The Evolution of Human Sexuality
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| - | '''''Against Our Will: Men, Women and Rape''''' is a 1975 book about [[rape]] by [[Susan Brownmiller]], in which Brownmiller argues that rape is "a conscious process of intimidation by which all men keep all women in a state of fear." Brownmiller's book is widely credited with changing public outlooks and attitudes about rape, but many of her arguments have been rejected or criticized by scholars. | + | '''''The Evolution of Human Sexuality''''' is a 1979 book about [[human sexuality]] by anthropologist [[Donald Symons]], in which Symons discussed topics such as human [[Sex organ|sexual anatomy]], [[ovulation]], [[orgasm]], [[homosexuality]], sexual [[promiscuity]], and [[rape]], attempting to show how evolutionary concepts can be applied to humans. Symons argued that the female orgasm is not an [[adaptive trait]] and that woman have the capacity for it only because orgasm is adaptive for men, that rape can be explained in evolutionary terms and feminist claims that it is not sexually motivated are incorrect, and that differences between the sexual behavior of male and female homosexuals help to show underlying differences between [[Human male sexuality|male]] and [[Human female sexuality|female sexuality]]. In his view, homosexual men tend to be sexually promiscuous because of the tendency of men in general to desire sex with a large number of partners, a tendency that in heterosexual men is usually restrained by women's typical lack of interest in promiscuous sex. |
| - | ==Summary== | + | The book received several positive reviews, as well as some criticism: it was described as the most important work on human [[sociobiology]] to date, but also dismissed as an impoverished work. It has been seen as a classic work on human sexual evolution and used as a textbook, though critics have questioned Symons' explanation of the female orgasm and his suggestion that eliminating rape "might well entail a cure worse than the disease". Symons' arguments about homosexuality have received both criticism and support from commentators, and he has been both accused of supporting [[Genetic_determinism#Alternative use|genetic determinism]] and defended against the charge. |
| - | Brownmiller describes rape as "a conscious process of intimidation by which ''all men'' keep ''all women'' in a state of fear." She asserts that "rape is a crime not of lust, but of violence and power." Brownmiller sought to examine general belief systems that women who were raped deserved it, as discussed by [[Clinton Duffy]] and others. Believing that rape was a way for men to instill fear in women, she compares it to the gang [[lynching]]s of [[African Americans]] by white men. This comparison was used to show how lynching was once considered acceptable by communities, and then attitudes changed, followed by changed laws; Brownmiller hoped the same would happen with rape. Brownmiller writes that to her knowledge, no zoologist has ever observed that animals rape in "their natural habitat, the wild." | + | |
| - | ==Reception== | ||
| - | Brownmiller's book is widely credited with changing public outlooks and attitudes about [[rape]]. It is cited as having influenced changes in law regarding rape, such as state criminal codes that required a corroborating witness to a rape, and that permitted a defendant's lawyer to introduce evidence in court regarding a victim's prior sexual history. The book was included in the New York Public Library's Books of the Century, which listed 100 books that greatly influenced different aspects of culture. | ||
| - | Others have taken a more critical view of the work. Gay scholar [[John Lauritsen]] dismissed ''Against Our Will'', calling it "a shoddy piece of work from start to finish: ludicrously inaccurate, reactionary, dishonest, and vulgarly written." [[Angela Davis]] argued that Brownmiller disregarded the part that black women played in the [[anti-lynching movement]] and that Brownmiller's discussion of rape and race became an "unthinking partnership which borders on racism". Brownmiller's conclusions about rapists' motivations have been criticized by anthropologist [[Donald Symons]] in ''[[The Evolution of Human Sexuality]]'' (1979), and by [[Randy Thornhill]] and Craig T. Palmer in ''[[A Natural History of Rape]]'' (2000). Historian [[Peter Gay]] wrote that ''Against Our Will'' "deserves pride of place among (rightly) indignant" feminist discussions of rape, but that Brownmiller's treatment of [[Sigmund Freud]] is unfair. | + | ==See also== |
| - | + | *[[Gay pornography]] | |
| - | Literary critic [[Camille Paglia]] called ''Against Our Will'' well-meaning, but nevertheless dismissed it as an example of "the limitations of white middle-class assumptions in understanding extreme emotional states or acts." Behavioral ecologist [[John Alcock (behavioral ecologist)|John Alcock]] writes that while Brownmiller claimed that no zoologist had ever observed animals raping in their natural habitat, there was already "ample evidence" of forced copulations among animals in 1975, and that further evidence has accumulated since then. | + | *[[Lesbianism in erotica]] |
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The Evolution of Human Sexuality is a 1979 book about human sexuality by anthropologist Donald Symons, in which Symons discussed topics such as human sexual anatomy, ovulation, orgasm, homosexuality, sexual promiscuity, and rape, attempting to show how evolutionary concepts can be applied to humans. Symons argued that the female orgasm is not an adaptive trait and that woman have the capacity for it only because orgasm is adaptive for men, that rape can be explained in evolutionary terms and feminist claims that it is not sexually motivated are incorrect, and that differences between the sexual behavior of male and female homosexuals help to show underlying differences between male and female sexuality. In his view, homosexual men tend to be sexually promiscuous because of the tendency of men in general to desire sex with a large number of partners, a tendency that in heterosexual men is usually restrained by women's typical lack of interest in promiscuous sex.
The book received several positive reviews, as well as some criticism: it was described as the most important work on human sociobiology to date, but also dismissed as an impoverished work. It has been seen as a classic work on human sexual evolution and used as a textbook, though critics have questioned Symons' explanation of the female orgasm and his suggestion that eliminating rape "might well entail a cure worse than the disease". Symons' arguments about homosexuality have received both criticism and support from commentators, and he has been both accused of supporting genetic determinism and defended against the charge.
See also
