Funniest Review Ever
08/06/11 08:18
“Sex at Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality” by Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jethá (is my Boyfriend)
Posted on June 6, 2011 by Books are my Boyfriends
What the Book is About- I haven’t even started writing this review and I’m already tomato-red-blushing.
(At this point I whisper to myself “Whoreface, get it together. You’re a fully-grown adult and it’s a book review. Stop giggling to yourself.”)
Okay so SEX AT DAWN…
Sorry I need to stop giggling. Stopping. Stopping. No. Wait. Okay. No, wait again. Okay. Actually stopping this time. No. Three more giggles. Okay, two more. And…. I’m giggled out, let’s do a book review!
So SEX AT DAWN is the most controversial, provocative and most importantly hot-hot-hot-pants piece of non-fiction you’re likely to find around. If you are one of those people that has read too many three volume Civil War accounts and thinks non-fiction is just the most tedious and tiresome of the boringest, get ready to change your opinion about the genre starting rightthissecondnow. You know in the movies when the quiet librarian type slips off her glasses and takes her hair out of a ponytail and swishes it around and all of a sudden her boobs are busting out of her shirt and she’s wearing eight inch heels, you know that part in movies?
That’s what SEX AT DAWN does to non-fiction.
You only kind of believe me? Let’s make you completely believe me, let’s synopsize! The basic theory the book puts forth is that human monogamy is NOT natural (Warning, 19th century apoplectic women, you might want to get your smelling salts out and find a good couch to go faint on) AND it puts forth the idea that men and women were biologically designed to have lots of undiscriminating casual sex with each other AND if we just got rid of monogamy in human society, we wouldn’t have divorce or war or hurt feelings about all the dudes who are just not that into you.
(You wouldn’t have time to have hurt feelings, you’d be too busy having societally condoned promiscuous intercourse with all the dudes who WERE just that into you!)
There’s also lots of on-the-ground reporting from a polyamorous town in China and a super-orgy-fied jungle in Brazil where if you don’t agree to have sex with whoevs in your tribe is horndogging it for you at the moment you are considered to be “stingy with your genitals.”
“Stingy with your genitals” is a phrase that actually exists in real life, oh my God I love this book so much.
There’s also a really compelling theory that agriculture/owning property set humanity on a course for both monogamy and war, and furthermore that monogamy and war are directly linked to one another, SAY WHAT?
There’s another supes-interesting proposition that humans are much more like peace-loving, polyamorous bonobo apes that the warmongering chimpanzees we are always comparing ourselves to, and citing chimps as our ancestors has let us go about pretending it’s okay for humanity to be an evil, bloodthirsty blight on the planet, when in fact we should be a peace-loving tribe of orgy rockstars like the bonobos.
So basically, sex for everyone, with everyone, everywhere, all the time equals Planet Earth being a real life version of “It’s a Small World After All” with the fricking singing and everything. Did you EVER think that someone would try to solve conflict in the Middle East by trying to tear down the institution of marriage? Yeah, that’s basically how Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jetha roll.
Bonus plus there is SO much talk about boning in SEX AT DAWN. Do you want to get a great present for that 12 year old boy you know? This might be it. Plus like a video game and a card with a picture of boobs on it. You’ll be so set.
Now after I read this book I did not jump in my car, drive to random dudes houses and start intercoursing with people that weren’t my boyfriend. (Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jetha, you won’t get me that easy!) But this book did make me think. A lot. About what sex is. What a relationship is. What the point of monogamy is. Heck on a stick, what the point of ROMANCE is. Me, whose brain is part “The Notebook”-Gosling-and-McAdams-screwing-in-the-rain, part John-Cusack-not-putting-down-that-boombox-in-”Say Anything”-no-matter-how-long-it-takes-for-Ione-Skye-to-come-to-the-fucking-window, part the-ending-of “The Way We Were”- when-Barbara-Streisand-and-Robert-Redford-meet-on-that-New-York-street-years-later-and-having-one-last-sad-hug*, this is THAT ROMANCE IN MY PANTS ME questioning MONOGA-FUCKING-MY!!!
Here’s the conclusion I’ve come to. I love my romance. I love my closed relationship. I love my male friends knowing we are not going to have sex. I love random dudes on the street knowing we are not going to have sex. I love my boyfriend not having sex with random girls. I love my boyfriend being stingy with his genitals. I love being stingy with my genitals!
But I also love a book that really makes me think. Aaaaaaaaand…. is also boner-worth non-fiction. Dudes, you know you want to have a boner while reading non-fiction. Ladies, you know you want to have a metaphorical boner while reading nonfiction.
