First published 2017
Richard Prum spent thirty years studying birds in tropical jungles worldwide. The Yale ornithologist observed Club-winged Manakins singing with their wings, Great Argus Pheasants displaying four-foot cones of feathers covered in golden spheres, and Red-capped Manakins performing moonwalks. These elaborate displays seemed to contradict survival-based natural selection. Prum revives Darwin's neglected theory of sexual selection to explain nature's ornamental excess. He argues that mate choice for purely aesthetic pleasure drives evolutionary change independent of survival needs. Female preferences shape male bodies and behaviors over time, creating sexual conflict as females evolve autonomy against male control. This framework extends beyond birds to human sexuality, revealing how female choice transformed male bodies and masculinity itself through evolutionary history. Prum presents sexual selection as an independent force that allows traits to grow increasingly elaborate, freed from adaptive constraints and driven by the simple taste for beauty.
Genres: science, evolution, non-fiction, biology, academic
Vibes: intimate, lyrical, thought-provoking
Tropes: academic-research, scientific-theory
Setting: Tropics, Yale
Period: 30 Years
537 pages · Kindle Edition · Vintage