The Egg and the Sperm

In the sexual biology readings for this week, I was quite surprised about the issue of the way the sperm and the egg are personified in general. The sperm cells are always described as fast and competitive, and the egg is described as a passive lump. I'm quite surprised people thought it was a natural reflection of how the female and male characters are. Just because it is assumed that sex cells of a certain sex act a certain way (which may or may not be true--it's all up to interpretation), it doesn't mean it is a reflection of how the human owning the cell acts. One of Freud's beliefs was that people see what they want to see, and make what they want of situations. This is a similar concept to when we say, "beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder".

Essentially, people who are looking into the characteristics of male and female sex cells are already looking at it through a predisposed lens of what they are going to make of it. And oddly (or not oddly) enough, the main writers of such textbooks and articles are men. Hmm... curious. The egg is never looked at as a majestic princess, and the sperm are never looked at as the men who are fighting for her attention. This would put the egg into a superior position, and thus, according to the theory of the reading, make the female sex the superior sex. But then again, this is me looking for a way to glorify the female sex cell. So, it can easily be looked at as anything, depending on what you're set out to do. It just shows the bias people had even before they observed the behavior of sex cells.