
SPERM
WARS
Infidelity, Sexual Conflict and Other Bedroom Battles
Robin Baker
FOURTH ESTATE • London
First published in Great Britain in 1996 by Fourth Estate Limited
6 Salem Road
To
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London, W2 4BU
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Copyright © 1996 by Robin Baker
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The right of Robin Baker to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, F,Y
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
A , J , K , P , P , R , S , ' W '
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
and
Thomas, Howard, David, Nathanial, Amelia ISBN 1-85702-356-0
and the baby who was never named
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in a retrieval system, in any form or by any means. without permission in writing from Fourth Estate Limited.
Typeset by Palimpsest Book Production Limited, Polmont, Stirlingshire
Printed in Great Britain by
Cox & Wyman Ltd, Reading, Berks.
Contents
1 The Generation Game
1 Great Uncle Who?
1
2 Routine Sex
2
Normal Service
5
3
The Wet Sheet
15
4
Topping Up
26
5
Conception
32
3 Sperm Wars
6
A Chance Affair
36
7
A Sperm War
48
4 Counting the Cost
8
Doesn't He Look like His Father?
55
9
Making Mistakes
61
10 Licking
Infidelity
69
11 Checkmate
76
vii
Sex and reproduction occupy a major part of people's time -not so much the doing, more the thinking and talking. Despite all of this attention, most people find their own sexual activities, responses and emotions the most baffling of all aspects of their lives. Consider the following.
Why, in the midst of a perfectly happy and satisfying relationship, do we sometimes get an incredibly strong urge to be unfaithful? Why do men inseminate enough sperm at each intercourse to fertilise the entire population of the United States
- twice over? And why, then, do half of them dribble back down the woman's leg? Why should we feel like sex so often when most of the time we don't want children? Why, when we least want children, do our bodies apparently let us down and produce them? Why, when we do want children, do our bodies apparently let us down and not produce them? Why is it so difficult to know the best time to have sex in order to conceive -
or not to conceive? Why is the penis the shape it is and why do we thrust during intercourse? Why do we get such strong urges to masturbate, and why do some of us have orgasms while asleep at night? Why is the female orgasm so unpredictable and so difficult to induce? Why are some people more interested in sex with members of their own sex?
These are just some of the questions to which most people, if they are honest, have no sensible or at least consistent answer.
None the less, riding on the wave of a revolution in sexual understanding which began in the 1970s but which did not xi
really gather momentum until the 1990s, these are questions sperm have the best chance of succeeding in any war that she which this book sets out to answer.
promotes.
So far, this revolution in the interpretation of sexual behaviour For each one of us, there was a critical moment, some time in has been the sole prerogative of academics --- evolutionary the past, when one of our father's sperm entered one of our biologists, to be precise. In this book, my aim is to bring the new mother's eggs and we were conceived. That event unleashed a interpretation for the first time within the reach of a much wider complex set of instructions for development. Those instructions audience.
were inherited half from our father and half from our mother and The potential exists to revolutionise the way we all think about eventually produced the person we are today. If our father and sex. My ambition is to help the revolution on its way. The main mother hadn't had sex when they did, with whom they did, having message from this revolution is that our sexual behaviour has prepared for it as they did, we would never have existed.
been programmed and shaped by evolutionary forces which acted Behind every conception lies a story. But the details of these on our ancestors --- and which still act on us, even today. The stories are rarely known. How many of us know, for example, main thrust of these forces was directed at our bodies, not our whether our mother climaxed at our conception and, if so, whether consciousness. Our bodies simply use our brains to manipulate us she did so before, after or at the same time as our father? Did into behaving in a way dictated by our programming.
either our father or mother masturbate in the days or hours The central force that directed this programming was the risk of preceding our conception? Was either of them bisexual or was sperm warfare. Whenever a woman's body contains sperm from either of them being unfaithful to their partner at the time? When two (or more) different men at the same time, the sperm from we were conceived, did our mother contain sperm from only one those men compete for the 'prize' of fertilising her egg. The way in man or did she contain sperm from two or even more? Is the man which these sperm compete is akin to warfare. Very few (less than we call our father actually the man who produced the sperm which 1 per cent) of the sperm in a human ejaculate are the elite, fertile fertilised the egg from which we developed?
'egg-getters'. The remainder are infertile 'kamikaze' sperm whose These things will have made a difference to our personal function has nothing to do with fertilisation as such but everything origins, and an understanding of the precise ways in which they to do with preventing sperm from another man fertilising the egg.
did is one of the most interesting outcomes of the new revolution.
Sperm warfare is a story in itself, but it also has wide-ranging Most people, of course, are conceived during an act of routine consequences at all levels of human sexual behaviour. In part sex between a man and a woman who are living together in some consciously, but much more importantly subconsciously, all of our form of long-term relationship. This is true now and has probably sexual attitudes, emotions, responses and behaviour revolve been true for at least the last three or four million years. Such around sperm warfare, and all human sexual behaviour can be conceptions might seem humdrum, but even routine sex has its reinterpreted from this new perspective. Thus, most male surprises, as I hope this book will illustrate. And for those one in behaviour is an attempt either to prevent a woman from exposing five or so people who are not the product of routine sex, there is an his sperm to warfare or, if he fails in this, to give his sperm the even more interesting story behind their conception. Many such best chance of winning that warfare. Most female behaviour is an stories are told in this book.
attempt either to outmaneuver her partner and other males, or to influence which male's
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In 1995, Dr Mark Bellis and I published a book called Human the subsequent evidence and interpretation. My challenge was to Sperm Competition: Copulation, Masturbation and Infidelity. In create characters and scenarios that offered a reasonably that book, published by Chapman & Hall, we presented the results entertaining and plausible piece of fiction, while at the same time of recent biological research, much of it our own, about the reflecting that evidence.
repercussions for human sexuality of the risk of sperm warfare.
