Product Description
To us humans the sex lives of many animals seem weird. In fact, by comparison with all the other animals, we are the ones with the weird sex lives. How did that come to be?Just count our bizarre ways. We are the only social species to insist on carrying out sex privately. Stranger yet, we have sex at any time, even when the female can’t be fertilized (for example, because she is already pregnant, post-menopausal, or between fertile cycles). A human female doesn’t know her precise time of fertility and certainly doesn’t advertise it to human males by the striking color changes, smells, and sounds used by other female mammals.Why do we differ so radically in these and other important aspects of our sexuality from our closest ancestor, the apes? Why does the human female, virtually alone among mammals go through menopause? Why does the human male stand out as one of the few mammals to stay (often or usually) with the female he impregnates, to help raise the children that he sired? Why is the human penis so unnecessarily large?There is no one better qualified than Jared Diamond—renowned expert in the fields of physiology and evolutionary biology and award-winning author—to explain the evolutionary forces that operated on our ancestors to make us sexually different. With wit and a wealth of fascinating examples, he explains how our sexuality has been as crucial as our large brains and upright posture in our rise to human status.
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Amazon.com Review
Many of us pursue fitness because we want to remain attractive to partners and potential partners, and we stay healthy so we can continue to have sex with those partners. But why do people care so much about sex? This book, written by an evolutionary biologist, explains how all the weird quirks of human sexuality came to be: sex with no intention of procreation, invisible fertility, sex acts pursued in private--all common to us, but very different from most other species. Why Is Sex Fun? asks us to look at ourselves in a brand-new way, and richly rewards us for doing so.
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 Evolution, evolution ( souviksdrift )
This is a fascinating book, & by-and-large explains the uniqueness of human sexuality with evolutionary logic.
Quite a few chapters are fascinating forays into aspects of human sexuality. But chief among these is the chapter which delves into why is sex fun for humans. In a very cogent manner, Diamond puts forward competing theories around the evolution of concealed female ovulation & extends it to explain why sex tends to be largely recreational in humans. The chapter on "What are men good for" represents "both sides" of the argument, & though there are certain attempts at re-establishing men's role in child rearing (food, protection etc), Diamond finally gives up & concedes that men aren't good for too many things in general.
The chapter on female menopause is an intriguing piece of counter-intuitive reasoning - making more by making less - as he calls this chapter. Now a lot of aspects of human sexuality - because it is evolutionary in nature, as are all other aspects of living beings - can be reasoned about, in the evolutionary backdrop, but who is to say that one theory is better than the other, or choose between two competing theories both of which explain the same set of observations. You can see more instances of such theorizing in the final chapter on Body signals where Diamond very eruditely talks about signals that different species have for attracting mates, discusses all the theories around such signals, establishes one of them loosely, & uses it to explain the relatively longer human-male penis compared to the chimps, & gorillas.
These, though, are minor issues - unless you're in the same field as Diamond. For the general reader, this book still is packed with plenty of information, sets good context before trying to explain anything, is full of comparative data among other animal-species, is funny every now & then, & in general will make a great reading.
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 The evolution of human sex ( overthemoonamazonreviewer )
The evolutionist Richard Dawkins once said that he would have written a book on the evolution of sex if Jared Diamond hadn't had done such a good job of it with `Why is Sex fun?' If you are interested in evolution or the evolution of human sexuality then this scientific entry is an imperative. However if you are looking for a book that just does cheap thrills or agony aunt pseudo-explanations, go elsewhere.
Jared Diamond is the Pulitzer Prize winning author of `Guns, germs and steel' fame. He has a talent for making science interesting and writes extremely eloquently and often quite wittily.
The book is quite short but the material brought forth in it is an awareness raiser. Diamond starts by addressing the issue of human sexuality in relation to other animals and indicates a surprising uniqueness to how we do it and in many cases the inclusion of a recreational aspect that evades most other species and demands explanation. Diamond uses evolutionary pressures to explain why the sexes developed and the roles that the genders play with respect to anatomy and biology. The non-evolution of male lactation has a few surprises in store and then it is time to explain why we have recreational sex which finds its reason in concealed ovulation. There is a focus on why men behave in the role they do if it seems that women end up doing more work. The show-off male seems to have an evolutionary advantage because when he eventually manages to brings home the bacon he tends to bring home a butcher shop. There is a massive surprise in store for why the female menopause has evolved and has to do with old people being used as information storage retrieval devices instead of offspring producers. Diamond finishes up by explaining the evolution of sexual signalling before leaving us with the enigma of penis size that has yet to find a suitable evolutionary explanation.
This is far from a simple book but stick with it and you will learn some extraordinary things about why we are the way we are. I am sure this book will also help people get over certain guilt trips they might be on. I cannot over recommend its value and contribution to our biological lives.
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 A question without an answer
I started reading Diamond with Guns, Germs, and Steel and went on to other of his works. While reading "Why Is Sex Fun" we were staying with our daughter, helping her care for a newborn and his comments on the energy expenditure of caring for an infant were enlightening. His writing was insightful and at the same time entertaining, but unless I skipped a page somewhere he fails to answer two questions presented in the advertising - Why is it fun? and Why humans choose privacy for sex? Compared to Guns... and Collapse, this one is a lightweight and not just in the number of pages.
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Dry, but enlightening
None of Jared Diamond's books will have you on the edge of your seat, but the author does a fine job at making his points, backing it up with irrefutable science and not hype or conjecture. This book delivers an intriguing view on why we, as well as birds and bees, not only do it, but why we treat sex the way we do while other species don't.
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Get this book to finally understand the opposite sex ( sntaheosunthaeu )
Are men and women basically alike, save the obvious physical differences? Absolutely not! This quick read explores the different evolutionary pressures that shape human sexuality. The "Battle of the Sexes" has evolutionary roots millions of years old. Diamond explains how each gender of a given species seeks to leave as many off-spring as possible, and how biological gender differences lead to different strategies and behavior. Diamond convincing promotes an evolutionary paradigm of human sexuality that goes quite far in explaining why men and women act the way they do. Witty and concise throughout, this book is enjoyable and illuminating.
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