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babewiththepower.bsky.social · @babewiththepower.bsky.social@bridge.neodb.net

Rated Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution 8/10

What an enjoyable and smart book. Scientific, but accessible to the average literate reader lightened with humor and wit. Why would the entire evolution of a species have to be imagined purely by one half of the species or the other? Most views about the evolution of humans seem to act gender-neutral while actually using the male of the species as the default, as is done in just about everything. This book takes the opposite tack and in many instances has a good reason to do so.<br/><br/>It took me a long time to get through this book, but only because every time I picked it up I couldn't get past 15-30 pages without having a lot to think about. I'd like to give a shout out to the footnotes in this book which, while numerous, were always enlightening and often humorous. I did at times think that it should've just been part of the text, but that was an editorial choice. At any rate, they didn't take me out of it most of the time and really added to the topic at hand.<br/><br/>Speaking of numerous additions, I'd also like to mention the many many citations which in the 600+ pages book copy I read was the back ~170 pages! Not only is there plenty of information condensed to a level of understandability, but if you really want to delve deeper it's all there for you to go looking for more. The chapter breakdowns of milk, womb, perception, legs, tools, brain, voice, menopause, and love were broad, but just enough to encompass its relation to evolution and women. I will admit that I didn't care too much for the first part of the Voice chapter, but that was mainly my disconnect with the mechanics of how we speak. The physiological and social aspects of the chapter were great and, as with other chapters, I learned at least one or two things new to me, e.g. humans not being the only ones who "baby talk."<br/><br/>I was very happy to see a whole chapter dedicated to menopause. One of the major things I think many of us have to be much more open about is the third part of our lives. For too long it's only been whispered about - if ever even talk about at all. U.S. generations post-Boomer are really reaching the age where it's relevant and important but with little information to go on. Any book that covers menopause, especially without treating it as a complete mystery or falling into any number of other traps, is a huge plus.<br/><br/>Finally, I'd like to mention the last chapter, Love. I wasn't sure where this one was going to go. I was having misgivings in what sounded in places like intertwining love and, for want of a better term, creature comforts? basic needs? in a seemingly transactional way. More scarily, relating love to power. I suppose that it is a reality that there's way too many people who confuse the two and here we are giving away all of our power in exchange for... love(needs). If that. So. When I stopped thinking about the fact that the chapter was titled Love, I was all in on how strongly the chapter went on the insanity of all the power half of humanity has handed to more violent and too often irrational people. I will admit, the final paragraph and final sentence brought a tear to my eye. It's something a lot of people need to not only hear, but believe.<br/><br/>The following is just a blockquote of that final part, for me to remember and also covered so as to not spoil you on a great ending if you choose to read this book:<br/><spoiler><blockquote>I wish I could tell her that it wasn't always like this. That a woman's world is bigger than the equation she'd figured out running her brothel. And older, and weirder, and more beautiful. I don't think I'd try to stop her. I wouldn't try to tell her she's not supposed to do what she does. But I think I would tell her to donate part of her money to women's health clinics. To children's hospitals. To research. To whatever will make the world easier for women and girls. And I wish I could tell her, as I will tell my own children someday, that every power men have ever had over women is something we <i>gave</i> them. We just forgot.<br/>We forgot we can stop.</blockquote></spoiler>

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Published 2026-08-18 17:58 UTC · bridged from Atmosphere