the destruction gene. I have a nephew who illustrates this perfectly. He was playing cars one day and asked his mom if she would play with him. She graciously consented and started driving the little cars around the living room floor. When much to her surprise my nephew told her, "Mom you are doing it wrong. You have to crash the cars." My sister asked, "Did your dad teach you to play like that." My nephew, "No one taught me it. It is just how you play." A simple example maybe, but one that is almost universal in nature. Practically every boy who has a toy, no matter what it is, tries to either beat it up or beat up the other toys.

Another example is the media and what are often called "man shows". My family was watching Transformers one day and I was sitting on my couch with a girl. She leaned over to me and said, "This is such a guy show." Now I must admit that men have a certain stereotype of being somewhat oblivious, which may or not be entirely accurate. But I never realized that the movie was such a guy show. I got to thinking about it and truly the movie epitomizes what men love; big explosions, attractive women, and non-stop action. It may sound shallow, but for the vast majority of men it is truth. There are countless shows dedicated entirely to those three 'man ideas'. Did I hear anyone say James Bond? Or was it Fast and Furious? Men love these shows because they entertain us at the very core of our being.

It is also thanks to the Y chromosome that men have dreams of being number one, the best, the alpha-male. Now I am not pretending to say we all view 'The Best' exactly the same. For some the alpha-male is in sports, others in business; some want to be the funniest, others the most beautiful. And others more subtle desire to be the wisest, most compassionate, or most creative. It doesn't matter the bailiwick, we want to be without comparison. The alpha-male doesn't come without a price and some call it arrogance or brazenness, and others simply smile and say, "You are just being a guy." And even though females make joke and laugh at us and our prideful games where we try and establish dominance; the truth is that is what attracts them to us.

So sure maybe some of us aren't the most sensitive or caring. Some of us don't care about fashion. Some of us can't decipher a message in an abstract poem even though the key is right in front of our face. Some of us have a hard time making decisions and others have a hard time letting anyone else make a decision. No matter the downsides of my patriarchal inheritance I am glad that I inherited the Y chromosome from my father because it is the BEST!