by russell bell, Jul 10, 1998

In The Redundant Male: Is sex irrelevant in the modern world? (1984, Random House, New York) British science writers Jeremy Cherfas and John Gribbin ask the question, 'Why do women bother to have sons?' Women would propagate more prolifically if they had only girls; eventually those that had only girls would replace those that wasted their time having boys. This has happened many times in other species, asexual varieties displacing sexual varieties because of more effective reproduction. Why didn't it happen in ours?

To answer they lay the groundwork by studying the means of reproduction across species. In some genera asexual species dominate and, in many environments, have displaced sexual species entirely. They find the illustrative examples such as the Jacana, a tropical American bird whose females mate with multiple males, the males incubating the eggs (the males build nests to encourage a female to give them an egg.); hermaphroditic snails and fish (they switch between sex as their relative population warrants, or do both at once.); an insect like the Ascaris Lumbricoides, a parasitic worm whose male lives only in the cloaca of the female; the stickleback, a fish whose male makes the nest and chases the female away after she lays her eggs and raises the fry alone; crocodiles and turtles whose eggs develop into males or females depending upon their temperature (but with an opposite relationship between the two.) The authors search for common threads that explain the diversity of sexual strategies, why different strategies work for different species and where humans fit in this spectrum, relating human physical characteristics to human sexual strategies.

Now that sperm banks have made men unnecessary for reproduction and many women have come to question the value of men (had we some other value?) we men need a good solid scientific argument for our preservation. Cherfas and Gribbin present some of this argument in an informative and entertaining manner. I hope it appeases, or at least fools, many women.