Sexual Strategies: How Females Choose Their Mates

by Mary Batten

Book Overview

"Sexual Strategies is a gem: a beautifully researched and concise introduction to animal mating systems and the clearest available account on the biology of female choice."-Sarah Blaffer Hrdy, PhD... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0874777054
• ISBN13: 9780874777055
• Release Date: October 1992
• Publisher: Tarcherperigee
• Length: 248 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

fascinating stuff

I found this book very difficult to put down- I read about a quarter of it before I'd even left the bookstore. It covers a lot of ground in a short time, but lots of intriguing findings. As one reviewer here has already pointed out, while she entertains various interesting ideas and speculations based on the studies and evidence presented, she unfortunately doesn't ever question the underlying assumption that the female SHOULD have all the power in sexual and reproductive matters. And frankly, the discussion suffers when Batten reveals her feminist agenda and, straying quite a bit a couple times, such as going through some contortions to attempt to dismiss all opposition to abortion (as either attempts to assert control over the female's reproductive power, or as an abstract attempt by males to defend their sperm/progeny). But in all, quite interesting and thought-and-talk provoking.

A good and lively introduction to the reproductive imperative

I was not sure as I began reading this book if it wasn't going to be a little too much of a popularization and a little too crude. But I soon started to appreciate the scope of the book and the inclusion of a wide range of evidence from insects to humans. This book is an accessible introduction to animal (including human) mating sysems and covers a wide range of aspects of reproductive behavior. This is no easy task and the author has done well to explain what can be difficult in a lively and interesting fashion. The author makes the case for the importance of female mate choice and the misrepresentation of females as passive receivers of sperm from winner males. But she also makes the equally important recognition of the subversion of female mate choice especially in the human species where it has often been brutal. Batten ends with the conclusion that we, as humans, have the potential to be free of the reproductive imperative though it will take hard work. Valuing male character strength rather than physical strength and arms is one requirement. The alternative is to continue with the reproductive imperative and continue maintaining the most abusive system of male dominance in all of nature and ultimately destroy ourselves by fighting resource wars and pushing ourselves towards extinction. Recognizing the reproductive imperative behind virtually everything is surely essential. How much we can actually ultimately benefit from this biological consciousness raising no one can know. But if information really is power then using the growing information about ourselves wisely and morally is possibly the only hope we actually have for ourselves as men and women and for survival of this planet and all its species. This is a very good addition to our increasing biological self-awareness.

Important book for understanding human nature

What a breath of fresh air this book is. We live in a society that worships the concepts of love and marriage. It is so enlightening to learn about the natural aspects of animal and human nature without all the distortions of religious and social dogma. I think that a student of evolutionary sexology can probably learn a lot from this book. The average joe will probably be amazed with revelations he gains.

Profound implications for gender politics and morality.

I was first introduced to Mary Batten's "Sexual Strategies" two years ago by a friend, who accurately predicted that the book would give me a breakthrough in understanding the evolutionary basis for all those human mating behaviors and social mores that cause us all so much happiness and grief. I read the book twice and haven't seen it since, but its impact was so great that I've based my morality since then on its major theses. I'm finally ordering a copy for another friend, who will doubtless order some for others. Batten's cross-species comparisons demonstrate certain universal evolutionary principles underlying and/or undermining modern sexual mores and gender politics. The book's greatest value to me was in identifying certain behaviors as evolutionarily-based, such as a female's preference for a high-status male with a willingness to commit resources. Batten's level-headed scientific analysis neatly debunks the classical chauvinist / modern feminist myth of female moral superiority, and places on a morally equal footing the male biological imperative to mate with multiple females. This gave strength to me as a struggling gender egalitarian in a feminist-dominated law school. "Sexual Strategies" is written, in a manner lost since the sexual revolution, with a refreshing absence of Puritan moral posturing. Behaviors that would cause moral outrage if confessed in polite society, such as a females' deception of a non-genetic "father", are treated with commendable neutrality. The development of hierarchical dominance traits through female sexual choice is laid out so convincingly that the male-bashing anti-testosterone politics of today seem to just evaporate in the sunshine of scientific evidence so thoughtfully analyzed. Batten's cross-cultural comparisons also contribute greatly to an understanding that "No, we're not all alike all over the world." Many cultural traditions, marital customs and sexual strictures are exposed as merely arbitrary local rules rather than logically or evolutionarily based traits, and therefore seem destined for the dustbin of social history. When read in conjunction with Robert Wright's "The Moral Animal", Mary Batten's "Sexual Strategies" becomes the cornerstone of a new era of rational morality, and possibly real happiness for a great many people who would otherwise remain stuck in the prehistoric morass of outdated social mores. Thank you Mary Batten.

Andrei-Bob says check it out.

This is a quite fascinating book which attempts to upturn the classic presumption that the male always initiates coupling experiences -- human or other animal. In addition to its intellectual value, the book contains material which an intelligent male could use to become smarter than the average bear. Read it, or you're one dead dinosaur