In writing these stories, I have drawn on less global information We argued that almost every aspect of human sexuality, including than do the studies and experiments themselves --- and although much of the familiar and humdrum, owed its characteristics to the some stories originate in news reports in the media, most derive occurrence, or at least the risk, of sperm warfare. If you wish to from events in my own life and the lives of close friends and read a scientific justification for the ideas and claims made in this family. All of the scenes have been inspired by actual events.
book, then read Human Sperm Competition. Of necessity, that Even so, my friends should not waste their time trying to guess book is full of jargon, data, graphs and tables, which inevitably identities, nor should the reader waste his or her time trying to distance it from most people's experience. Nevertheless, it identify particular news stories. Every character is an amalgam, contains an interpretation and explanation for all the sexual and every story a mosaic of several different events. Moreover, behaviour that is very much within most people's experience ---
every character described could be of any race (and almost any behaviour that often seems irrational and inexplicable. The nationality), and every scene could be set in almost any country.
research shows, though, that sexual behaviour, in all its mundane, Not every event in every scene is interpreted on the spot, but embarrassing, pleasurable, risky, criminal, amoral and exotic every element of behaviour mentioned is interpreted in its own forms, does obey fundamental rules.
right somewhere in the book. For example, I have dedicated two In order to illustrate these rules and to bring the behaviour to scenes to masturbation, one to male (Scene 12) and one to life, I have written this book as a series of fictional scenes. Every female (Scene 22). After each of these scenes, I discuss the scene involves some form of sexual conflict --- between males, function of masturbation. Elsewhere, scenes of sexual behaviour females or, most often, between males and females. Many often involve characters masturbating or having masturbated, scenes also involve one or other facet of the sperm warfare which without my interpreting their behaviour then and there. But once I argue throughout the book is the underlying element in all the functions of masturbation have been gleaned from their sexual behaviour. Each piece of fiction is followed by an dedicated scenes, the involvement of masturbation in other interpretation of the behaviour just witnessed, from the viewpoint scenes should be clear.
of an evolutionary biologist.
In writing my interpretations, I have tried not to lapse into the The fictional scenes show people acting out those sexual academic style that is my natural bent. I have tried to avoid too strategies that have been the main targets for investigation and much mention of numbers and, where a particular explanation is interpretation in recent years. While I have drawn evidence about complex, I have tried to give a brief and entertaining version even how people behave from a wide range of scientific surveys and if it means sacrificing academic precision. I have also avoided experimental studies in which, in total, many thousands of people using the words 'probably' and 'possibly' on many occasions around the world have taken part, the stories themselves, when, strictly speaking, they were needed. Any reader with a naturally enough, are contrived. Their aim is, after all, to show scientific background who becomes frustrated by the lack of people experiencing particular costs and benefits of their sexual academic rigour in my text should seek the behaviour so as to neatly illustrate
xv
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information and explanation they require in the treatise I wrote with in Scene 33 in relation to rape, the first step in dealing with Mark Bellis.
antisocial behaviour is to understand it --- and that and nothing Not all of my fellow academics will agree with my interpretation else is the aim of all my interpretations.
or even with the details of what is going on between men and This book could never have been written had it not been for my women, between sperm and the female tract, between sperm and scientific collaboration with Mark Bellis. I owe him a great debt.
the egg, or between sperm themselves. There are people, For seven years, from 1987 until 1994, we discussed, investigated eminent in their fields, who will consider this whole book to be a and argued about every aspect of human sexuality. We did not fiction, interpretations as well as scenes. So be it. The point is that agree on everything, but to a surprising extent one or other of us I have opted to tell a story, a story based on a genuine academic eventually became persuaded by the other's arguments ---
interpretation of recent research. Apart from this self-imposed sufficiently persuaded, that is, to collaborate in writing the starting point, my primary consideration thereafter is that the story academic book that is the scientific foundation for this one.
should be consistent and interesting. I have not even begun to Although Mark will not agree with all of the ideas I present here, present all sides of other people's views. To have done so would some of which have emerged since he left Manchester University have made the book confusing, over-long, even dull. Other to start his important work on the epidemiology of AIDS and other people's interpretations are discussed and appraised at great sexually transmitted diseases, most of the ideas presented here length in Human Sperm Competition, in which Mark Bellis and I are as much his as mine. He should not be held responsible, say precisely why we think the story I present here is the best however, for the way any of these ideas are presented. Naturally, currently available. Having argued the case there, I feel free here he is also totally free of blame for my fictional representations.
to tell the story as simply and as entertainingly as I can manage.
I am also grateful to Fourth Estate, particularly Michael Mason One of the problems I encountered in writing this book is that and Christopher Potter, for showing what I consider to be great much of the behaviour I am attempting to interpret requires a courage in publishing this book --- not because of the subject-totally explicit picture of what happens. Many of the scenes and matter but for their confidence that I could actually deliver a details I describe could, in another context, be considered saleable product. Before they offered their support, I had no pornographic. I have tried not to be gratuitously explicit and hope grounds for thinking I could write a book such as this, previously that, for every scene or detail a reader might find embarrassing or having written only academic texts. I hope the end result has titillating, the explanations that follow will provide adequate justified their initial confidence.
justification.
By far my biggest thanks must go to my partner, Elizabeth I have a further problem. A large part of the behaviour I Oram, who has encouraged and helped me at every step of the describe and interpret is to many people at best amoral and at way. She did so despite considerable physical discomfort --- the worst criminal. In my view it is most important that I do not strike conception, gestation and delivery of this book coinciding with the any moral stances. As an evolutionary biologist, my aim is to conception, gestation and delivery of our second child. The book interpret human behaviour without prejudice or criticism. The was conceived over breakfast one Saturday in October 1994, danger is that many people will interpret my lack of criticism of three months to the day after the conception of our child. Without certain forms of behaviour as meaning that I condone or her immediate encouragement, I would never have dared to begin encourage that behaviour. However, as I explain this project.
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As Liz and the book grew, she applied her considerable writing and editorial skills to prevent me from making many of the mistakes that would have exposed me as the novice I am in the CHAPTER ONE
popular genre. First, she saved me from my urge to be even more graphic in my description of sexual scenes than I have. If the final results are interesting and explicit --- but still tasteful --- they owe The
much to her restraint and advice. Secondly, she saved me as much as she possibly could from being outlandishly pompous and Generation Game
didactic in writing the interpretations. If the book still contains elements of pornography or pomposity, the fault lies not with her advice but with my stubbornness and reluctance to kill words that I conceived with such difficulty.
