Bitch

On the Female of the Species

By: Lucy Cooke

Narrated by: Lucy Cooke

Length: 11 hrs and 54 mins

Publisher's summary

A fierce, funny, and revolutionary look at the queens of the animal kingdom

Studying zoology made Lucy Cooke feel like a sad freak. Not because she loved spiders or would root around in animal feces: All her friends shared the same curious kinks. The problem was her sex. Being female meant she was, by nature, a loser.

Since Charles Darwin, evolutionary biologists have been convinced that the males of the animal kingdom are the interesting ones—dominating and promiscuous, while females are dull, passive, and devoted.

In Bitch, Cooke tells a new story. Whether investigating same-sex female albatross couples that raise chicks, murderous mother meerkats, or the titanic battle of the sexes waged by ducks, Cooke shows us a new evolutionary biology, one where females can be as dynamic as any male. This isn‘t your grandfather’s evolutionary biology. It’s more inclusive, truer to life, and, simply, more fun.

©2022 Lucy Cooke (P)2022 Basic Books

Critic reviews

“Lucy Cooke blows two centuries of sexist myths right out of biology. Prepare to learn a lot—and laugh out loud. A beautifully written, very funny, and deeply important book.” (Alice Roberts, author of Evolution)

“Fun, informative and revolutionary all at once, Bitch should be required reading in school. After reading, this book one will never look at an orca, an albatross, or a human the same way again. And the world will be better for it.” (Agustin Fuentes, professor of anthropology at Princeton University and author of The Creative Spark)

Best Biology Book I've Ever Read! Fun Read!

Jaw dropping surprises, hilarious creatures, creepy crawlers, and sex too! This is the most exciting nonfiction I've read! But Lucy Cooke is definitely a qualified zoologist who has done all her research, though she's the most amusing biology writer I've ever read.

She really turns a lot of concepts we thought we knew on their heads, but it's only because she looks more closely at the evidence and tries to limit confirmation bias.

Feel like, as a female, you're only expected to produce and care for kids, hide behind males, and be helpless in your fate? Finally, a biologist who kicks those assumptions in the nuts!

Feel like, as a male, you're expected to be the strongest, bravest, wealthiest, guy who hides his emotions and distances himself from kids? Finally, a biologist who cultivates the variety in males.

And everyone in between.

I'm a huge fan of hers, just because of this book. I'm going to read all her old books now, and look forward to her book on males. I have a list of people I'm going to recommend this book to, as well!!

Fantastic Read!

This is a terrific listen. The writing is stellar and Lucy Cooke reads her own text with cheeky enthusiasm. There is so much info, however it isn’t dense. Easy to engage with. I’ll be listening again and know I’ll learn even more the next time through.

Fascinating!

I thoroughly enjoyed the topic covered and I learned a great deal from this book.

Far beyond what I was expecting

A fascinating exploration into gender in general, not just females of the species. Helps me better understand contemporary sex and gender discussions via the biological and evolutionary perspective provided here. And reinforces how humans are, simply, animals. I don’t think this needed to be as long as it was. All of the examples are interesting but the book could have used tighter editing.

Provocative, well written, and salacious!!!

A phenomenal book that is well organized into clear themes. As scientists we have to write subdued ‘unbiased’ papers. Cooke blasts away at this puritan notion by using colorful language without any unscientific overstatements. As a non-binary scientist in microbial ecology research I found it very fun and refreshing to have all of this research summarized in one place. Hopefully she can write another book with similar tone on the origins of sex to include some non-animal examples that also shatter the ideas around culturally derived gender and sex roles. This may have been the most fun science book I have ever listened to!

Absolutely Incredible

A fantastic first into the biological truth of the spectrum of gender and the biological fallacies of Victorian ideals that have lead our collective scientific biases for the last 200 years. This is a must read!

Sooo entertaining - sooo important

Just. Wow. This is one of those rare, life-changing books that all should read or listen to. It gently and humorously holds a magnifying glass to the natural world all around us. It kindly and clearly disabuses us of our fraught and limited world views - all while simply telling a series of animal biographies. If you believe in God, your faith will be enlarged and filled again with wonder. If you don’t or aren’t sure, your world view will be layered with glorious detail, and an deeper appreciation for your home planet.

Everyone should hear this book

Through a series of entertaining and mind-stretching examples from across the Animal...er...Queendom, Cooke takes us on a journey that disassembles everything we think we know about sex and gender. From sapphic albatrosses to sex changing barnacles, Cooke tells stories of the research proving that sex and sexual behaviors are much more complicated and flexible than Darwin and much of evolutionary biology would have us believe. As she draws the critical connections between this research and our misguided thinking about sex and gender among humans, she helps all of us see how much richer the world is than we ever imagined, and to feel the urgency of protecting it as the species poised to teach us about our own evolution are threatened with extinction.

I liked this book very much … and learned a lot

This was a good experience. I think I will listen at least another time. It is always especially good to listen to the author read her own work.

Excellent & informative

An excellent overview with great detail of the female species in the animal world. The research shows how the female of many species are the dominant figure not men