Non-fiction boners for everyone!
BAMB out!
*Every Jewish girl thinks she’s Barbara Streisand and that Robert Redford is going to see past her nose and be so blue-eyes-chiseled-features-blinding-smile-in-love-with-her. If you’re really good at singing like Babs, you just might have a shot.
What Kind of Boyfriend He is- Sexy boy anthropologist who believes in polyamory, natch.
Let’s be real here, this is a college-finding-yourself-and-drinking-a-shit-ton-of-Pabst-Blue-Ribbon relationship. Or maybe a wandering-through-your-twenties-aimlessly-and-questioning-everything-you-thought-you-knew-about-yourself kind of relationship. Posssssibly a mid-thirties-getting-out-of-a-long-term-relationship-you-thought-was-going-to-end-in-marriage-and-didn’t-and-now-you-have-misplaced-your-brain-and-are-going-batshit-crazy-all-the-time relationship. But “Sex With Dawn” is not a relationship that is going to go any kind of distance. Which isn’t to say it’s not a relationship worth having. Dude can talk intellectual shop-talk with the best of them, of course he can, he’s a BOY ANTHROPOLOGIST!
Also, all the ladies he’s been with/continues to be with while the two of you are dating? Yeah, he’s learned a thing or two from them.
A thing or two about what to do with his mouth and genitals, I wanted to make sure that was clear in case you didn’t get the innuendo. Oh, you did get it? Oh, you got it a hundred and ten percent? Oh. Okay.
He’s really good with his sexual body parts.
My Date With “Sex at Dawn”-
SEX AT DAWN wants to have an orgy with me an all the books I’ve reviewed on the blog thus far. Check my face for my reaction to this suggestion.
He’s like “Let’s just get all the books on top of you and see what happens.”
I actually though this was just-a-little-bit-this-side-of-sexy so we get our butts all tucked in bed.
Oh, yeah, we are tucked in all right.
And then things got a little crazy…
As long as we’re doing a book-sex shoot, am going to take this moment to reenact my FAVORITE movie sex scene, Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio in TITANIC (Yeah, yeah!) This is me doing my best impression of Kate’s sweaty hand sliding against the window of the old fashioned car she and Leo are having sex in.
Posted on June 6, 2011 by Books are my Boyfriends
What the Book is About- I haven’t even started writing this review and I’m already tomato-red-blushing.
(At this point I whisper to myself “Whoreface, get it together. You’re a fully-grown adult and it’s a book review. Stop giggling to yourself.”)
Okay so SEX AT DAWN…
Sorry I need to stop giggling. Stopping. Stopping. No. Wait. Okay. No, wait again. Okay. Actually stopping this time. No. Three more giggles. Okay, two more. And…. I’m giggled out, let’s do a book review!
So SEX AT DAWN is the most controversial, provocative and most importantly hot-hot-hot-pants piece of non-fiction you’re likely to find around. If you are one of those people that has read too many three volume Civil War accounts and thinks non-fiction is just the most tedious and tiresome of the boringest, get ready to change your opinion about the genre starting rightthissecondnow. You know in the movies when the quiet librarian type slips off her glasses and takes her hair out of a ponytail and swishes it around and all of a sudden her boobs are busting out of her shirt and she’s wearing eight inch heels, you know that part in movies?
That’s what SEX AT DAWN does to non-fiction.
You only kind of believe me? Let’s make you completely believe me, let’s synopsize! The basic theory the book puts forth is that human monogamy is NOT natural (Warning, 19th century apoplectic women, you might want to get your smelling salts out and find a good couch to go faint on) AND it puts forth the idea that men and women were biologically designed to have lots of undiscriminating casual sex with each other AND if we just got rid of monogamy in human society, we wouldn’t have divorce or war or hurt feelings about all the dudes who are just not that into you.
(You wouldn’t have time to have hurt feelings, you’d be too busy having societally condoned promiscuous intercourse with all the dudes who WERE just that into you!)
There’s also lots of on-the-ground reporting from a polyamorous town in China and a super-orgy-fied jungle in Brazil where if you don’t agree to have sex with whoevs in your tribe is horndogging it for you at the moment you are considered to be “stingy with your genitals.”
“Stingy with your genitals” is a phrase that actually exists in real life, oh my God I love this book so much.
There’s also a really compelling theory that agriculture/owning property set humanity on a course for both monogamy and war, and furthermore that monogamy and war are directly linked to one another, SAY WHAT?
