Overview
In a book as revolutionary as the original Kinsey Report or the work of Masters and Johnson, Robin Baker, an evolutionary biologist, demonstrates that our sexual behavior - in all its love-enhancing, relationship-destroying, exquisitely pleasurable, risky, and exotic and erotic forms - is driven neither by our psyches nor our conscious minds, but by biological imperatives evolution programmed into us millions of years ago. These imperatives create a competition the author calls sperm warfare. For more than a decade, Baker did groundbreaking research, observing human sperm and female cervical mucus in every possible type of sexual encounter - from routine sex to masturbation to group sex - in search of answers to questions such as: Why do we crave sex so regularly, when most of the time we are not interested in procreating? Why is the female orgasm so unpredictable, and what is its role in conception? Why do we get such strong urges to masturbate, and why do we yield to these urges only in secrecy? Why, in the midst of perfectly happy and satisfying relationships, do we find ourselves drawn to outside sexual encounters, often with partners we would never consider as mates? Baker found that sperm warfare answered all these questions, by showing that the male's sexual behavior is predicated on the expectation that during sex - or soon afterward - his sperm will find itself in competition with other men's sperm to fertilize the descending egg. Even more surprising, Baker found that women are hardwired to promote this competition. For the male, a victory in any one battle of this war means that his genes will survive him. For the female, sperm warfare assures that any sperm that fertilizes her egg will have earned its right to do so, giving her offspring a better chance at survival. And so, no matter our sex, no matter our morals, we are all biologically driven by this old programming to engage in sexual behavior that is often in conflict with the rational plans weEditorials
Washington Post
Porn with a purpose...subtle and fascinating...a bodice ripper that makes you think.Publishers Weekly -
The major force in the shaping of human sexuality, claims British biologist Baker in this highly unorthodox study, is "sperm warfare," the competition among sperm from two or more men competing inside a woman to fertilize the egg. In this theory, biological imperatives shaped by evolution dictate sexual behavior. Male sexual behavior is driven by each man's need to prevent his female sexual partner from exposing his sperm to competition; or, failing that, to give his sperm the best chance of winning. A woman's sexual behavior, meanwhile, reflects her urge to maneuver her partner or to influence which male's sperm will have the best chance of succeeding. Baker views infidelity, group sex, partner-swapping, even rape and prostitution as risky strategies that nevertheless may enhance an individual's reproductive success compared with long-term monogamy. Men, he says, pursue four reproductive strategies: bisexuality, pursuit or avoidance of sperm warfare and a balancing of this pursuit/avoidance. Just which strategy a male is programmed to adopt will depend largely on his rate of sperm production. Baker's treatise unfolds as a series of graphic, fictional sex scenes, each followed by interpretive commentary. Its reliance on evolutionary biology to explain human behavior is reductionist, much in the manner of the writings of "selfish gene" proponent Richard Dawkins, but it is also challenging, intellectually provocative and likely to raise considerable and deserved debate. (Oct.)Library Journal
Baker is a biologist who studies human behavior, in this case sex, in intimate detail. The questions that interest him-"Why do men inseminate enough sperm at each intercourse to fertilize the entire population of the United States, twice over?"-are certainly curiosities. Most of the explicit sexual scenarios Baker reviews with his evolutionary eye are recognizable but seem abnormal and gratuitous. Given the lack of citations to other academic work, the book ends up being little more than elegant, sexually explicit intellectual musings on a subject that is likely to titillate and embarrass. Suggested theories explaining the evolutionary value of masturbation and homosexuality are vaguely compelling, but without the intellectual framework of cited works, it is difficult to take this book seriously. Without a carefully cited bibliography to accompany the text, this cannot be recommended for the general public.-Constance A. Rinaldo, Dartmouth Coll. Biomedical Libs., Hanover, N.H.Kirkus Reviews
Graphic, no-nonsense scenarios of human sexual behavior, and evolutionary biology as the framework for interpreting who did what to whom in a given scenario, are the hallmark of this extraordinary work by Univ. of Manchester (England) biologist Baker.His thesis? That humans, no more or less than other animals, are driven by biological forces to ensure their genetic survival. Males need to ensure it is their genes that inseminate; females that they get impregnated by the best genes available. Does that sound like sexual warfare? Game theory? You bet. Baker's credentials are based on lifelong animal research combined with studies of 100 English couples willing to be interviewed and observed in the act. In a nutshell, Baker opines that women are masters at concealing their fertility, men at promoting sperm warfare. The latter relates to evidence that in the face of deposits of sperm from two or more partners in a women's genital tract, there is competition in which one contender's sperm "blockers" and "killers" try to outdo the other's to succeed in fertilizing the ovum. In 37 fictional scenarios of sexual activity Baker plays out variations on this theme from routine marital sex to homosexuality, group sex, wife-battering, and marital rape, and lifelong monogamy—coming to startling conclusions that infidelity, masturbation, bisexuality, even rape may pay off in the survival- of-the-fittest-genes game. Baker is well aware that he has written a controversial book that will inflame many readers. To his credit, his sexual scenarios are coolly descriptive rather than prurient, as are informative passages on anatomy, the menstrual cycle, and other aspects of physiology. All the same, in reducing complex human behavior to biological urges, he omits emotional motivations and forces. To the question, "What has love got to do with it?" Baker would say, "Not much."
Expect fireworks and rebuttals, but also serious consideration for the ideas expressed by someone bold enough to open the bedroom door.