Bitch
On the Female of the Species
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- $20.99
Publisher Description
A zoologist’s “compelling and often hilarious” (Science) look at the queens of the animal kingdom
Somewhere in the ocean, an orca matriarch leads her pod to better hunting grounds. At the same time, a male clownfish, alone after the death of his mate, changes sex. All the while, humans battle over sex and gender: One side argues evolutionary biology dictates how we should be, and the other that it’s a patriarchal tool and shouldn’t matter at all.
In Bitch, zoologist Lucy Cooke rewrites the science of evolution and sex, showing how a band of pioneering, feminist biologists have uncovered the dizzying diversity created by evolution. In their work, Cooke finds a new understanding of what being female can mean and how evolution itself can work.
Never before in history has being female been so scrutinized. Rising to meet the moment, Bitch is a fierce, funny, and revolutionary scientific manifesto with a new perspective on the female animal that is much more inclusive, true to life, and fun.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
"The truth is that males and females are more alike than they are different," writes journalist Cooke (The Truth About Animals) in this zippy survey on females of the animal kingdom and the scientists who study them. Cooke emphasizes how research on female animals was woefully inadequate until the past few decades, when scientists began to challenge the "standard paradigm" of female passivity and male agency. In vivid detail, Cooke highlights animals that defy stereotypes: there's female spotted hyenas, who dominate males with their "masculinized body and behaviour"; the "matriarchal and peaceful" society of the bonobos, where females avoid conflict by trading food for sex; and orcas, who have seen menopausal matriarchs spend their post-reproductive years leading their pods. Cooke emphasizes the importance of female choice in evolution, and bite-size profiles of scientists appear throughout, including ones spotlighting Patricia Gowaty, who studied adulterous female songbirds, and Sarah Blaffer Hrdy, an anthropologist who's spent her life "weeding out sexist dogma." The author has a charmingly irreverent style that, among other things, pokes holes in the sexist scientific research of old that used cherry-picked data to conclude females weren't worth studying. This hits the right balance between informative and entertaining; popular science fans will want to check it out.