There’s another supes-interesting proposition that humans are much more like peace-loving, polyamorous bonobo apes that the warmongering chimpanzees we are always comparing ourselves to, and citing chimps as our ancestors has let us go about pretending it’s okay for humanity to be an evil, bloodthirsty blight on the planet, when in fact we should be a peace-loving tribe of orgy rockstars like the bonobos.
So basically, sex for everyone, with everyone, everywhere, all the time equals Planet Earth being a real life version of “It’s a Small World After All” with the fricking singing and everything. Did you EVER think that someone would try to solve conflict in the Middle East by trying to tear down the institution of marriage? Yeah, that’s basically how Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jetha roll.
Bonus plus there is SO much talk about boning in SEX AT DAWN. Do you want to get a great present for that 12 year old boy you know? This might be it. Plus like a video game and a card with a picture of boobs on it. You’ll be so set.
Now after I read this book I did not jump in my car, drive to random dudes houses and start intercoursing with people that weren’t my boyfriend. (Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jetha, you won’t get me that easy!) But this book did make me think. A lot. About what sex is. What a relationship is. What the point of monogamy is. Heck on a stick, what the point of ROMANCE is. Me, whose brain is part “The Notebook”-Gosling-and-McAdams-screwing-in-the-rain, part John-Cusack-not-putting-down-that-boombox-in-”Say Anything”-no-matter-how-long-it-takes-for-Ione-Skye-to-come-to-the-fucking-window, part the-ending-of “The Way We Were”- when-Barbara-Streisand-and-Robert-Redford-meet-on-that-New-York-street-years-later-and-having-one-last-sad-hug*, this is THAT ROMANCE IN MY PANTS ME questioning MONOGA-FUCKING-MY!!!
Here’s the conclusion I’ve come to. I love my romance. I love my closed relationship. I love my male friends knowing we are not going to have sex. I love random dudes on the street knowing we are not going to have sex. I love my boyfriend not having sex with random girls. I love my boyfriend being stingy with his genitals. I love being stingy with my genitals!
But I also love a book that really makes me think. Aaaaaaaaand…. is also boner-worth non-fiction. Dudes, you know you want to have a boner while reading non-fiction. Ladies, you know you want to have a metaphorical boner while reading nonfiction.
Non-fiction boners for everyone!
BAMB out!
*Every Jewish girl thinks she’s Barbara Streisand and that Robert Redford is going to see past her nose and be so blue-eyes-chiseled-features-blinding-smile-in-love-with-her. If you’re really good at singing like Babs, you just might have a shot.
What Kind of Boyfriend He is- Sexy boy anthropologist who believes in polyamory, natch.
Let’s be real here, this is a college-finding-yourself-and-drinking-a-shit-ton-of-Pabst-Blue-Ribbon relationship. Or maybe a wandering-through-your-twenties-aimlessly-and-questioning-everything-you-thought-you-knew-about-yourself kind of relationship. Posssssibly a mid-thirties-getting-out-of-a-long-term-relationship-you-thought-was-going-to-end-in-marriage-and-didn’t-and-now-you-have-misplaced-your-brain-and-are-going-batshit-crazy-all-the-time relationship. But “Sex With Dawn” is not a relationship that is going to go any kind of distance. Which isn’t to say it’s not a relationship worth having. Dude can talk intellectual shop-talk with the best of them, of course he can, he’s a BOY ANTHROPOLOGIST!
Also, all the ladies he’s been with/continues to be with while the two of you are dating? Yeah, he’s learned a thing or two from them.
A thing or two about what to do with his mouth and genitals, I wanted to make sure that was clear in case you didn’t get the innuendo. Oh, you did get it? Oh, you got it a hundred and ten percent? Oh. Okay.
He’s really good with his sexual body parts.
My Date With “Sex at Dawn”-
SEX AT DAWN wants to have an orgy with me an all the books I’ve reviewed on the blog thus far. Check my face for my reaction to this suggestion.
He’s like “Let’s just get all the books on top of you and see what happens.”
I actually though this was just-a-little-bit-this-side-of-sexy so we get our butts all tucked in bed.
Oh, yeah, we are tucked in all right.
And then things got a little crazy…
As long as we’re doing a book-sex shoot, am going to take this moment to reenact my FAVORITE movie sex scene, Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio in TITANIC (Yeah, yeah!) This is me doing my best impression of Kate’s sweaty hand sliding against the window of the old fashioned car she and Leo are having sex in.
