"The best thing a woman can do for a man, especially her own man, but really, any man she has a legitimate relationship with, is to express admiration. If a woman notices what a man is doing and acknowledges it is something difficult and inspiring, she has given him just about the only thing he can't go out and get himself."

-Lynn, concerning Tori

Lynn, I was raised to believe that it was his choice of dinner.

It occurs to me, in discussing this aspect of male and female interaction—an aspect that necessitates no messy sexual relationship or economic ties, but simple acquaintance in, as you state, a legitimate, socially acceptable context—is largely absent in our culture. In most cases this expression of admiration has been stricken from our personal interaction and transferred to celebrity adulation, political allegiance and cultic adoration.

Reflecting now on my recovery, which a few thoughtful words from a suffering woman accelerated beyond my medical treatment or therapy, and considering your commentary, so neatly stated above, I believe that Tori's statement increased my testosterone output to such a degree that it was far more effective than the steroids, which helped only mildly, and had been out of my system by this time.

As a fight promoter I noticed early on how much more testosterone pumped among the fighters when young women were among the spectators.

As a fighter I have noticed the effect a crowd has on me, positive and negative. As an anti-social type, I am strengthend by booing crowds who hate me. But also, I once awoke over an opponent as I pounded him senseless. He had KO'd be on my feet and somehow I kept going. When I came to consciousness I was bent over him, rhythmically punching his face cage with my steel shield, trying like some robot to stove it in. My arm was pumping to the rhythm of the spectators, who were chanting for me. Vaguely the disapproval of our seconds and the umpire began to be heard, but still, I punched away until the umpire dragged me off the opponent. I believe this was an external influence on my chemistry.

There are a legion of examples of men accomplishing things before a crowed that they were unable to do in the gym. It is known that testosterone output among men that enter the marine boot camp at Paris Island drops drastically as they are ritually emasculated by the entry procedure and is then built up to much higher than normal levels through training. Currently 25-year-old men are lacking as much as a quarter of the testosterone compared to their fathers at the same age. Testosterone therapy is becoming a medical specialty.

Might it be, that our civilization is designed—or has evolved to—lower natural T levels?

Might it be that feminism and the universal disdain for manly things promoted by our mass media have the purpose—or at least the effect—of draining men of the hormone required to resist political domination, to resist evil?

Might it be that feminine social approval and disapproval [1] is a mechanism harnessed by the state to render men docile, just as a bull is rendered into a steer by castration?

If domesticity is the societal goal, testosterone is a weapon.

Thanks, Lynn for serving up this food for thought.

1. The Zulu nation forbid young men of the junior age-based impis [battalions] to engage in sex with their woman, who had been selected, until they went into battle. This made for a hyper-aggressive iron-age [technologically equivalent to the armies at Kadesh, civilization's first recorded battle, 3,700 years ago] army that managed to hand an army equipped with modern rifles a gruesome setback.