Bitch

On the Female of the Species

Hardcover, 400 pages

English language

Published June 14, 2022 by Basic Books.

ISBN:
978-1-5416-7489-9
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4 stars (1 review)

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.

8 editions

Definitely a Fun Read

4 stars

This book is probably a really good one to hand to anyone who likes clever prose and is interested in learning about actual animals (and not, as exists in the most commonly referenced texts on evolution, fucking hypothetical seaweed). There are tons of examples that discuss the concepts within the book, which really help to give a mental image to what's happening. This is something that I appreciate, even in pop science texts.

I also think it's good for any of the people others know who are interested in the topic but are sitting on the fence about gender and sexuality (like someone who still thinks men/women and their related roles are the only ones in the world but is at least open to learning some new facts about their world that could, one hopes, shift their gears a bit).