Finally, as the race to deliver the manuscript before Liz SCENE 1
delivered our baby gathered momentum, she did everything she Great Uncle Who?
could to make sure I didn't sacrifice quality for speed. In order to free time for me to finish the manuscript she allowed me to shirk many of my paternal and household responsibilities. Not once was The faces in the creased brown photograph stared impassively at I made to feel guilty. Moreover, she read and reread successive the woman, their gazes spanning the hundred years between them.
drafts of each scene and interpretation whenever I asked, even She loved this photograph and often asked to see it when she late at night. Throughout all the pressure, when I could so easily visited her grandmother. The faces belonged to three young have decided that this or that sloppy paragraph 'would do', she children, all long dead, frozen in time by some ancient camera at never once allowed her editorial standards to drop.
a moment early in their lives. They were standing in a line, tallest Her final effort was superhuman! When I failed to complete the and oldest on the left, shortest and youngest on the right. The two manuscript by the expected delivery date of our baby, she hung on boys at either end were aged about ten and two, the pretty girl in and refused to give birth for a further ten days. Thanks to the time the middle about five.
she freed for me, I managed to deliver the manuscript to Fourth Whenever the young woman looked at these faces, she sensed a Estate just before our first daughter, Amelia, was born on 25 April continuity with the past that she never experienced at any other 1995.
time. The photograph showed her great-grandmother with her two brothers. But, with very little stretching of the imagination, it could be her looking out from the photograph, not her great-grandmother. The resemblance between them as children was uncanny. Her grandmother called it 'the family face', so many of their clan having the same bone structure and eyes.
The woman looked at the photograph a little longer, then asked her grandmother to tell her the story of their family 'just 1
xviii
SPERM WARS
THE GENERATION GAME
one more time'. Before speaking, the old woman fumbled to the every single one of the fifty people in her generation traced back front of the album and took out a large sheet of paper. This family to her great-grandmother, the pretty girl in the picture. Not one, tree was her pride and joy and she loved showing it and the of course, traced back to either of those two boys.
photographs to her many grandchildren.
The young woman bent forward to look at the family tree more The young woman concentrated hard as her grandmother closely. She was looking for others who, like the two hoys, had spoke, determined this time to remember what was said. She no living descendants and whose lines on the tree therefore ended knew that one of the boys in the photograph had not lived long in mid-air. The most conspicuous was one of her grandmother's enough to have children. Her great-grandmother, however, had brothers, the great-uncle whose name she could never remember not only survived but had also escaped the poverty of her family but who was reputed to have had a very strangely shaped nose.
background. She had been a pretty child who had grown into a She spotted two more lines ending in mid-air before her stance beautiful young woman, chased by all the young men in the became too uncomfortable. Unable to bend forward any longer, village. One day, while working as a servant in a large household, she straightened up and turned away from the paper and she had fallen pregnant to the owner's son. The baby was her photographs. As she did so, the baby in her womb kicked. She grandmother, the teller of the story.
winced, then smiled and held her stomach. At least her line Instead of being disowned and sent away, her great-wasn't going to end in mid-air.
grandmother was welcomed into the family. Everything happened so quickly that, despite gossip, nobody ever knew for sure that the baby had been conceived illegitimately. The young couple then ur personal characteristics depend on our genes --- chemi-O
lived together in relative comfort for the rest of their lives and cal instructions as to how we should develop and function.
produced four more children. All were boys and, unusual for their These instructions are packaged in sperm and eggs and passed generation, all had survived.
down our family tree, finally reaching us via our genetic parents.
The grandmother then pointed to the oldest boy in the And we inherit more than our 'family face' via these genes: we photograph, her uncle. He had not been as lucky as his sister.
also inherit many aspects of our physiology, psychology and Failing to escape the poverty into which he had been born, he had behaviour, including much of our sexual behaviour.
worked hard all his life. Like his sister, he also had five children.
This book's task is to work out why we behave sexually as we Three had died as babies, and one of the survivors, a boy, had do. Our approach is simple. We shall ask why it is that people been killed in the war when only eighteen years old. The other with some sexual strategies (patterns of sexual behaviour) are survivor, a girl, was infertile and died alone, in her fifties, a few more successful reproductively than people with others. Our years after her partner. The youngest boy, the one with the bright measure of success will be the number of descendants people eyes and smile, had died of measles about two years after the achieve --- because this is what shapes future generations.
photograph was taken.
Families and populations become dominated by the descend-The young woman pored over the family tree with her ants of their most successful ancestors. They also become grandmother. The tree had the shape of a pyramid, three names at dominated by those people's characteristics. In the scene we just the top, the three young children in the photograph, and about saw, the younger woman's generation was dominated by her
fifty at the bottom, the woman's own generation. Then suddenly great-grandmother's face, not by great-uncle who's nose. For all she noticed something that had never occurred to her before: she knew, her generation was also dominated by a 'family 2
3
SPERM WARS
sexuality', passed on to so many people by the dynasty founders, her great-grandparents. Nobody will have inherited directly the sexuality of great-uncle who. Whatever his sexual strategy might CHAPTER TWO
have been, it was unsuccessful and he left no descendants to inherit that strategy.
It is irrelevant to our generation whether people in the past Routine Sex
wanted many children and grandchildren or whether it just happened. The only factor to shape our characteristics is who in the past had children (and how many) and who did not. The great-grandmother and great-grandfather in Scene 1 were probably most dismayed when their sexual fun produced a child.
SCENE 2
But if it hadn't, the younger woman and her fifty or so family Normal Service
contemporaries would not have lived. In effect, each generation plays a game in which its members compete to pass their genes on to the next generation. Each generation has its winners, like It is late on a Saturday night and a man and woman in their late the pretty girl in the picture, and each has its losers, like her two twenties are getting ready for bed. As they drift around their brothers and great-uncle. We are the descendants of the winners, rooms, attending to the minutiae of life, they are naked. For the people whose sexual strategy paid off.
them, this is usual and of no sexual importance. They are no The generation game has not ended. It will continue for as long longer excited by simply being naked in each other's presence. In as some people in a generation have more children than others. In fact, they now scarcely notice each other's bodies. As it is our own generation, the game is as active and cruel as ever. It Saturday night, they know they will have sex before they go to will still be the genes of those among us who produce most sleep. Yet, as they vacantly pursue their separate routines, there descendants that will characterise future generations, not the is no hint of foreplay, even when on occasion their paths cause genes of those who produce few or none.
their bodies to brush past each other.
Whether we know it or not, whether we want to or not, and It is a week since they had sex --- last Saturday, in fact. Four whether we care or not, we are all programmed to try to win our years ago, when they first met, they had sex at least once a day generation's game of reproduction --- we are all programmed to (except during her menstrual periods, when neither of them was pursue reproductive success. Our successful ancestors have particularly keen). In those early days they would have ridiculed saddled us inescapably with genetic instructions which tell us not the possibility of intercourse only once in a whole Week. Now, only that we must compete, but also how to. Inevitably, some of once a week had become more and more common, even though us will have had more successful ancestors than others, so that their usual routine was still to have sex twice a week. Until, that even in our generation there will be some people who have is, two months ago when they had given up tiling contraception.
inherited instructions for potentially better strategies. When our Not that they were in any rush to have children. They hadn't generation comes to work out its final score, some people will yet contemplated the earnest nightly conception campaigns that have done better than others. We are about to start investigating some of their thirty-something friends had delighted in why it is that some people are more successful than others in life's generation game.
