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by: Deborah Blum  List Price: $16.00 Amazon.com's Price: $10.88 You Save: $5.12 (32%)Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Binding: PaperbackDewey Decimal Number: 612.6 EAN: 9780140263480 ISBN: 0140263489 Label: Penguin (Non-Classics) Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics) Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 352 Publication Date: July 01, 1998 Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) Studio: Penguin (Non-Classics) Related Items:
Browse for similar items by category: Click to Display Editorial Review: Amazon.com: For centuries, links between biology and behavior have been mined for ammunition in the gender wars. Western science has often tainted the discussion by skewing the norm toward men so that the biological underpinnings of their weaknesses and strengths are applauded while those of women are denigrated. Sex on the Brain is a chatty, fairly evenhanded report on a broad range of animal and human studies intended to provide insight into hot-button issues such as aggression, nurturing behavior, infidelity, homosexuality, hormonal drives, and sexual signals. According to one researcher, "We inherit the behavior essentially of our past." Morning sickness, for example, which steers some women away from strong tastes and smells, may once have protected babes in utero from toxic items. Infidelity is a way for men to ensure genetic immortality. Interestingly, when we deliberately change sex-role behavior--say men become more nurturing or women more aggressive--our hormones and even our brains respond by changing, too. Book Description: Go beyond the headlines and the hype to get the newest findings in the burgeoning field of gender studies. Drawing on disciplines that include evolutionary science, anthropology, animal behavior, neuroscience, psychology, and endocrinology, Deborah Blum explores matters ranging from the link between immunology and sex to male/female gossip styles. The results are intriguing, startling, and often very amusing. For instance, did you know that. . . *Male testosterone levels drop in happy marriages; scientists speculate that women may use monogamy to control male behavior *Young female children who are in day-care are apt to be more secure than those kept at home; young male children less so *Anthropologists classify Western societies as "mildly polygamous" The Los Angeles Times has called Sex on the Brain "superbly crafted science writing, graced by unusual compassion, wit, and intelligence, that forms an important addition to the literature of gender studies." Average Rating:
 Rating:  - Well, I enjoyed it!I found this book very enjoyable with plenty of interesting information on brains, hormones, primates and other species. Though most of it wasn't new to me it is written in a very readable style and is sometimes very amusing too. Some things were new to me - such as the fact that even plants discriminate between mates (pollen) and even broccoli has 50 different kinds of genes for avoiding mating with too similar broccoli. Of course, when these subjects are applied to humans many humans ... Read More Rating: - Good enough for an senior thesis,but not quite book levelThe theory of evolution with its emphasis on survival of the fittest and elimination of the unfit would imply that sexual activities ought to be optimized. That's a common line of thought among biologists, and Deborah Blum's book attempts to make that point to the public at large. Now, Blum is not a professional biologist, which would normally not, I repeat not, be a problem - after all, non-scientists tend to explain science better. But in Blum's case, that seems to be an obstacle to a clear explanation, ... Read More Rating: - Definitely not a tight plotDeborah Blum was "raised in one of those university-based, liberal-elite families" and as such, was raised to believe that there were no differences between men and women. It wasn't until she had her own career, a husband, and two boys that she actually realized there were basic biological differences between male and female behaviour. Her son was playing dinosaur and "I looked down at him one day as he was snarling around my feet and doing his toddler best to gnaw off my right leg, and I thought, This is ... Read More Rating:  - dont let this one be your first readHaving read six books on this exact subject in the past week, I feel information is poorly presented in this one. Sometimes misleading, and sometimes even contradictory. I highly suggest that you read other books and/or papers on the subject before braving this one. Even then, take this read with a grain of agenda-salt. Rating:  - Journalistic not scientificBlum's style is horrendous. She traipses from one anecdote about her son to the findings of scientists she has interviewed without the blink of an eye. She does not so much advance arguments or conclusions as much as merely advance dumbed-down versions of scientific studies. Matters such as which questions underlie the research and what the research reveals are interspersed with bad puns and Blum's own opinion as to whether something is insulting or disgusting. Her attempts to lighten the fare are patronizing ... Read More 
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