Women After All: Sex, Evolution, and the End of Male Supremacy
Melvin Konner
W.W. Norton & Co.
Scientists now know again what our ancestors took for granted: that men and women think and act differently. Konner, a biological anthropologist, surveys non-human animals, from bonobos to whiptail lizards, and enumerates staggering varieties of sexual difference, as well as exotically shaped genitalia and sexual behaviors strange enough to shock Dr. Ruth. Moving to humans, Konner marshals evidence that women are “superior” to men—more logical, cautious, sociable, and peaceful. He predicts that as warfare, the biological domain of men, subsides in importance, women will claim more power, to the benefit of all. Through biotech, they may actually be able to miniaturize men until they are harmless “diminutive parasites,” or get rid of men altogether, or (he muses approvingly) keep them “in small numbers for sexual services.” Konner’s engagingly odd book is a case for female dominance, and for not letting biological anthropologists run anything larger than a faculty meeting.
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