Anntonations

Midterms are upon us! Like a plague of locusts that can be seen in the distance, looming over the horizon, teasing menacingly as they begin their approach and inevitable arrival to students’ classrooms. They will leave many with blank stares and papers as barren as fields they devoured; no one in the land of Academia is safe from their attack. For many, the task assigned is not an exam but rather, an essay. Alas! There is a glimmer of hope! Perhaps one could prepare, so when the time arrives, they shall be spared (That is my official rhyme for the day). In order to do this, I’ve begun finding my sources and giving them annotations, and on that note, I’ll begin with the first one.

Ridley, Matt. The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature Penguin (Non-Classics) (June 1, 1995)

In The Red Queen, Matt Ridley presents thought provoking ideas into why males and females engage in sex. In the biological sense, the obvious answer he claims deals with the fact of keeping the genes a step ahead of disease and ensuring that one’s genetic offspring survives to replicate in the future. But what he goes into even more, is to see why the male and female minds are wired differently in the realm of sexual attraction as well as why each sex is attracted to certain traits the other sex would have no interest in.

In the first few chapters, his methodical approach to human sexuality can be a little mind numbing. For those who trek past them will later come to appreciate his reason for cataloging the various categories that he deals with. He draws many parallels to animals in the sense that sex is a major driving force in evolution. He contends that behavior such as polygamy, infidelity, monogamy and sexual jealousy, all stem from this theory and can be explained from his ideas. In my field of study, this can prove to be useful because it allows me to look at various topics I am already studying from a different point of view. I can use his ideas to explain why women tend to want to settle down and raise a family with one kind of man; while on the other hand, they prefer partying and letting loose with another kind of man.

Dawkins, Richard. The Selfish Gene Oxford University Press, USA; 2 edition (October 25, 1990)

In his second book following Sperm Wars, Richard Dawkins’ The Selfish Gene talks about how biological organisms are merely the vehicles in which genes are using in order to replicate more favorable genes by way of passing them to the biological offspring. He is quoted as saying:

“Selfish", when applied to genes, doesn't mean "selfish" at all. It means, instead, an extremely important quality for which there is no good word in the English language: "the quality of being copied by a Darwinian selection process."

The way his material benefits my research is that it, once again, can be used to describe human behavior. He draws parallels between genes and human using other biological objects in order to further their survival by way of “selfishness”, or what Dawkins perspective of selfishness is.