Andrea rambles on about SCIENCE! and the process of fertilization.

The tendency to assign traits perceived as masculine and feminine to sperm and egg cells is both sexist and factually wrong. Sperm and Eggs do not “think”, but instead follow a program written in their DNA. Both of them have evolved to perform their respective tasks, delivering DNA or developing into a new organism, and attempting to force them into a narrative role does this process a great disservice. Personally I find that bad metaphors are one of the great banes of science, because someone will read to much into or completely misunderstand it. Unfortunately, it is difficult for people without a good grounding on a topic- any topic, not just scientific ones- to understand many concepts without the use of metaphors. Unfortunately, this including the people trying to learn about a topic.

Please please ask any questions you have on this topic in the comments. I may at a later date find a good video (or video series) that shows this process. For now, this should give you a good idea of scale.

More after the jump.

The all-mighty egg. By: Kate Rapp

This is a story (narrative) about the all-mighty egg that lives in every women. When a women is born, she is born with eggs; and all of those eggs are some of the strongest gametes to ever live. Right in the beginning the egg has an unbreakable shield where almost to nothing can be passed through. The potential of the egg is outstanding. As the egg starts out with all it's abilities and tools it is already born with, all it needs is a small sperm to break through it's shield and then the egg starts it's breathtaking process. Now the egg has everything is needs to make a person! An analogy to go along with the story of the egg is thinking about it as baking cookies. Consider the egg like the cookie dough, it already has all the ingredients it needs to create something delicious. But all the cookie dough needs is heat, which you can relate the sperm to the heat. As soon as the cookie dough gets enough heat is then forms itself into a cookie, just like how the egg turned itself into a baby.

This is my version of how the women's egg is seen has the hero to the story opposed to the sperm, which here seems to have the minuscule part to the story.

Equal Partnership

I see the egg and the sperm as a united team.  Without the other, neither would have a purpose. Within nature everything strives to find a good balance in life. The egg may be passive but it is very strong.  It does not simply let all the sperm infiltrate its walls. There are several sperm fighting to get the egg but only the strongest will be able to attach.  Saying the sperm is superior is like saying that the bee is more important than the flower. Without the flower the bee would never get fed and in return without the bee the flower would never get pollinated.

The Romanticized Egg

The egg is an amazing gamete or cell because it is passed from mother to daughter and is affected by the lifestyle of the human being carrying it. It's passiveness is a key element to its protection against degrading. While hundreds of other eggs slowly die away the surviving eggs are genetically superior to those who have been damaged. The millions of sperm which attach to the egg all aid in weakening its outer membrane and without the effort of all one could not break through the guard cells of the egg. Sperm are only able to break through the strong egg due to efforts of hundreds. So while an egg has a long arduous trial to produce a child sperm are a dime a dozen.