Make Love Like a Caveman
28/04/11 06:45
April 23, 2011 at 5:07 pm (Ethics, Sexuality)
I have recently finished reading Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jetha’s Sex At Dawn, and you should read it too – in fact, I think everybody should read it. Not just because of its extremely entertaining prose, nor indeed for the quality or originality of the authors’ research, but because it is what any good work of social scientific enquiry and cultural commentary ought to be – thought-provoking. This is a book that opens a path to enlightenment.
(If you haven’t yet read the book, do be warned – what follows may contain spoilers…)
So, in the spirit of enlightenment, I present my own commentary – this is not so much a learned review of the content of the book (since I am no anthropologist or evolutionary psychologist) as a chance to ponder some of the ideas raised therein. Whilst the authors’ gleeful iconoclasm may not be to everyone’s taste, I found it very well suited to a book that seems to preach free love and anarchism in equal measure.
If you are at all inclined towards polyamory, you’ll find Sex At Dawn very refreshing. Its central thesis is that what many take to be the natural order of human family relationships – monogamous pair-bonding in which a woman exchanges exclusive access to her body for access to a man’s protection and resources – is actually a cultural adaptation to the agricultural revolution, not an arrangement that is innate to our species. The benefits of sexual exclusivity are apparent in a world of settled living and personal property – the woman is afforded the safety and sustenance for herself and her children that the man and his property can provide, and the man can be (at least reasonably) confident that he’s ensuring the survival of his own children, not someone else’s.
Advocates of the naturalness of monogamy for humans rarely state it in such bluntly economic terms, however – unless they are called upon to explain why they think it is natural, even in the face of soaring divorce rates, countless extramarital affairs and widespread single parenthood. Supporters of monogamy are left with little choice but to hold it up as a romantic ideal, obviously difficult to achieve, but worth striving for. The contradictions of their position are obvious when you think about it – if monogamy is natural, why do so many people find it so difficult? And why is it worth striving for if it contributes to so much misery?
Well, the authors point out, it’s not natural for us, and it’s not worth tying ourselves in knots trying to squeeze into a strait-jacket that doesn’t even fit.
This understanding makes sense when you consider that for the majority of time Homo sapiens have existed, our ancestors seem to have lived in small hunter-gatherer groups who very probably had quite different social arrangements to those with which we are familiar. Modern-day foraging societies, it seems, practice what is called “fierce egalitarianism” – they share everything as a matter of course, and there’s no reason to think this doesn’t include sexual partnerships. Sexual intimacy serves to reduce aggression and conflict within the group, and bind its members together in relationships of trust and cooperation. Children are children of the tribe, not of specific pairs, and they are cared for by all the adult members of the group.
What’s more, our two closest primate relatives, chimpanzees and bonobos, also demonstrate multimale-multifemale mating behaviours. It seems a little odd, then, to assume that humans would be inclined to monogamy, like the more distantly related, less social and less intelligent gibbon, which is often held up as an exemplar of the nuclear family arrangement claimed to be natural for humans.
The authors go on to show how various aspects of human anatomy, in particular the genitalia, reflect the evolution of humans as promiscuous lovers. Where there is genetic competition, it takes place at a cellular level, much more so than at the macroscopic level of the whole organism. The book offers an extensive and fascinating discussion of sperm competition and shows how humans seem to be evolved for this to take place.
There is something very appealing and even comforting in the notion of the “Noble Savage” (as popularised by Rousseau) but the authors are quick to point out that there’s nothing consciously noble about the way foraging societies operate – it simply makes sense in an environment where there is limited personal property and where survival is dependent upon the strength of one’s ties to the group. As an interesting aside (although the authors don’t really get into this much) the book raises interesting questions about the evolution of morality, not just in sexual terms, but in terms of cooperation, fairness and altruism – all of these things would have their place in a tribal society, and much as many religious types like to say that morality is inserted into the human soul by some supernatural force, it seems more likely that it’s actually a pragmatic response to the circumstances of human evolution.
So, here we are, stuck in a post-agricultural world with our pre-agricultural inclinations. What are we to do about it? Sex At Dawn offers little in the way of suggestions, but it does touch on the potential for polyamorous arrangements, swinging, and generally taking a more open and accepting view of sexuality. If we can recognise that sex and love are separate but related entities, and that we need both if we are to find a measure of happiness in our lives, it’s quite likely that we can move on from the moribund social and sexual norms of the present-day Western world.
