Editing Parasitism (section)

=== Society ===

{{further|Parasitism (social offense)}}

Parasitism has [[Parasitism (social offense)|a derogatory sense]] in popular usage. According to the immunologist John Playfair,<ref name=Playfair2007>{{cite book |last=Playfair |first=John |title=Living with Germs: In health and disease |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kSyDYxLPtDoC&pg=PT19 |year=2007 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-157934-9 |page=19}} Playfair is comparing the popular usage to a biologist's view of parasitism, which he calls (heading the same page) "an ancient and respectable view of life".</ref>
{{blockquote|In everyday speech, the term 'parasite' is loaded with derogatory meaning. A parasite is a sponger, a lazy profiteer, a drain on society.<ref name=Playfair2007/>}}

The [[satirical]] cleric [[Jonathan Swift]] alludes to hyperparasitism in his 1733 poem "On Poetry: A Rhapsody", comparing poets to "vermin" who "teaze and pinch their foes":<ref name="Swift1733">{{cite book |last=Swift |first=Jonathan |author-link=Jonathan Swift |title=On Poetry: A Rapsody |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GmIJAAAAQAAJ |year=1733 |publisher=And sold by J. Huggonson, next to Kent's Coffee-house, near Serjeant's-inn, in Chancery-lane; [and] at the bookseller's and pamphletshops}}</ref>

{{poemquote|The vermin only teaze and pinch
Their foes superior by an inch.
So nat'ralists observe, a flea
Hath smaller fleas that on him prey;

And these have smaller fleas to bite 'em.
And so proceeds ''[[ad infinitum]]''.
Thus every poet, in his kind,
Is bit by him that comes behind:}}

A 2022 study examined the naming of some 3000 parasite species discovered in the previous two decades. Of those named after scientists, over 80% were named for men, whereas about a third of authors of papers on parasites were women. The study found that the percentage of parasite species named for relatives or friends of the author has risen sharply in the same period.<ref name="Poulin McDougall Presswell 2022">{{cite journal |last1=Poulin |first1=Robert |author1-link=Robert Poulin (zoologist) |last2=McDougall |first2=Cameron |last3=Presswell |first3=Bronwen |title=What's in a name? Taxonomic and gender biases in the etymology of new species names |journal=Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences |volume=289 |issue=1974 |date=11 May 2022 |doi=10.1098/rspb.2021.2708 |pmid=35538778 |pmc=9091844 }}</ref>