Evolution's Rainbow: Diversity, Gender, and Sexuality in Nature and People (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "All species have genetic diversity-their biological rainbow..." (more)
Key Phrases: respective scientific names, asexual lizards, nontransgendered people, United States, Native American, San Francisco (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This brilliant and accessible work of biological criticism has the potential to revolutionize the way readers conceive of gender and sexuality in the natural world. Roughgarden, a professor of biology at Stanford University and a member of the Academy of Arts and Sciences, argues that the diversity of gender and sexuality one finds in many species suggests that evolutionary biologists of a strictly Darwinian bent are often misguided, since, according to Roughgarden, they erroneously assume a universally applicable gender binary in all species. The first half of the book brings that sexual diversity to light through innumerable examples among birds, reptiles, fish and mammals provided in highly readable anecdotes. The significance of this first section lies not only in this startlingly original portrait of nature, but also in how it suggests that contemporary Darwinian sexual selection theory is in part a result of cultural bias, since it "predicts that the baseline outcome of social evolution is horny, handsome, healthy warriors paired with discreetly discerning damsels." Roughgarden critiques this theory through an expansive study of biological scholarship, highlighting the frequent contradictions between such claims and the data used (and, she argues, manipulated) to prove them. The second and undoubtedly more controversial section discusses sexual diversity in humans. Taking as a given the presence in our own species of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, transsexual and intersex persons, she reads current scientific writing-on a supposed "gay gene," on gender reassignment and other issues-through a perspective that sees diversity as an advantage, not a handicap. Readers more accustomed to traditional categories of gender and sexuality in humans will undoubtedly be surprised at how different a portrait emerges from Roughgarden's deeply personal and insistently ethical point of view.
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Review

"A fun read with laudable politics." -- Out Magazine

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 474 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press; 1 edition (May 17, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520240731
• ISBN-13: 978-0520240735
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #539,153 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Clouded by Strong Biases, September 20, 2006

By	Peter McCluskey (Mountain View, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Evolution's Rainbow: Diversity, Gender, and Sexuality in Nature and People (Paperback)

This book provides some good descriptions of sexual and gender diversity in nature and in a variety of human cultures, and makes a number of valid criticisms of biases against diversity in the scientific community and in society at large.
Many of her attempts to criticize sexual selection theory are plausible criticisms of beliefs that don't have much connection to sexual selection theory (e.g. the belief that all sexually reproducing organisms fall into one of two gender stereotypes).
Her more direct attacks on the theory amount to claiming that "almost all diversity is good" and ignoring the arguments of sexual selection theorists who describe traits that appear to indicate reduced evolutionary fitness (see Geoffrey Miller's book The Mating Mind). She practically defines genetic defects out of existence. She tries to imply that biologists agree on her criteria for a "genetic defect", but her criteria require that a "trait be deleterious under all conditions" (I suspect most biologists would say "average" instead of "all"), and that it reduce fitness by at least 5 percent.
Her "alternative" theory, social selection, may have some value as a supplement to sexual selection theory, but I see no sign that it explains enough to replace sexual selection theory.
She sometimes talks as if she were trying to explain the evolution of homosexuality, but when doing so she is referring to bisexuality, and doesn't attempt to explain why an animal would be exclusively homosexual.
Her obsession with discrediting sexual selection comes from an exaggerated fear that the theory implies that most diversity is bad. This misrepresents sexual selection theory (which only says that some diversity represents a mix of traits with different fitnesses). It's also a symptom of her desire to treat natural as almost a synonym for good (she seems willing to hate diversity if it's created via genetic engineering).
She tries to imply that a number of traits (e.g. transsexualism) are more common than would be the case if they significantly reduced reproductive fitness, but her reasoning seems to depend on the assumption that those traits can only be caused by one possible mutation. But if there are multiple places in the genome where a mutation could produce the same trait, there's no obvious limit to how common a low-fitness trait could be.
Her policy recommendations are of very mixed quality. She wants the FDA to regulate surgical and behavioral therapies the way it regulates drugs, and claims that would stop doctors from "curing" nondiseases such as gender dysphoria. But she doesn't explain why she expects the FDA to be more tolerant of diversity than doctors. Instead, why not let the patient decide as much as possible whether to consider something a disease?

63 of 82 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Maybe the most important biological book of the 21st century, March 20, 2004

By	P. Ehrlich (Stanford, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Joan Roughgarden is a world-class population biologist, unusually qualified to write on this topic as she is a rare combination of a distinguished theoretician and an accomplished field experimentalist. She has produced a stunning volume that reexamines peoples' comfortable assumptions about gender identity and reevaluates Darwin's theory of sexual selection. Roughgarden brings not only her great technical expertise to bear on these topics, but she also deals clearly and compassionately with the many social issues where gender is involved. She makes a powerful plea for sane approaches to subjects that even within the scientific community are classically clouded with biological misinformation and prejudice. There are lots of books exposing the biological nonsense of racism; this is the first to do the same for homophobia and related psychoneuroses. Agree or disagree with the many conclusions, this is a book that every biologist, indeed every human being interested in sex, should read.

Reviewer: Paul R. Ehrlich, author of Human Natures: Genes, Cultures, and the Human Prospect.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great start, October 19, 2006

By	Rhia Breila (Boston, MA, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Evolution's Rainbow: Diversity, Gender, and Sexuality in Nature and People (Paperback)

Finally, someone is putting together all of the real, scientific information regarding sexuality and gender variance in the animal world.
Roughgarden may well have taken on too much for one book - there is something of a rushed pace and she often drops dissertation-worthy bits of information into one page - but she has gathered some wonderful examples of the true nature of diversity in the animal kingdom.
Her reasons for writing the book may be political and personal in nature, but I think her reasoning and biology are sound.