The book resonates powerfully with much of my personal experience. Sexual exclusivity has never been of paramount importance to me, nor have I ever considered sexual straying to be a deal-breaker in any relationship (though perhaps an opening for some serious discussion!) Indeed, on those occasions where a partner of mine has been involved with another person, my response has not been to feel jealous, but rather to feel conscious of an expectation that I ought to be jealous. Such is the power of social conditioning. In fact, one of the best things about Sex At Dawn is that it invites us to examine many of the social and cultural assumptions that underpin – and perhaps actually undermine – our understanding of the way things are in our world. It exposes some of the idols of our own minds.
So it is without hesitation that I recommend Sex At Dawn to anyone interested in taking a fresh look at the so-called battle of the sexes. Read it with someone you love. You’ll laugh. You’ll cry. It will change your life. Well, perhaps not, but it will most certainly make you think.
I have recently finished reading Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jetha’s Sex At Dawn, and you should read it too – in fact, I think everybody should read it. Not just because of its extremely entertaining prose, nor indeed for the quality or originality of the authors’ research, but because it is what any good work of social scientific enquiry and cultural commentary ought to be – thought-provoking. This is a book that opens a path to enlightenment.
(If you haven’t yet read the book, do be warned – what follows may contain spoilers…)
So, in the spirit of enlightenment, I present my own commentary – this is not so much a learned review of the content of the book (since I am no anthropologist or evolutionary psychologist) as a chance to ponder some of the ideas raised therein. Whilst the authors’ gleeful iconoclasm may not be to everyone’s taste, I found it very well suited to a book that seems to preach free love and anarchism in equal measure.
If you are at all inclined towards polyamory, you’ll find Sex At Dawn very refreshing. Its central thesis is that what many take to be the natural order of human family relationships – monogamous pair-bonding in which a woman exchanges exclusive access to her body for access to a man’s protection and resources – is actually a cultural adaptation to the agricultural revolution, not an arrangement that is innate to our species. The benefits of sexual exclusivity are apparent in a world of settled living and personal property – the woman is afforded the safety and sustenance for herself and her children that the man and his property can provide, and the man can be (at least reasonably) confident that he’s ensuring the survival of his own children, not someone else’s.
Advocates of the naturalness of monogamy for humans rarely state it in such bluntly economic terms, however – unless they are called upon to explain why they think it is natural, even in the face of soaring divorce rates, countless extramarital affairs and widespread single parenthood. Supporters of monogamy are left with little choice but to hold it up as a romantic ideal, obviously difficult to achieve, but worth striving for. The contradictions of their position are obvious when you think about it – if monogamy is natural, why do so many people find it so difficult? And why is it worth striving for if it contributes to so much misery?
Well, the authors point out, it’s not natural for us, and it’s not worth tying ourselves in knots trying to squeeze into a strait-jacket that doesn’t even fit.
This understanding makes sense when you consider that for the majority of time Homo sapiens have existed, our ancestors seem to have lived in small hunter-gatherer groups who very probably had quite different social arrangements to those with which we are familiar. Modern-day foraging societies, it seems, practice what is called “fierce egalitarianism” – they share everything as a matter of course, and there’s no reason to think this doesn’t include sexual partnerships. Sexual intimacy serves to reduce aggression and conflict within the group, and bind its members together in relationships of trust and cooperation. Children are children of the tribe, not of specific pairs, and they are cared for by all the adult members of the group.
What’s more, our two closest primate relatives, chimpanzees and bonobos, also demonstrate multimale-multifemale mating behaviours. It seems a little odd, then, to assume that humans would be inclined to monogamy, like the more distantly related, less social and less intelligent gibbon, which is often held up as an exemplar of the nuclear family arrangement claimed to be natural for humans.
The authors go on to show how various aspects of human anatomy, in particular the genitalia, reflect the evolution of humans as promiscuous lovers. Where there is genetic competition, it takes place at a cellular level, much more so than at the macroscopic level of the whole organism. The book offers an extensive and fascinating discussion of sperm competition and shows how humans seem to be evolved for this to take place.
There is something very appealing and even comforting in the notion of the “Noble Savage” (as popularised by Rousseau) but the authors are quick to point out that there’s nothing consciously noble about the way foraging societies operate – it simply makes sense in an environment where there is limited personal property and where survival is dependent upon the strength of one’s ties to the group. As an interesting aside (although the authors don’t really get into this much) the book raises interesting questions about the evolution of morality, not just in sexual terms, but in terms of cooperation, fairness and altruism – all of these things would have their place in a tribal society, and much as many religious types like to say that morality is inserted into the human soul by some supernatural force, it seems more likely that it’s actually a pragmatic response to the circumstances of human evolution.
