Stats for nerds
3recommend
5mentions
3people
2023–2025years
80% recommend20% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- "Bitch" by Lucy Cooke has a chapter dedicated to this if you're interested. It's pop sci but a great read and offers some new perspectives.
Menopause seems to be a biological adaptation to this - most mammals don't have it, they'll keep on having young until they're totally exhausted, and die not long after. Humans seem to be adapted so that women have a wild-type generation's worth (15-20 years) of useful lifespan post fertility.
- There’s a recent book, “Bitch: On the Female of the Species” by Lucy Cooke, which specifically targets the traditional “strong males weak females is the natural order” trope. It’s brilliantly written, comprehensive in its dismantling of the concept, and a very fun read (side note: I have a habit of reading in bars, and this one got a lot of looks)
https://bookshop.org/p/books/bitch-on-the-female-of-the-spec...
- > It's pretty amazing how much labor was done by women that was crucial to society. Beer, medicine, weaving, braiding, bowstringing, raising livestock, etc.
There is a very rich strain of feminist literature on this very point!
> He explains to her that topologically, the knot she is making can be made six other ways. She goes "yes, the such-and-such and such-and-such knot. Do you crochet?".
This is fantastic.
I'll have to take a look at "1000 Years of Women's work." Another one to add to the reading list, just for sheer pique, is "Bitch: On the Female of the Species" by Lucy Cooke - https://bookshop.org/p/books/bitch-on-the-female-of-the-spec...
- Somewhat related: If you're interested in spider sex, get your pedipalps on this book:
Bitch: on the female of the species Lucy Cooke https://worldcat.org/en/title/1322488372
- Excerpt from the book, which is not just about spiders:
“A study in 2009 that tested the male satin bowerbirds’ problem-solving skills was the first to show that cognitive performance is associated with mating success and females prefer the most nimble-minded male. Male budgerigars that demonstrate their problem-solving smarts have also been shown to be more attractive to females. So female choice could be responsible for shaping not only a male’s body and behaviour but also his brain. This idea isn’t new. Darwin himself proposed that sexual selection could, in fact, be responsible for the exceptional evolution of human cognition – especially the more ‘self-expressive’ aspects of human behaviour, such as art, morality, language and creativity.The idea that female choice might have polished the human brain into brilliance would have been the ultimate blow to the Victorian scientific patriarchy – hitting them right between the eyes, where it hurt most. Female choice is indeed a powerful evolutionary force, but also seemingly random. Why do all female satin bowerbirds love Matisse blue, however, and not Turner’s yellow?”
Excerpt From Bitch Lucy Cooke
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