The Case of the Female Orgasm : Bias in the Science of Evolution / Elisabeth A. Lloyd.
2006
QP251 ǂb L56 2005eb
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Title
The Case of the Female Orgasm : Bias in the Science of Evolution / Elisabeth A. Lloyd.
Author
Lloyd, Elisabeth A., author.
ISBN
9780674040304
Published
Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press, [2006]
Copyright
©2006
Language
English
Language Note
In English.
Description
1 online resource (320 p.)
Other Standard Identifiers
10.4159/9780674040304 doi
Call Number
QP251 ǂb L56 2005eb
Dewey Decimal Classification
599.936
Summary
Why women evolved to have orgasms--when most of their primate relatives don't--is a persistent mystery among evolutionary biologists. In pursuing this mystery, Elisabeth Lloyd arrives at another: How could anything as inadequate as the evolutionary explanations of the female orgasm have passed muster as science? A judicious and revealing look at all twenty evolutionary accounts of the trait of human female orgasm, Lloyd's book is at the same time a case study of how certain biases steer science astray. Over the past fifteen years, the effect of sexist or male-centered approaches to science has been hotly debated. Drawing especially on data from nonhuman primates and human sexology over eighty years, Lloyd shows what damage such bias does in the study of female orgasm. She also exposes a second pernicious form of bias that permeates the literature on female orgasms: a bias toward adaptationism. Here Lloyd's critique comes alive, demonstrating how most of the evolutionary accounts either are in conflict with, or lack, certain types of evidence necessary to make their cases--how they simply assume that female orgasm must exist because it helped females in the past reproduce. As she weighs the evidence, Lloyd takes on nearly everyone who has written on the subject: evolutionists, animal behaviorists, and feminists alike. Her clearly and cogently written book is at once a convincing case study of bias in science and a sweeping summary and analysis of what is known about the evolution of the intriguing trait of female orgasm.
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Access limited to authorized users.
System Details Note
Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
Digital File Characteristics
text file PDF
Source of Description
Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 01. Dez 2022)
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Table of Contents
Frontmatter
Contents
CHAPTER 1 Introduction
CHAPTER 2 The Basics of Female Orgasm
CHAPTER 3 Pair-Bond Accounts of Female Orgasm
CHAPTER 4 Further Evolutionary Accounts of Female Orgasm
CHAPTER 5 The Byproduct Account
CHAPTER 6 Warring Approaches to Adaptation
CHAPTER 7 Sperm-Competition Accounts
CHAPTER 8 Bias
Notes
Bibliography
Acknowledgments
Index
Contents
CHAPTER 1 Introduction
CHAPTER 2 The Basics of Female Orgasm
CHAPTER 3 Pair-Bond Accounts of Female Orgasm
CHAPTER 4 Further Evolutionary Accounts of Female Orgasm
CHAPTER 5 The Byproduct Account
CHAPTER 6 Warring Approaches to Adaptation
CHAPTER 7 Sperm-Competition Accounts
CHAPTER 8 Bias
Notes
Bibliography
Acknowledgments
Index