More than 30 years of subsequent research has confirmed Hrdy’s findings and expanded on them to reveal that females in many primate species, humans included, engage in a diversity of sexual strategies to enhance their overall reproductive success.
-Good to see Dr. Hrdy's get her due. How much of the resistance to her research do you think was prompted by a resistance to the idea that human females could be innately promiscuous? -A scary thought for most men and for a long time men have dominated the sciences. How many other assumptions in science and society are colored by willful ignorance, I wonder?
I think most of the resistance. Especially considering that modern science (at least in the 19th and 20th centuries) was primarily being explored by people from a Victorian cultural background. This certainly coloured Darwin's own opinions on female sexuality. What's clear to me is that female sexual strategy in an agricultural system is much different from a female sexuality in a modern industrial system, and will continue to change as we head closer to the next system. The less control and pressure women feel under patriarchy, the more their sexual behaviour will diverge from the patriarchal agricultural stereotype. Also, the more sex is disconnected from reproduction (and subsequently forever changes our sexual culture) the less we should expect things like "slut shaming" IMO.How much of the resistance to her research do you think was prompted by a resistance to the idea that human females could be innately promiscuous?