4
5
SPERM WARS
ROUTINE SEX
describing to them. Rather, they preferred to leave it to fate (and But to abandon the act to him. It takes a while before his gentle so far fate had decreed 'no conception'). They had both found working backwards and forwards makes her lubricants really mild sexual excitement in the possibility of conception and for a start to flow and his penis is able to enter fully.
while their rate had returned to three or four times a week. This Until she was lubricated, the woman had focused her mind on week, however, had been different. A couple of separate nights his and her genitals and the mechanics of penetration. But once out and, if they were honest, an unexplained coolness between she is lubricated and he begins the routine of thrusting, her mind them had conspired against their ever quite getting round to sex.
drifts back to her sister. Her attention returns to the present only The usual warmth of their relationship had not fully returned when he makes an uncomfortable movement. Despite her until this Saturday morning as they drove on a pre-arranged visit abstractedness, years of practice allow her to time the quiet to her sister. Even now, as they eventually got into bed, they noises in her throat to the man's thrusts. Then, suddenly, her could both still feel the legacy of the week's coolness. It was mind jumps back to Wednesday night and the man who had with some tentativeness that the man made his first faltering flirted with her when she was out with a group of her female contacts with his partner's bare body. Once started, however, friends. Now, in her mind, it is him on top of her. Her heart they quickly slipped into their usual routine.
speeds up, her breaming quickens, and her noises get louder. Hut He begins by gently kissing her face and stroking her breasts.
just as her fantasy begins to take shape and she feels she might Then they kiss deeply. He strokes her legs to her knees. After a even come, her partner makes a particularly awkward thrust. Her while, he moves down and sucks her nipples. All this time, she fantasy disappears. The moment has gone, and the next second cursorily strokes his back and buttocks. Tonight, as is often the she realises he is ejaculating. She makes a sound for each of his case, she cannot concentrate and her mind keeps slipping back to contractions, then relaxes with him as his penis shrinks inside conversations with her sister earlier in the day. She is jolted back her. Impatient for him to remove his now dead weight, she to the present when he places his hand between her legs, moves coughs, gently. His limp appendage is ejected, he moves off her her longest pubic hairs, opens her lips and inserts a finger to and they slip into their usual post-coital embrace. Both feel check if she is wet. He thinks she is ready. She knows she is not guilty at not having made more effort for their partner's sake and and winces at the prospect of unlubricated penetration. She both feel depressed. Briefly, they exchange untruths over how moves her hand, finds his penis and gently squeezes, in part to pleasurable everything had been before eventually drifting into see how ready he is but primarily to delay his moving into post-coital sleep.
position. Briefly, her ploy works. He pauses to savour the sensation and responds with half-hearted massage of her genitals.
Even though his massage misses her clitoris by a centimetre, he or most people, the commonest situation in which they have detects (or imagines) an increase in wetness on his finger inside Fsexual intercourse is at home and with a long-term partner.
her vagina. He moves his hand and begins to shift his body into Rapidly, such intercourse becomes a matter of routine within the missionary position. She keeps her hand on his penis, and the relationship; but, routine as it may be, it plays a surprisingly when the moment comes helps to guide its swollen tip into important role in the man's and the woman's pursuit of position. She leaves her hand between them for a few seconds to reproductive success.
stop him pushing too hard, too soon (she is still nowhere near This chapter consists of Scenes 2 to 5, each of which moist enough). Then, she has no alternative explores one or more facets of intercourse within a long-term 6
7
SPERM WARS
ROUTINE SEX
relationship. Whereas most of the scenes in the book will to other primates, we are probably fairly average in terms of the involve different characters in different situations, these first number of inseminations per offspring. We pale into few (Scenes 2 to 7) follow a single couple. We stay with them insignificance compared with pygmy chimps, who seem always and follow their routine sex until the woman conceives and we to be having sex. Outside of primates, the lion, which takes three have unravelled the full story behind her conception.
thousand inseminations to produce another lion, also beats us While interpreting these first scenes, I take the opportunity fairly easily. Some birds may mate only a handful of times for to explain some of the basics of human sexuality. Many of each nestling, but others are about the same as us and mate these will be well known to readers, but I guarantee a few hundreds of times to produce each young bird. So why do we, surprises. Some of the descriptions may seem a little detailed, and all these other animals, mate so often if not to procreate?
but this detail will help later when we discuss some of the more How does routine sex help both men and women in their pursuit interesting aspects of human sexual behaviour --- such as male of reproductive success?
and female masturbation and the female orgasm.
The explanation usually trotted out is that we (and presum-Anyone who has ever lived in a sexual relationship for a few ably, therefore, all of these other animals) have sex because we years should find familiar elements in the scene we have just enjoy it, because it brings pleasure. But is that really true? Look witnessed. In fact, it is so familiar that there is a danger of at the couple in our scene again. Of course, in those first few missing the subtlety of both people's behaviour. Here we meet a weeks of their relationship when they were having sex every couple who have had penetrative sex perhaps five hundred day, the penetration, the contact and even the prospect of just times in the four years of their relationship. Yet not one of those being naked together was exciting to both of them. Also, of inseminations has led to pregnancy. Of course, they have been course, even since that first flush of excitement, one, the other or using contraceptives, but from time to time they will have been both of them will occasionally have gained real pleasure from an careless and the woman could have become pregnant, but she intercourse. But recently, our couple have experienced such didn't. Now they have stopped taking contraceptives, but she pleasure less often. In the scene we have just witnessed, neither still hasn't conceived.
partner was particularly looking forward to sex and, if they had Clearly, they have not repeated this particular act five both been honest, neither of them actually gained that much hundred times in order to have children. Nor are they unusual pleasure from their intercourse.
in this. The average man and woman, no matter whether they The woman certainly didn't. The whole process was live in the bush of the Kalahari desert or in a multi-bedroomed uncomfortable, even marginally painful, and almost totally executive house, will have penetrative sex about two to three unrewarding. She had experienced far more sexual excitement thousand times in their lifetime. Yet, even without modern from simply flirting with another man the previous Wednesday contraception, most people have fewer than seven children.
than she did from full sex with her partner this Saturday. As for This works out at about five hundred inseminations to produce the man, he was bored during foreplay, irritated at having to each child, though the precise figure is unimportant. Whatever insert himself into an unlubricated vagina, and both bored and the fine details of the arithmetic, the conclusion is inescapable.
irritated waiting for her to become aroused while he was From the viewpoint of reproductive success, people do not have thrusting. He had a brief pleasurable sensation in the seconds routine sex primarily to produce children.
before ejaculation, but almost immediately afterwards sank into Nor are humans unique in this respect. In fact, compared a guilt-ridden depression. Moreover, not only had the pair gained little
8
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SPERM WARS
ROUTINE SEX
pleasure from their union, they had both known they wouldn't other things, like feeding, just so that he can keep a close eye even before they started.
on her.
