Two books on animal sex
Johnjoe McFadden reviews two books about sex in the animal kingdom: Sexual Selections: What We Can and Can't Learn About Sex from Animals by Marlene Zuk, and Stud: Adventures in Breeding by Kevin Conley. On the former:
Zuk is a biologist and expert on bird behaviour. She is also a feminist, and her writing is a double-edged sword that alternately exposes the sexist cultural stereotypes penned by male naturalists (who for instance claim that "testy" female birds suffer the avian equivalent of PMT) and the "sentimental twaddle" espoused by many ecofeminists in search of the "feminist Eden".
The latter book deals with the breeding of thoroughbred racehorses.
Conley spent a season travelling from Kentucky to California to provide us with an account of what the dustjacket boasts is "the most expensive 30 seconds in sport". . . . Conley describes it all in a direct journalistic style that never flinches from all the buttock-clenching details, with trainers on hand (literally) to guide the participants through the proceedings, equine sex aids, hormonal boosting, video recordings, even the presence of a "teaser stallion" to warm up the mare in readiness for his more expensive stablemate.
