by Jay Brett
Sex permeates the American culture, from our commercials to our political debates. Certainly college students spend a significant portion of their free time searching out or talking about sex. For anyone who is interested in why humans devote so much energy to sex and love and why we find it so challenging to find a good partner, I would recommend skipping Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus
and reading The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature
instead. Matt Ridley, a charismatic zoologist and journalist, begins by explaining the problems of sex, demonstrating why evolutionists have puzzled over this reproductive peculiarity for centuries. He examines the various types of competition that can drive evolution, both inter- and intra-group, including predation, parasitism, and sexual selection. He presents the reader with a number of riddles concerning evolution, then offers and explains each currently debated explanation. He examines first the evolutionary purposes for sex and sexual strategies, using mostly examples of birds and insects. The second half of the book is a highly theoretical yet intriguing discussion of sex in humans, mostly in the context of primates. Beauty, homosexuality, and cheating are all carefully examined, and Ridley puts some of his own theories forward. The most recurring theory is Dr. Van Valen’s red queen concept, referencing Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass: it is the idea that no matter how quickly one group changes, its peers will keep up.
The Red Queen is written in a conversational vernacular intended for a general audience, using analogies of card games and quoting Shakespeare. However, a general understanding of some scientific field is assumed, as many analogies relate the genetic or biological concept described to some mathematical, chemical, or economic concept. A great deal of the history of evolutionary theories is provided, along with anecdotes regarding the scientists who made significant advances. This book does an excellent job of clearly presenting theories and providing the reader with the explanations and support needed to understand each one, despite the fact that many of the theories are refuted within a few pages. The chronological flow allows the reader to follow the advances in theory as though travelling through the development of each one on fast-forward. The subject is a fascinating one and Risley an energetic narrator; I would recommend this book to any science major or minor.
NB: this book review originally published in Skidmore's Science Networking Organization Newsletter Volume 1, Edition 2, December 2010.
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