For years now the topic of gender has been all the rage – and I do mean rage. Whether you’re from the “fluid” side or the “Adam and Eve” side, the amount of heat generated by “discussions” (quotations marks intentionally added as these events are usually far from discoursive) of it has been far more than the amount of light shone. Consequently, I’ve vigorously avoided the entire matter at every possible opportunity.
However when it was recently pointed out to me that Dr. Frans de Waal had turned his expansively informed and deeply enquiring mind toward the subject, I sat up and took notice. Indeed, his enquiries have born fruit in the form of his recently published book Different; Gender Through the Eyes of a Primatologist.
Examining both biological sex as well as gender, Dr. de Waal investigates how these two subjects are related to “masculinity and femininity, and common assumptions about authority, leadership, cooperation, competition, filial bonds, and sexual behavior.” Not surprisingly, given his extensive studies with them, he often employs observations of chimpanzees and bonobos to illustrate his points.
It is also worth noting that the Times Literary Supplement recently published a review by Dr. Carol Tavris of Dr. de Waal’s Different along with another book on a related topic, Bitch; A Revolutionary Guide to Sex, Evolution and the Female Animal (to be published in the U.S. in June 2022 as Bitch; On the Female of the Species) by Lucy Cooke. The review itself is likely behind a paywall for most people, however the podcast interview with Dr. Tavris about it is accessible and well worth hearing.
