Dr. Tatiana's Sex Advice to all Creation
Jun. 17th, 2008 09:44 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bunnyjadwigaI would have sworn that I had posted a review of this, but I can't find it.
Dr. Tatiana's Sex Advice to All Creation, by Olivia Judd.
Writers such as Stephen Jay Gould and Richard Dawkins successfully portrayed evolutionary biology and natural history for the layperson, even with a dollop of humor. But Olivia Judd goes a bit farther. Combining the intriguing genres of advice column, sex advice, and natural history writing with a healthy dose of laughter, Dr. Tatiana addresses the sex concerns of perfectly normal though a bit odd-sounding creatures.
From the stick insects that copulate for 10 weeks or more to the pseudophallic female hyena, Dr. Tatiana's advisees fascinate and educate us about "the battle of the sexes." Judd does give us a fairly solid scientific background on the theories behind this, but strongly advances one point: the old dictum that "males are promiscuous and females chaste" advanced by A.J. Bateman in 1948 ain't always true.
Chastity belts, monogamy, males who do child care, detachable sex organs, hermaphrodites, asexual reproduction, food in courting customs, rape, incestous species, kamakazi insemination, homosexuality, males worn out by female insatiety, female catfights over males -- it's all here, with far stranger things. The book concludes with a 'transcript' of a 'TV studio interview' with a species that has practiced parthenogenesis for millions of years.
Dip into this chapter book anywhere to come up with a fascinating jewel, and probably a laugh. Coming to the last page of this romp, though, you'll not only be enlightened as to the natural history of unusual insects, sea animals, bird and even mammals, but introduced to a wide variety of thought about evolutionary biology.
Dr. Tatiana's Sex Advice to All Creation, by Olivia Judd.
Writers such as Stephen Jay Gould and Richard Dawkins successfully portrayed evolutionary biology and natural history for the layperson, even with a dollop of humor. But Olivia Judd goes a bit farther. Combining the intriguing genres of advice column, sex advice, and natural history writing with a healthy dose of laughter, Dr. Tatiana addresses the sex concerns of perfectly normal though a bit odd-sounding creatures.
From the stick insects that copulate for 10 weeks or more to the pseudophallic female hyena, Dr. Tatiana's advisees fascinate and educate us about "the battle of the sexes." Judd does give us a fairly solid scientific background on the theories behind this, but strongly advances one point: the old dictum that "males are promiscuous and females chaste" advanced by A.J. Bateman in 1948 ain't always true.
Chastity belts, monogamy, males who do child care, detachable sex organs, hermaphrodites, asexual reproduction, food in courting customs, rape, incestous species, kamakazi insemination, homosexuality, males worn out by female insatiety, female catfights over males -- it's all here, with far stranger things. The book concludes with a 'transcript' of a 'TV studio interview' with a species that has practiced parthenogenesis for millions of years.
Dip into this chapter book anywhere to come up with a fascinating jewel, and probably a laugh. Coming to the last page of this romp, though, you'll not only be enlightened as to the natural history of unusual insects, sea animals, bird and even mammals, but introduced to a wide variety of thought about evolutionary biology.
