The Disposable Male: Sex, Love, and Money–Your World Through Darwin’s Eyes

This book lays out a Darwinian view of life that says just about everything I think and feel about women and men, sex and romance and what family life is all about. In the first half the author takes you literally from the Big Bang to today. He lays out the evolutionary point-of-view in a funny and very interesting way, explaining how the original relationship evolved between the sexes. There are many interesting diversions along the way, about everything from how our brains developed, to the role our genes play in our make-up now, to the meaning of our sexual fantasies.

In the second half of the book Gilbert turns to our modern lives. Thats when he analyzes how our lives look when you look at it from this evolutionary position. How the lives of men and women today are in harmony with the past and how our lives now vary from it. This leads in to a lot of common sense ideas but also some controversial issues. In a way, its a conservative book but the more traditional values he puts forth are based on science, not on religion.

Feminists are going to hate this book but, as a woman, I found it very fair. In fact, he’s pretty hard on men and often exalts the feminine values, especially in relationships. The author also makes a point of saying how these classical gender roles based on our natural history do not apply to everyone–that there are big differences among each gender. I highly recommend this book. You may not agree with it as much as I did but you’re definitely in for an entertaining read.
  

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If you placed ten people, male and female, in a room with a copy of this book, a discussion could be started that could probably last for weeks. That is the primary beauty of this work. It is absolutely fascinating! Basically, the premise of this work is that there are boys and there are girls, and, thankfully, they are different. This books covers a wide range of subjects dealing with these differences and their impact on our lives and society. Through the eyes of an evolutionist, and through pure common sense, we find where we came from, where we are and where we might possibly be going in the future. This books is very well written. The author displays great insight and his easy writing style is a pleasure. This is the sort of work that will most assuredly make you think. You need not agree with everything the author says, I certainly did not, and you should probably worry about yourself if you did. On the other hand, what the author does do, is dish you out a very large helping of food for thought. He gives us yet another view to help handle life, which is always a good thing. Much of what the author said, I must admit to have already known, or at least suspected and do indeed agree with. The difference is that Gilbert is able to articulate his thoughts in a way I am unable to do. He has obviously spent a great amount of time in research and has gathered together a great amount of information, made it readable and understandable and in fact, rather enjoyable. I do agree with a couple of the other reviewers here that, personally, I would have appreciated a bit more information on his source documents. On the other hand, upon checking on several of his statements (just to keep him honest), I found not one instance where the author had not done his home work and done it well. Recommend this thoughtful work quite highly. This is certainly one you will want to add to your home library. As a side observation, I should think that an afternoon and evening talking to him on my porch with a jug of coffee would be a hoot.
  

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