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Bitch: On the Female of the Species
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About This Book
A fierce, funny, and revolutionary look at the queens of the animal kingdom. Studying zoology made Lucy Cooke feel like a sad freak. Not because she loved spiders or would root around in animal feces: all her friends shared the same curious kinks. The problem was her sex. Being female meant she was, by nature, a loser. Since Charles Darwin, evolutionary biologists have been convinced that the males of the animal kingdom are the interesting ones—dominating and promiscuous, while females are dull, passive, and devoted. In Bitch, Cooke tells a new story. Whether investigating same-sex female albatross couples that raise chicks, murderous mother meerkats, or the titanic battle of the sexes waged by ducks, Cooke shows us a new evolutionary biology, one where females can be as dynamic as any male. This isn't your grandfather's evolutionary biology. It's more inclusive, truer to life, and, simply, more fun.
Reviews
"Her book encourages reflection but never overwhelms with information, even when, for instance, debunking accepted wisdom about XX and XY chromosomes ..."
"The chapter on sex binaries overclaims the loudest ..."
"Cooke is willing to question the scientific validity of the evolutionary story as handed down by Darwin – a scientific sacred cow."
"Their pioneering research shows that sex and gender have always been complex, innovative, and varied throughout the animal kingdom."
"Cooke gleefully rebuts many of these assumptions about male dominance and female docility ..so full of marvellous surprises about sex roles that I sensed Cooke herself was transformed in its writing."
"riveting research ..."
"Readers will find the familiar account of female spiders eating males as they try to mate, but there is much more to discover in Cooke's fascinating pages ..."
"This hits the right balance between informative and entertaining; popular science fans will want to check it out."
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