Sex Differences: Development and Evolutionary Strategies

Archives of Sexual Behavior,  December, 2003  by Edward M. Miller

• E-mail
• Print
• Link

By Linda Mealey. Academic Press, San Diego, California, 2000, 480 pp., $79.95.

"Men are animals." That is the message of Mealey's book. No, this is not a feminist treatise. Instead, her message is men (and women) are evolved animals, ones whose abilities and motivations have been shaped by eons of evolution. These long periods of evolution have shaped them to be different.

Because we are indeed animals, Mealey starts out by discussing reproduction in various animals. In this context, the first question is "Why sex?" Surely an animal that reproduced by budding could outreproduce one that needed a ...