09/04/2021
Looks like a good read for staying up with the times while learning about our past, I am all for inclusivity.
NEW BOOK!!
I’m happy to premiere the cover of my upcoming new book to be published in April 2022, in the U.S. by Norton.
A few weeks later, the book will be published in the UK by Granta. Many translations will follow, the first ones being Dutch and French.
On FB, I will feature regular pre-views, starting here with the book’s description and a note on the term “gender” (below).
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DIFFERENT: Gender Through the Eyes of a Primatologist
How different are men and women? Do they differ naturally or artificially? Do we find the same differences in our fellow primates? Do apes learn s*x roles, too, or is “gender” uniquely human?
In DIFFERENT, Frans de Waal draws on studies of both human and animal behavior to argue that a distinction between (cultural) gender and (biological) s*x is useful to draw attention to the eternal interplay between nature and nurture. Even though gender goes beyond s*x, biology must be part of the equation given that some human gender differences are universal and resemble those found in the apes.
Gender inequality, however, is a product of human society. Arguments about the “natural order” between the s*xes fall apart if we distinguish between physical dominance and political power. Mighty alpha females are not hard to find in other primates, and alpha males don’t always act like bullies. Both s*xes demonstrate leadership capacities.
De Waal is one of the few scientists thoroughly familiar with both of our closest ape relatives: chimpanzees and bonobos. These two apes differ in surprising ways. Chimpanzees are male-dominated and violent, whereas bonobos are female-dominated and peaceful. Moreover, the bonobos’ s*x life includes all partner combinations.
DIFFERENT provides a thought-provoking review of the long-running debate about the origins of s*x and gender. De Waal peppers his discussion with details from his own life – a Dutch childhood in a family of six boys and decades of academic turf wars over outdated scientific theories. He also discusses s*xual orientation, gender identity, and the limitations of a strict binary. Nature produces more variability than most human societies are prepared to recognize, and primate groups often include (and tolerate) exceptional individuals.
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Note on "gender:"
Nearly half the book covers human behavior, where it is patently useful to distinguish gender from s*x. We are cultural beings and our slow development offers plenty of opportunities to absorb gender roles from our environment. But keep in mind that our closest relatives, the great apes, develop nearly as slowly. They nurse for four to five years and are considered fully grown only by around 16. There would be no reason to take so much time to reach adulthood if their behavior were purely instinctive. They, too, are socialized by their community and learn behavior from others. I argue that the "gender" concept may apply to them as well.