So why did this couple have sex this particular Saturday In contrast, many other primates, particularly those which, night, and why will they do it again and again over the weeks, like humans, form monogamous relationships (gibbons, for months and even years to come?
example), hide rather than advertise their fertility. Why? Well, In its most general sense, the explanation for routine sex is if the male doesn't know when the female is most fertile, he tautological. Men's and women's bodies are programmed by can't guard her so intensively. After all, he can't give up eating their genes to seek sex with their partners at intervals, as a and sleeping indefinitely. So, by hiding her fertility, a female matter of routine, whether their brains can see a good reason primate gives herself much more control over when and by for it or not. Why? Because routine sex can actually make a whom she conceives. In particular, she makes it easier for difference to the number and quality of children, grandchildren, herself to be unfaithful to her partner if she ever wants or needs great-grandchildren and so on that men and women might have.
to be. This works for women just as well as it does for gibbons.
It can do so despite leading to conception on only one out of The elegance and effectiveness of a woman's ability to hide every five hundred or so occasions. Moreover, it does so her fertility from men is breath-taking. On the one hand, her without the conscious brain knowing and, most often, without body creates an environment in which conception is relatively it actually caring.
easy but only if the timing is absolutely right. On the other So what is the big benefit of routine sex within relationships hand, her body gives absolutely nothing away to the male that that needs no involvement from the conscious brain? The could help him to get that timing right. The details of this precise answer depends on whether you are male or female, strategy for confusion are fascinating.
and introduces us to the first example of a theme that runs First, as a general rule, a woman's body allows sperm to throughout this book: what is best for one partner is very often remain fertile for no more than five days after being deposited not best for the other. In this case, what men's bodies are trying inside her. Secondly, sperm seem to need about two days inside to do is maintain a population of sperm inside their partner.
the female to reach peak fertility. Thirdly, women produce just What women's bodies are trying to do is confuse the man so he one egg per menstrual cycle, but this egg dies within a day of never knows, either consciously or subconsciously, the best being produced by her ovary. What all this means is that for a time to inseminate her.
man to have any chance of fertilising a woman, he has to Some female primates, such as chimpanzees and baboons, inseminate her at least once during the period from five days actually advertise when they are most fertile each month by before she ovulates to about twelve hours afterwards. To have developing large and conspicuous red, crusty swellings around the best chance, which still isn't very high (about one in three), the anus and vulva and sometimes red skin on the chest as well.
he must inseminate her about two days before she ovulates. A Male baboons and chimpanzees get turned on by these signals, day or so either side of this optimum time and his chances and are much more interested in sex with the female when she decrease dramatically.
is at this peak of beauty! The males compete for a female most At first sight, it might seem that all a man has to do is note strongly during the few days when she is most fertile, and each when his partner starts to menstruate, wait twelve days, and male does his very best to prevent her from mating with other then inseminate her. That way, his sperm would reach peak males. Often he gives up doing
fertility two days later on day 14 of her cycle. This is the 10
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day that many people assume marks the peak of a woman's as important a part of her body's strategy as all the other fertility. However, the woman's body easily outsmarts such elements.
simple arithmetic: a predictable menstrual cycle is a rarity In the face of such a powerful and effective female strategy, rather than the norm, and only occasionally does a woman the man has no chance of being able to predict the best time to ovulate on day 14. The key to her body's strategy is variability, inseminate. As a result, the only subconscious strategy open to and hence unpredictability.
him is to try to maintain a continuous sperm presence in his The total length of the menstrual cycle, from the beginning partner. Hence the advantage of routine sex to him as well as to of one period to the beginning of the next, can be anything from her. If a man manages to routinely inseminate his partner about about fourteen to forty-two days. This variation occurs not only every two or three days, he should always have fertile sperm from woman to woman but also from cycle to cycle for the inside her --- in which case, his chances of fertilising her egg in same woman. Moreover, the part of the cycle that varies most is any given month will be about one in three. One missed the part that would be most useful to the male --- the number of insemination, however, could be critical, and in Scene 2 it was.
days from the beginning of menstruation to ovulation. Far from The man failed to fertilise his partner's egg.
being a predictable fourteen days, this phase can vary in length When he ejaculated inside her this Saturday, it was a week from about four to twenty-eight days in any normal, healthy since he had last done so, and his last sperm would have lost woman. Neither the man nor the woman can predict the most their fertility on Wednesday. His partner ovulated on Thursday fertile day of her cycle simply by counting forward from the night and, although a few sperm had still been alive inside her beginning of her previous period.
on Friday, when her egg was still alive, those sperm had been Of course, confusing the partner requires a female to do infertile. She did not conceive, and in two weeks' time her next more than vary the day of ovulation and avoid developing a period will begin. Most likely she will begin to bleed on the tell-tale crusty bum and red vulval lips. Even without these Saturday of that week. We can predict this with some certainty attributes, a woman would still give the game away if she because, unlike the number of days from the beginning of one showed an interest in intercourse only when she was most period to ovulation, the number of days from ovulation to the fertile. She avoids this danger through a sophisticated veneer of beginning of the next period is a fairly predictable fourteen subconscious changes in mood and behaviour. First, her body is days, varying only from about thirteen to sixteen.
prepared to allow her partner to inseminate her at any time When she does begin to bleed, the couple will almost during her menstrual cycle, both when fertile and when certainly see their failure to conceive this month as a joint one.
infertile. Secondly, her body shows an erratic succession of However, there is an alternative interpretation --- that the genuine, false and take-it-or-leave-it interests in sex throughout woman's body actually engineered the situation to avoid her cycle. If she does show a day or two of sexual interest when conception this month, at least via her partner.
she is most fertile, it is well hidden amongst decoy phases of We saw earlier that women confuse men by seeking or interest interspersed with genuine periods of coolness. Finally, allowing intercourse erratically throughout their cycle. But this and most sophisticated of all, she confuses her partner well is not the whole truth. The incidence even of routine sex does because she also confuses herself. It is no accident that a vary a little during the menstrual cycle.
woman is not naturally conscious of when she is most fertile.
