Sex Advice
ANTHROPOMORPHISM — ascribing human thoughts and motivations to the actions of other species — used to be the dirtiest word in the animal behaviourist's dictionary. Not any more. Dr Tatiana brings us a catalogue of vices that would bring a blush to the cheeks of even the most depraved Homo sapiens.
There is nothing in the kaleidoscope of human sexual behaviour that other creatures great and small haven't tried out before, she says. Across the animal kingdom there is widespread homosexuality, rampant nymphomania, troilism, incest… and a male praying mantis's concept of the term “giving head” makes any other definition seem tame.
Dr Tatiana is a fictional agony aunt dispensing advice on sexual etiquette to the love sick and baffled. Only her “readers” are, for example, a nervous female golden potto (a simple bushbaby-like primate) disturbed by the enormous spines on her boyfriend's member; or a sensitive male Australian seaweed fly dismayed at the aggressive wooing demanded by prospective mates.
The idea is original, clever and will ensure that Judson's explanations of the evolution of sex and sexuality will reach a much wider audience than other more academic texts. But does it work? Up to a point.
Undoubtedly, the science is well researched, tightly argued, sometimes funny and often very enlightening. Judson points out some uncomfortable facts that may cause many to look at their own relationships in a different light. For example, even among those species like gibbons or many songbirds, that were once believed to mate for life, true monogamy is rare. So rare that it is one of the most deviant behaviours in biology, she asserts.
What scientific credentials does she have to make such a claim? They are certainly pretty impressive — Judson studied at Oxford University with the renowned evolutionary biologist Bill Hamilton and is now a research fellow at Imperial College, London.
But in between she worked on the science staff of The Economist and has adopted the supercilious prose style characteristic of that magazine.
That seems to be the main problem with this book — it is too smart for its own good. The trickery starts to annoy long before the final, ill-judged chapter. That is a fantasy about a daytime television show in the Jerry Springer mould with a live audience of creatures on various rungs of the evolutionary ladder. They all whoop derision at the only organism that completely eschews sex, the bdelloid rotifer (a microscopic creature that lives in damp moss). The chapter reviews the theories to explain the selective advantages of sexual reproduction and has some interesting points to make. But it's a huge relief when the credits roll — like sex, gimmicks can really tire you out.
There is nothing in the kaleidoscope of human sexual behaviour that other creatures great and small haven't tried out before, she says. Across the animal kingdom there is widespread homosexuality, rampant nymphomania, troilism, incest… and a male praying mantis's concept of the term “giving head” makes any other definition seem tame.
Dr Tatiana is a fictional agony aunt dispensing advice on sexual etiquette to the love sick and baffled. Only her “readers” are, for example, a nervous female golden potto (a simple bushbaby-like primate) disturbed by the enormous spines on her boyfriend's member; or a sensitive male Australian seaweed fly dismayed at the aggressive wooing demanded by prospective mates.
The idea is original, clever and will ensure that Judson's explanations of the evolution of sex and sexuality will reach a much wider audience than other more academic texts. But does it work? Up to a point.
Undoubtedly, the science is well researched, tightly argued, sometimes funny and often very enlightening. Judson points out some uncomfortable facts that may cause many to look at their own relationships in a different light. For example, even among those species like gibbons or many songbirds, that were once believed to mate for life, true monogamy is rare. So rare that it is one of the most deviant behaviours in biology, she asserts.
What scientific credentials does she have to make such a claim? They are certainly pretty impressive — Judson studied at Oxford University with the renowned evolutionary biologist Bill Hamilton and is now a research fellow at Imperial College, London.
But in between she worked on the science staff of The Economist and has adopted the supercilious prose style characteristic of that magazine.
That seems to be the main problem with this book — it is too smart for its own good. The trickery starts to annoy long before the final, ill-judged chapter. That is a fantasy about a daytime television show in the Jerry Springer mould with a live audience of creatures on various rungs of the evolutionary ladder. They all whoop derision at the only organism that completely eschews sex, the bdelloid rotifer (a microscopic creature that lives in damp moss). The chapter reviews the theories to explain the selective advantages of sexual reproduction and has some interesting points to make. But it's a huge relief when the credits roll — like sex, gimmicks can really tire you out.
By: Bonner, John, New Scientist
posted by James at 2:10 PM
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