The book Why women have sex came out in the last week.
The title seems chosen by a marketing committee and while it claims to be based on new research, much of the content is based on stuff that is already well-known. For example, the notion of love as mechanism to keep your partner around long enough to raise the kids echos Helen Fisher.
Other repeated contemporary ideas are the explanations of attraction based on theories from evolutionary biology: women are attracted to men for reasons of survival and reproduction. A well muscled man will help protect you and your children from sabre-tooth tigers and rival men. Signs of high testosterone that women find appealing in men (strong jaw, deep voice) mirror signs of high oestrogen in women that men find appealing (good skin, breast-hip-weight ratio). Signs of affluence demonstrate ability to care for a women and her children.
In this context it's all a bit frightening when one thinks of one's own behaviour and what that signals to the world. I remember discovering colleague of mine owned a Porsche. He had a similar income to mine and while I consider a sports car an unnecessary financial extravagance, I had to admit that it was sexy. He was a nice guy, and the car did make me think of him as even cooler. I'm also sure it made him more attractive to some women. Certainly good grounds for anxiety and insecurity.
Fortunately, the authors don't believe in pure biological determinism though. There's a nice bit of terminology "Love map" used to describe the idiosyncratic attributes we individually find attractive. That term was new to me, although apparently it has also been around for a while.
Some of the reviews breathlessly tell that women don't only have sex for love. Shock! A book could be written about "Why we Eat" and go into hundreds of reasons as to why we eat, with "hunger" being just one of them. A trip to a restaurant can be seen as signalling - a celebration of an event, to mention a recent example. I have the feeling though, that books with "Sex" in the title sell more than books with "Eat"
Still, the book does seem to have more depth and may be worthwhile. The best read was Salon's interview with the author.