First, both women and men are less disposed to have sex The uncoupling of her conscious mind from her body's fertility while the woman is menstruating. Some human cultures even is
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have a taboo against menstrual intercourse. We find the same reduction in rate of intercourse during menstruation in all primates that mate throughout the menstrual cycle --- even in those, like marmosets, in which no blood flows to the outside, This reduction in sexual interest during menstruation should not SCENE 3
be surprising, because menstruation is a time of slightly greater risk of infection to both males and females if they have The Wet Sheet
penetrative sex.
Secondly, and perhaps this is surprising, a woman is more The woman stirred in her post-coital sleep as a familiar likely to have routine sex in the two weeks after she has sensation began to tickle her buttocks. She opened her eyes and ovulated, when she cannot conceive, than in the two or sol looked at the luminous red numbers on her bedside clock. It weeks before, when she might conceive. The difference can beg was nearly forty-five minutes since her partner had ejaculated detected statistically, but is too slight to be noticeable to either inside her. Now she felt the first hint of wetness emerging from the man or the woman. This subtle change in behaviour is not her vagina. As she hovered between sleep and consciousness, due to a conscious decision by couples to avoid conception.
she tried to decide whether to get up and go to the toilet, to Women using reliable contraceptives, including the pill, show reach for a tissue, or simply to let the familiar liquid ooze out the same slight changes in behaviour. So, too, do other of her vagina, dribble down between her buttocks, and wet the primates. The subtle change in a female's willingness to have sheet.
sex with her partner at different stages of her cycle is hormonal, During half-consciousness, her mind drifted back seven not cerebral.
years to her first semester as a student. At the beginning of her Engineering when and how often they have sex is only one final long schoolgirl summer, she had met a male college of the ways in which a woman's body manipulates the chances) student, two years older than her. Within days of meeting they of her partner fertilising her egg. Another way is to get rid of had sex and thereafter did so whenever the opportunity some or all of his sperm. Most people will never have looked at presented itself. At first they had used condoms, but eventually the damp patch on their sheet after sex and marvelled at she had agreed to go on the pill. When summer was over and women's power and sophistication. My hope, however, is that they had each gone to their separate colleges, they had, for a after reading the next scene, that damp patch will never seem few months, continued their relationship, taking it in turns at the same again.
weekends to visit each other in their tiny flats. On such weekends, they always spent the Sunday afternoon in bed having sex. Invariably, they would stay in bed until the very last moment. Then there would be a mad scramble to dress and get to the station in time to catch the last train. Whenever she was returning from visiting him she could guarantee that no sooner would she have just settled comfortably in her seat than she would begin to feel the fruits of their intercourse seeping out on to her knickers. She would then spend the rest of the journey with a clammy sensation between her legs.
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Now, seven years later, lying in bed, she stirred into vagina a dramatic gush of flowback. In zebra, within minutes of wakefulness. With great effort she got out of bed, made her way insemination, the mare promptly ejects a major part of the unsteadily to the toilet, switched on the light, sat down and, stallion's ejaculate. Women are not as blatant as female zebra, urinated. As she stood up to flush the cistern she looked down and it might seem that a dribble down the leg can hardly into the bowl. There, in the water, were four white, almost compare with the zebra's vigorous response. But as part of my spherical globules. It crossed her sleepy mind as she went back research I have had to take a closer interest in flowbacks than to bed that maybe she hadn't yet conceived because she had a perhaps most people, and I can report that women need not, problem retaining sperm. However, no sooner had the thought]
actually, feel at all inferior in this respect.
come than it had gone, and within a minute of lying down she The woman in Scene 3 noticed white globules in the toilet was asleep. Tonight, at least, the sheet had remained dry.
after she had urinated. If you are female, try using a mirror to watch the flowback emerge when you urinate about thirty to forty-five minutes after intercourse. You can't do this on a here are probably few aspects of sex as misunderstood toilet, so instead try urinating into an empty bath. Crouch down.
and maligned as the 'flowback', that collection of material T
Separate your pubic hairs and vulval lips so that the urine will that flows back out of the vagina sometime after squirt forward. Choose your moment. Wait until you can feel intercourse. To most people it is an irritation and to some even a that the flowback is gathering, then urinate. Viewing it from the worry, a threat to their fertility.
side you will see that the urine stream shoots forward out of the The flowback is a joint man-woman production. The main urethra while, a centimetre or so lower down, when the correct part is the seminal fluid introduced by the man, almost all of muscles contract, the flowback is squirted out of the vagina which is ejected from the vagina. To this the woman adds a with impressive force. (If you are male, see if you can persuade quantity of mucus from her cervix. There are also cells from the your partner to let you watch her eject the flowback.) Whether inside of the vagina, dislodged by the thrusting of the penis. But you are male or female, you will be left in very little doubt that the most common cells in the flowback are the sperm --- and the flowback is the female's ejection of part of the inseminate there are usually millions of them. From the human perspective, that she has just received from the male.
it is difficult to see the flowback as anything other; than a Women and zebra are not the only two female animals able negative, passive event. At first sight it might seem an to do this. Monkeys, rabbits, mice, sparrows --- and probably all impossible transformation of image to convert a damp patch] on other female mammals and birds --- also eject a flowback.
the sheet or a dribble down the leg into a positive, dynamic How do females do it? Before I can explain what happens in event. Yet that is just what I want to try to do. I want to argue humans, I need to do two things. First, I need to describe in that the flowback is one of a woman's major weapons in her pursuit of reproductive success.
some detail the architecture of a woman's reproductive tract.
