Should women "on the blob" be allowed to vote?

AmazingMan

Studies have shown that when women are undergoing their monthly menstrual cycle for a period of 3-5 days they undergo great hormonal changes. I'm sure all of us who have been in relationships know that the woman you know and love can change intensely during this period whether it be that they:

become overly emotional
become moody/intolerant/aggressive

If you want the science behind it then basically during their periods the woman's reward system goes into overdrive

The reward system circuitry is made of the prefrontal cortex (the center of thinking and planning); the amygdala, (the emotional center); the hippocampus (a brain center involved in learning and emotions); and the striatum (a brain zone related to learned emotions), all of which possess receptors for estrogen and progesterone.

When women are forecasting a reward, the amygdala and prefrontal cortex, linked to emotion and reward-related planning behavior, were turned on for longer periods during the pre-ovulation phase (four to eight days after their period began) than in the post-ovulatory phase. When women really won a reward, those in the pre-ovulatory stage turned on the striatum and pleasure-reward related area for longer periods than in the post-ovulatory stage.

So what all that mumbo-jumbo is saying is that during the period cycle of 3-5 days the woman is intolerant, harder to please, stressed, more impatient and more prone to instant reward stimulations or addictions.

In short, during their period the woman is a lot more incapable of making a rational informed decision and will basically be a hell of a lot more likely to make a decision based on something that is likely to provide her with an instant reward than make a decision on the basis of what is best for the common good of the group. For reward in these scenarios it could be anything, a bar of chocolate, a comment on their looks, a new pair of shoes, your offer to cook dinner. Any offer to do these things will be appreciated too much and any reluctance or just plain oversight in terms of offering a reward to the woman will be overly criticised/maligned.

I know you're bored now but I had to explain it in rational scientific terms or I know I would be accused of being on a wind-up. The scientific theory suggests that during their period womens' decision-making process is basically screwed up and we see evidence of this in so many elections.

Because of the instant reward thesis the woman on the blob will vote for the taller or more attractive candidate rather than have any regard for his policies/ethics as they are seeking an instant reward. They are too self-absorbed during their period to consider the long-term policies of a candidate and instead many will make a choice based on a superficial trait. Of course, they are entitled to do this but I feel this unnecessarily provides a bias to one candidate based on a non-relevant issue. Therefore I would seriously consider passing into law a resolution that forces women undergoing the menstrual cycle to be restricted from voting or at the very least have their voting rights curtailed during their ovulation period (i.e. they face a series of questions about each candidate's policies and won't be permitted to vote unless they pass the test or perhaps allow them special dispensation to vote once their period has elapsed, perhaps something called "the blob swing" will become a part of the political language)

What do you think?

Dannyboy83

Couldn't enforce it.
Hormonal levels can vary massively between individuals.

You could only make judgements such as this where people were on the extreme fringes (e.g. Caster Semnya for a woman, Ronnie Coleman for a man)

e.g. The average Irish male produces approx 40mg Testosterone per week, an African in West Africa such as Nigeria may produce up to 80mg per week.

Bodybuilders such as the Mr.Olympia contestants commonly administer as much as 6g of exogenous Testosterone per week (reputed to be even higher in the likes of Andreas Munzer), from all the various esters, and thats not including Thyroid hormones, growth hormones, insulin etc.

You can be below the normal male range by as much as 40% and doctors will not prescribe testosterone replacement because they are scared.
Often they will give you tribulus or some crap


Stress will warp your cortisol levels.
Drinking beer will reduce your testosterone levels.

The point is, you need to define "normal" ranges, and then show that those individuals outside the normal range are suffering from some type of psychosis. The only way to assess this would be on an individual basis.
The entire electorate would be dead before you would have assessed 1%

Reference ranges for blood tests are here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reference_ranges_for_blood_tests

Scofflaw

Since this is the equivalent of asking "should people be allowed to vote when angry/sad/drunk/ill/medicated/whatever", I can't see the value in this other than as a wind-up.

moderately,
Scofflaw