So, here we are, stuck in a post-agricultural world with our pre-agricultural inclinations. What are we to do about it? Sex At Dawn offers little in the way of suggestions, but it does touch on the potential for polyamorous arrangements, swinging, and generally taking a more open and accepting view of sexuality. If we can recognise that sex and love are separate but related entities, and that we need both if we are to find a measure of happiness in our lives, it’s quite likely that we can move on from the moribund social and sexual norms of the present-day Western world.
The book resonates powerfully with much of my personal experience. Sexual exclusivity has never been of paramount importance to me, nor have I ever considered sexual straying to be a deal-breaker in any relationship (though perhaps an opening for some serious discussion!) Indeed, on those occasions where a partner of mine has been involved with another person, my response has not been to feel jealous, but rather to feel conscious of an expectation that I ought to be jealous. Such is the power of social conditioning. In fact, one of the best things about Sex At Dawn is that it invites us to examine many of the social and cultural assumptions that underpin – and perhaps actually undermine – our understanding of the way things are in our world. It exposes some of the idols of our own minds.
So it is without hesitation that I recommend Sex At Dawn to anyone interested in taking a fresh look at the so-called battle of the sexes. Read it with someone you love. You’ll laugh. You’ll cry. It will change your life. Well, perhaps not, but it will most certainly make you think.
Suicide Girls
15/11/10 22:33
And so my verdict on Sex At Dawn is that it’s a very good read and a very important book. I highly recommend it. It goes a long way toward providing a reasonable explanation for the way human beings really are sexually. It doesn’t say much as to how we ought to deal with this information. But that’s not really its purpose. Read More...
The A.D.D. Blog
10/11/10 14:15
“Sex at Dawn should be mandatory reading for anyone with genitals.” Read More...
Economist Robin Hanson
12/10/10 05:39
I like to think of myself as courageously seeking out important truths, however uncomfortable. But like most would-be-courageous folk, I don’t really know what I want until I get it. I was excited to read the contrarian Sex at Dawn, which suggests sexual promiscuity is our forager heritage. But that pretty sparkler was really a grenade – its uncomfortable truths shook me to my core. Read More...
Acid Logic
01/09/10 03:10
In the controversial tome Sex at Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality he and co-author Cacilda Jetha argue that for most of human existence, people did not pursue sexually monogamous couplings, but rather engaged in the libidinous and omnigamous* behavior often seen in our close primate relative, the bonobo ape. It was only after the advent of agrarian society and its focus on individual property, the authors argue, that sex became a commodity pursued by men and hoarded by women.
Read More...
Read More...
A Reader's Review
27/08/10 11:17
Sex at Dawn is a great book. One of those books that blew my mind and shifted my paradigms. One of those books that I think everyone should read. Here’s why you should go out and get yourself a copy. Read More...
A Comedian's Review
27/08/10 11:13
I’ve really not read a book this provoking in a long time. Where do I stand on the issue? I honestly still haven’t made up my mind… but that’s why I want you to read it. I want to have discussions with everyone I know about this book. Read More...
Hunt, Gather, Love
27/08/10 11:09
This book, while an excellent tour of human lustful behavior, is lacking on the murkier matter of love. But I definitely recommend reading it. It’s certainly fascinating, if anything. Read More...
A Polyamorist's Take
27/08/10 11:06
Whether or not this book will really make such a splash in the wider world, I believe it is the most important thing to happen for the polyamory-awareness movement in a very long time. Read More...
Huffington Post
09/08/10 05:02
Sex at Dawn fearlessly takes on some of the most fundamental assumptions of evolutionary psychology and some of the most basic beliefs of our time. Among the myths the authors challenge are that "monogamy is natural, marriage is a human universal, and any family structure other than the nuclear is aberrant" (p. 5). They have little use for the one about how "men and women evolved in families in which a man's possessions and protection were exchanged for a woman's fertility and fidelity." Read More...
Eat Your Emeralds
26/07/10 10:48
I really do believe, like the authors do, that understanding and accepting our biological make-up can make us happier, healthier, and more peaceful people. I very highly recommend this book. Read More...
How We Got Here
24/07/10 09:44
The writers of Sex at Dawn suggest that maybe there’s nothing specially virtuous about monogamy; maybe the fact that we suck at it doesn’t mean we’re doomed as a species. Maybe there are other ways of being, ways that still allow for love and intimacy and deep concern for the people we’re closest to. Read More...