Secondly, I need to describe what happens to the ejaculate in One of my favourite photographs of recent years is of a that critical first half-hour or so after insemination. These family of zebra: a stallion, a mare and a young foal. The stallion descriptions will take some time.
has just inseminated the mare and is still standing on his hind Imagine that you are a doctor and that you are just about to legs, his front legs on her back. The foal is looking the other give the woman on the bed in front of you an internal way, seemingly embarrassed to watch, as its mother ejects from examination. She is lying on her back. First, you part any pubic her
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hair that is in the way and separate the main lips so that you is the woman's main contribution to the flowback and it has a can see the entrance to her vagina. The chamber just inside is starring role in this book. To understand much of human the vestibule. If your eyesight is good and you separate the sexuality, we need to appreciate the beauty of a woman's vulval lips well enough you will see, opening into the top of mucus and the amazing things she does with it. She has the vestibule, the urethra through which she urinates.
complex requirements of her cervical mucus. On the one hand, Next, you slip two fingers between the vulval lips into her it is her last defence against the bacteria and other disease vagina and gently push them as far as they will go. First, note organisms which are forever trying to invade her cervix and that the vagina is in contact with your fingers all the way womb. On the other hand, she needs it to allow passage to round. This is because, when there is nothing inside it, the sperm on their way in and to her menstrual flow on its way out.
vagina is not a tunnel but a slit, with the two walls pressed In other words, she needs it to function as a two-way filter.
together. And not only is the vagina not a tunnel, it is not even Most people think of mucus rather contemptuously as a messy, a throughway. The popular image of it as a tube leading amorphous substance, probably because their main contact is straight into the womb through the cervix is quite wrong. It is with the mucus that comes out of their noses. Cervical mucus also quite wrong to imagine that dead-eye dicks can actually may look and feel like nose mucus, but it is in fact very shoot their ejaculate, through the cervix straight into the womb.
different. It is wonderful stuff with an immaculate structure Both of these images are false because the vagina is, in fact, a and is absolutely vital to a woman's health, safety --- and dead-end. Of course, there is an exit into the womb, but it is not sexual power. It contains fibres and is permeated by channels.
straight ahead; to find that exit requires virtually a right-angled Most of these channels are very narrow, some only the turn.
width of two sperm heads side by side, but they are none the Without withdrawing your fingers, turn your hand so that its less the highways through which sperm swim as they migrate back is on the bed and your palm is facing upwards. The womb, from the vagina to the inner regions of the cervix and beyond.
which is pear-shaped, is balanced on top of the far end of the Cervical mucus is secreted continuously, primarily by glands vagina, probably just beyond your fingertips. The narrow end of in the top half of the cervix, furthest from the vagina. After the pear is the cervix and it is the cervix that penetrates the roof being secreted, it slowly flows in glacier-like fashion down of the vagina, projecting through by a couple of centimetres. If through the cervix, eventually dripping into the vagina. The rate your fingers are long enough --- many aren't --- their tips can of flow of this cervical glacier is slow compared with the speed feel the cervix sticking through the vaginal roof. The cervix has of a swimming sperm but fast compared with the speed of a narrow channel running though it, and it is this channel which invading disease organisms. Bacterial and other invaders are connects the vagina to the inside of the womb and through carried out of the cervix back into the vagina before they can which the sperm must pass on their way in. It is also through take hold. In the vagina, they are killed by the acidity of the this channel that, in a phenomenal feat of engineering and vaginal juices. During menstruation, the menstrual flow simply elasticity, a baby must pass on its way out. For the moment, adds to the mucus flow. The double flow makes it even more though, let's concentrate on the narrowness of the channel and difficult for disease organisms to invade --- especially important on sperm going in.
because during menstruation the raw lining to the womb makes The channel through the cervix is not empty. It is filled with it particularly vulnerable.
mucus and, if you leave your fingers inside this woman long enough, some cervical mucus will flow out on to them. This 18
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The demands that women make on their cervical mucus at any next fertile phase (as we shall first see in Scene 7). But particularly great because of their strategy of copulating where since the advantage of retaining sperm during sub-fertile they would seem to have little use for sperm. We have already phases is relatively small, a woman can afford to make her discussed why women have sex at infertile stages of their cervical filter more hostile to sperm in order to increase her menstrual cycle (Scene 2) --- to confuse men. Post-menopausal defence against infection. At the approach of ovulation, the women also copulate to confuse men, often continuing to be sexually active for many years after their last period. By advantage of allowing more sperm through her cervix naturally preventing a partner from identifying the end of her
increases, so she makes things as easy as possible for sperm at reproductive life with certainty, a post-menopausal woman is this time. The way she facilitates or impedes sperm passage able to reduce the chances of being deserted for a younger, during fertile and sub-fertile phases is by altering the nature of more fertile woman. In fact, women who are apparently post-the cervical mucus.
menopausal can occasionally conceive --- at least up to the age Throughout a woman's many and long infertile phases, of fifty-seven and reportedly up to the age of seventy (Scene cervical mucus is made difficult to penetrate. The narrow 34). Even pregnant women continue to copulate -- again to mucus channels are small in number, and although sperm can confuse men, but for particular reasons that we shall discus in connection with Scene 17.
enter the mucus, few can swim through it. Even those that can At all times, a woman has to balance the advantages of penetrate do so more slowly. During this phase the flow of letting sperm through and keeping disease organisms out mucus is slow, but fast enough to do its job of combating Clearly, making life easier for sperm makes it easier for disease disease. In contrast, during her short fertile phases, the mucus organisms too. During pregnancy, a woman has no us for the changes: it becomes much more liquid and stretchy and the sperm she collects during copulation, and she ejects the whole channels become bigger. It is more easily invaded by both inseminate in her flowback; her cervical filter makes life sperm and bacteria.
impossible for sperm in order to maximise her defence against The only major problem faced by invading sperm during a disease. At all times other than during pregnancy, however, ; Woman's fertile phases is that not all channels are clear of the sexually active woman may have some use for sperm, and she blockages referred to earlier. To remove these, and to combat then needs to sacrifice some of her defence against disease in the increased risk of infection, the woman increases the flow order to allow sperm through. And just as the advantage of rate of her mucus. This way she flushes out cells, bacteria and allowing sperm passage varies over the span of her life and other debris. She is aware of being wet more of the time and a during her menstrual cycle, so too does the strength of her clear, sweet-smelling secretion appears on her underwear.
cervical filter.
