manyblinkinglights:

I’m kinda inebriated, but, if you click on the linked article, it’s basically about how scientists are people too–people raised in crummy sexist societies just like the rest of us, that is, and therefore people who think about the world in a subconsciously hella sexist way. Sexism colors how scientists write and communicate with each other, and, in this case, powerfully modifies the way they talk about stuff like sperm and eggs–it turns out that, in bullheadedly portraying sperm as Masculine and Strong and shit for all these decades, science as a whole has delayed finding out new and interesting things about how fertilization ACTUALLY works. In this case, that the egg yells chemically for the sperm to come to its yard, and then grabs the ones it wants and hangs on, while they lowkey try to be evasive and escape but finally swoon and accept the egg’s ministrations.