Scott James - Quicklet on Jared Diamonds Why Is Sex Fun?: Cliffsnotes-like Book Summary

The subject of sex preoccupies us This book is a speculative account of how human sexuality came to be the way it now is. Most of us dont realize how unusual human sexual practices are, compared to those of all other living animals.

Jared Diamonds Why is Sex Fun? is sexual anthropology for the layman. As he says in the quote from his preface above, hes speculating, not lecturing. He does it with wisdom, humor and a lot of insight based on research and a deep appreciation for his subject matter. He tackles topics we normally dont think about, like why only women lactate, or why we have sex when a woman isnt fertile.

He writes through a combination of historical, emotional, and anthropological perspectives. His aim is to enlighten and explain, and he does it by weaving together current scientific understanding and research with his own unique brand of extrapolation. Because of his background as a scientist, he takes the tone of an academic paper, but transcends the dry delivery that dooms most research. He stops short of pop science, a la Freakanomics or Malcolm Gladwell. Hes not just riffing possible theories from the research that others have done. Hes extending the inquiry and looking for answers to broad questions.

At every turn, he is smart, funny and engaging all at once. His enviable ability to turn scientific terms into interesting dinner conversation will do just that: get you thinking and talking about things that have never crossed your mind. And all that science gobbledygook your high school science teacher was talking about that you forgot about? He makes sense of it, then turns it back into a bigger question.

In the end, hes not giving you the answers hes trying to figure them out, and he lets you in on his thought process. His own curiosity oozes out of the pages of the book, and you feel lucky to be going on this kind of a journey of discovery and wonder with him. Its like sitting down and having a conversation with your really smart uncle about the evolution of human sexuality.

In a sense, this book is an evolution of our collective thinking about evolution of the one thing that will always be both unavoidable and taboo, both basic and baffling: sex.

Ill discuss the function of mens penises and the reasons women but not men nurse their babies. The answers to these two questions seem utterly obvious. Within even these questions, though, lurk baffling unsolved problems.

Jared Diamond is a Pulitzer Prize winning author born in 1937 in Pennsylvania. At seventy-four, he is still sharp as a tack and writing sweeping, insightful and accessible writing on the human condition. He writes from a multidisciplinary perspective on all of his topics. His earlier books focused on science, while his recent work looks at larger historical, cultural and sociological topics.

He received his bachelor of arts from Harvard, a Ph.D from Cambridge, and is currently a professor in the department of Geology at UCLA. His other notable works include his first book, The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal. His more recent and popular books ( Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies and Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed ) look at the history and evolution of human society and culture.

Understanding how our sexuality evolved is fascinating not only in its own right but also in order to understand our other distinctively human features.

In Why is Sex Fun? , Jared Diamond tackles a series of questions about human sexuality that are not easily explained by evolution. In each chapter he presents a question, explains why it is not easily answered (or not as easily answered as some scientists would have us believe), lays out several opposing points of view, and works through his reasoning:

Chapter 1

As humans, we tend to think that whatever other animals do is strange, but Diamond makes it clear from the beginning that when it comes to sex, we are the strange ones. We pair up for the long-term, share parental care, live close to other couples, have sex in private, hide ovulation, and get menopause. He lays out the argument that natural selection maximizes the transmission of genes, and for humans, doing that has meant developing sexual and reproductive behaviors that diverge dramatically from our closest animal relatives. Diamond seems to suggest that the rest of the animal kingdom looks at us and wonders, why do they do that?!

Chapter 2

Diamond moves into even more contentious territory, delving into the Battle of the Sexes. Here he looks at why men and women have evolved to take on different roles in sexual reproduction and resulting child-rearing. Youll find no equal right arguments here; he makes a subtle case for gender roles having at least some basis in evolutionary necessity.

It turns out its all about how we as individuals have the best chance of passing on our own genes. And his conclusion is that the humans who have survived the best are the ones whose genes support the transmission of genetics, not so much self-survival.

Why do men stray? To try and impregnate more women, thus passing on more genes. Why do women hide their ovulation? To keep men guessing about who is the daddy, and keep them guessing about the right time to have sex. It turns out that there are dramatic differences in the value of providing paternal care for men and women, and this has a very real influence on how we as humans act when we are parents.

Chapter 3

Why dont men breastfeed their babies? And that is the question- its not that men cant, its that men dont. Diamond surveys examples of spontaneous and coerced male lactation throughout the animal kingdom, and points to cases where human males also lactate.

His final answer? Human males dont lactate because theres no hormone to trigger it. And theres no hormone to trigger it because of caretaker choices and roles that have evolved to favor men who dont breast-feed babies. He closes by noting that humans are starting to take counter-evolutionary choices, or, humans are creating babies in new ways. So, we may soon find it advantageous for men to lactate, and if we do, we can make it happen.

Chapter 4

Humans have sex all the time. The title of the book, Why is Sex Fun? , is a nod to the fact that, well, sex is fun, and humans dont just do it to procreate. But why? In The Wrong Time for Love , Diamond examines why humans have sex at times that are not ideal for making a baby. He points out that, in terms of conserving time and energy to procreate, having sex anytime its not ideal to make a baby is a waste of time. Most people would disagree. So, why do we do it?

He concludes that its a result of a two stage evolution. First, females way back when who concealed their ovulation times confused the males about whether any given baby was theirs. Then, once males had a hard time knowing which was which, females started using that to keep one male around, which turned out to be good for the survival of the baby. So, his best guess is that females hide ovulation to be confusing, and then to protect the baby.

Chapter 5

This leads to the next chapters question: What are men good for? The answers turn out to be pretty well aligned with many of the gender stereotypes we try so hard to question in the twenty-first century.

He looks first at why men hunt big game, as the calorie count they bring in is often lower than what women produce gathering nuts and berries. Its protection. The benefit of men hunting isnt so much the game they bring back- that turns out to be a bonus. The real benefit is in monitoring the territory for invaders and keeping their warrior skills honed to fight off any attackers.