The Score The Science of the Male Sex Drive

by Flam, Faye

• ISBN13: 9781583333495
• ISBN10: 1583333495
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-06-11
• Publisher: Avery Trade

Summary

WHY ARE MEN WILLING TO WORK, TO PAY, TO SWEAT, AND TO RISK HUMILIATION IN ORDER TO GET SEX, EVEN IF THERE'S NO PROSPECT OF A REAL RELATIONSHIP?Faye Flam, a science journalist and columnist at the Philadelphia Inquirer, makes it clear that the quest for sex is more than just driving force behind a man's day-to-day behaviour.  The desire to 'score,' in fact, has shaped men over millions of years.  Sex is literally etched into the male mind and body.Flam explores a wide range of male behaviours and courtships strategies.- Why do men seem to like pornography so much more than women do?- Are there human alpha males?- Are beta males doomed to life without sex?- Guys who like 'granny porn' notwithstanding, why is it that in humans beauty is equated with youth, while in bonobos-our close (and promiscuous) primate relatives-older females are the most sought after?- Where do homosexual, bisexual, and transsexual men fit into the picture? Flam ultimately shows that males have been profoundly shaped by competing for females and the preferences of the female sex.  But after all this sex-propelled evolution, we're still struck in a troublesome suspension between monogamy and promiscuity-and it's this tension that explains the contradictions of the modern man.

Author Biography

FAYE FLAM has been covering science for The Philadelphia Inquirer since 1995. In June 2005, she started writing -ôCarnal Knowledge,-ö a weekly column about the science of sex. She has also written for New Scientist, Science, and The Economist, and her search for a good science story has taken her everywhere from the South Pole to Greenland to NASA-'s zero-g plane. A graduate of the California Institute of Technology, Flam was recently a Knight- Wallace Journalism Fellow at the University of Michigan.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. ix
The Mystery: What Pickup Artists Reveal About the Natural World	p. 1
Let There Be Sexes: Why the Origin of the Sexes Changed Everything	p. 7
Competing for Females: How the Quest For Sex Made Men Different From Women	p. 19
Sex Drive: Why Some Males Will Risk Life and Limb For Sex	p. 27
The Genetics of Men: How the Y Chromosome Came About and What it Tells us About the Future of Men	p. 43
Private Parts: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Phallology	p. 61
Testosterone: How to Make a Man, and Some Things That Can Go Awry in the Process	p. 77
The Secret Lives of Sperm: What Sperm Want and How They Can Manipulate Both Men and Women	p. 93
Are Men Scum?: Pornography and Casual Sex in Perspective	p. 101
Beauty and Beasts: How the Quest For Sex Gave Rise to Beauty	p. 117
Alpha and Beta: Sex, Power, and the Decline of the Alpha Male	p. 131
Who's Your Daddy?: Fatherly Males and the Sex Appeal of Mr. Mom	p. 143
Sexual Outlaws: Homosexuals, Bisexuals, Transsexuals, and the Power of Diversity in the Game of Life	p. 155
Why Males are Necessary: Not for Survival, But for Reproduction	p. 175
Conclusion	p. 183
Who We are
Sources and References	p. 187
Index	p. 207
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.