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Seksmisja: scientists grow human sperm from stem cells
Posted on July 12th, 2009 1 commentRecently scientists claimed to have successfully grown human sperm from stem cells according to a number of articles in national newspapers. See:
Seksmisja
Although these claims have attracted scorn from other members of the scientific community (I note the link to the original article from the Guardian is now broken), it is surely only a question of time before this and other such laboratory creations become possible. This particular line of study could have some repercussions for approximately one half of the world’s population: men. Yes it’s our job to manufacture sperm, a pretty crucial role in the evolution of man (the species which bears our name). The prospect of being usurped by multi-tasking female scientists of the future is not the kind of redundancy package we may be looking for in today’s harsh economic climate.
Life without men in the BBC online’s magazine section took a cross-section of views on this possibility, mostly tongue-in-cheek. It doesn’t mention the greatest satire though, Seksmisja, the cult Polish 80s futuristic comedy, (English translation, ‘Sexmission’).
Co-writer and director Juliusz Machulski has come up with a hybrid sex sci fi comedy that defies categorization — a humorous, male-fantasy that is set after a mythical World War III, in a surviving underground world of women only. Before the terrible onslaught of the final war, two scientists were frozen in a state of suspended animation with the intention of thawing them out in three years. When they are released from their ice-bound sleep, 50 years have passed instead and they find themselves the only two males in a female society that has thus far reproduced only in the test tube… Synopsis, AllMovie
I watched this in the 80s with subtitles, probably Channel4’s brilliant foreign film season. It was a titillating mix of satire, slapstick, fetish (check those outfits out
). There is a large element of voyeurism too as the two men have the pleasure of observing the unsuspecting females, who have never seen a man, in various states of undress. The birds and the bees
No subtitles for this alas – one of the male heroes tries explaining the facts of life, before getting frustrated….
No smoking!
“Kurwa Macz!”
… they finally stumble upon the password to the outside world, ‘kurwa macz’, translated here as ‘for fucks sake’, probably the most widely heard Polish curse, but literally translated as ‘Mother of a Whore!’. Hmm there must be some irony there somewhere methinks ….
Seksmisja online