Although the benefit of these changes in the cervical mucus A non-pregnant woman has least use for sperm during the is clear, they could create a problem. They could threaten a sub-fertile phases of her life (such as during most of each woman's attempts to hide her fertile phase from both her menstrual cycle and after the menopause). Even during these partner and herself (Scene 2). Her body overcomes this threat phases, though, she gains some benefit from allowing sperm by making the increase in mucus secretion more erratic and passage, because sperm allowed through during a sub-fertile more spread out than would be necessary just to aid the phase can influence the sperm present at the beginning of passage of sperm through her cervix. The mucus symptoms can occur more than a week before ovulation and can continue for two or
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more days afterwards. Consequently, although cervical mucus help me in my description, suppose that you have volunteered to gives some clue as to the timing of a woman's fertile phase, it is take part in such an experiment. You are having intercourse in the too unpredictable to ruin her overall strategy.
missionary position and your erect penis (if you are male) Or your So, cervical mucus is an adequate sperm filter in its own right.
partner's (if you are female) has a camera on its tip. You can see And no matter what the phase of her menstrual cycle, a woman what is being filmed on a big TV screen on the wall in front of can enhance the mucus's filtering efficiency by blocking the you.
channels. The more channels she blocks, the stronger the filter. So As the penis pushes forward into the vagina for the first time, what does she use to block her mucus channels? There are three the vagina walls part and, when the penis is fully in, you can see things. One is the blood, tissue and other debris from the blind end of the vagina some distance ahead. Still slightly menstruation. Another is white blood cells (Scene 4). 4). And the ahead, sticking through the vagina's roof, is the cervix. At the third is sperm (Scene 7). These blocks may last for several days moment, with its central, dimple-like opening, it looks like a pink but are eventually lost when they are carried inexorably by the sea anemone shorn of its tentacles. But it will change as cervical glacier of mucus into the vagina. Later, we shall see that intercourse proceeds.
this ability of a woman to enhance, or not to enhance, her cervical If you watch the screen when thrusting begins, you will see that filter is a most powerful weapon in her attempts to outsmart men each time the penis pulls back the vagina walls dose behind it.
(Scenes 22 to 26).
Each time the penis pushes forward, the walls part. Whenever the Even once it is in the vagina, the mucus's job is not finished. It penis is fully inserted, you can see the end wall of the vagina and flows down the walls of the vagina, coating them with a thin film.
the protruding cervix. As thrusting continues, the picture at full Some exits, contributing to the 'wetness' a woman feels on her insertion changes. The far end of the vagina becomes more like a vaginal lips. Much of the mucus film, however, remains on her chamber, slowly filling with air and becoming slippery with vaginal walls --- representing advance preparation for her next mucus. Even more dramatically, the cervix begins to stretch and intercourse, even if it does not happen for days. When she hang down more and more. Gradually it looks less and less like a eventually becomes aroused during foreplay, her vaginal walls sea anemone and more and more like a pink, rather broad, begin to 'sweat'. The sweat itself is not slippery. But when it elephant's trunk. Eventually, all you see in front of the fully mixes with the film of old cervical mucus, the result is a very inserted penis is the front wall of the cervical trunk. Its opening effective lubricant. The vagina is now ready for penetration and points down to the vaginal floor and cannot really be seen.
intercourse.
Towards the climax of intercourse, the cervical opening may even We now have all the information necessary to follow the rest on the vaginal floor. When the penis ejaculates, the spurts of events that take place from first penetration of the vagina by a semen hit the front wall of the cervix and run down on to the floor penis to the production of the flowback. But to help us along, we of the vagina, forming a pool at the bottom of the chamber.
require a change of image from that of the internal medical Hanging down, dipped into this pool of semen, for all the world examination that we have used so far. What I am about to like an elephant's trunk at a watering hole, is the cervix.
describe was first filmed by strapping a fibre-optic endoscope to After a minute or so, with ejaculation complete, the penis the underside of a man's penis just before he and his partner had begins to shrink. As it does so, the vaginal walls close behind sex. This gave a penis's-eye view of what happened; so, to 22
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it, helping it out but keeping the pool of semen in. With the ripples begin to massage the mixture of old semen, mucus, sperm shrinking of the penis, we lose our camera-bearer and our TV
and other cells down the vagina. Eventually, the mixture collects screen goes dark. However, by now it doesn't matter much ---
in the vestibule. On average, this happens about half an hour after although critical events are taking place, these are chemical and ejaculation, but can occur as soon as ten minutes or as long as two microscopic rather than obvious.
hours. Before this, a woman can stand up, walk around, even The first thing that happens --- and we might almost have seen urinate, and she will not eject the flowback. Once the flowback this on our TV screen just before the penis shrank too far down the has collected in the vestibule, however, any one of these activities, vagina --- is that the seminal pool coagulates, becoming slightly or even a cough or sneeze, will rid her of the unwanted material.
less watery and slightly more jelly-like. The second thing that Even if she stays asleep, the flowback becomes so liquid after happens is that sperm start to migrate out of the seminal pool.
about two hours that it will eventually begin to seep out anyway, Their destination is the cervical channel, which they can enter producing the wet sheet.
only by passing through the interface which forms between the On average, the flowback contains about half of the sperm that cervical mucus and the semen. Imagine that the cervix really is an have been introduced --- sometimes more, sometimes less. How elephant's trunk, dipping into a large pool of semen. The trunk is many depends in part on the severity of the woman's cervical full of mucus. This mucus, however, does not dissolve in or even filter. Quite often (about one in ten occasions) the filler is so mix with the semen when the two come into contact. Instead, severe that she ejects almost all of the inseminate; more rarely, her something much more structured takes place.
filter is so weak that she keeps nearly all. Most important of all, The interface between mucus and semen at the mouth of the the proportion of sperm that she keeps It not due to simple chance.
cervical trunk is not flat. 'Fingers' of semen enter some of the To a large extent, it is under the control of her body --- and not larger channels in the cervical mucus, and grow. They penetrate a just her cervical filter. Each time she has sex, a woman's body short distance into the cervical trunk, stretching upwards into the decides how many sperm to keep and how many to eject. How mucus like the fingers of a rubber glove. Sperm frantically swim and why, we shall see later. It won't be long before this female into these fingers, and from there stream into the narrower ability becomes very important in the lives of our couple. But not channels of the mucus, leaving the seminal fluid behind. Later we just yet.
shall follow these sperm further, but for the moment our interest is in the flowback.
After a few minutes dipped into the seminal pool, the cervical trunk begins to shrink back to the roof of the vagina, metamorphosing once more from elephant's trunk to sea anemone. It loses contact with the seminal pool and hence cuts off the upwards escape route for the sperm. Once the cervix has withdrawn, those sperm still in the pool are condemned to ejection and an early death. About fifteen minutes after ejaculation, the pool begins to decoagulate and becomes more watery again. Soon, imperceptible and unconscious muscular 24
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Men get a fairly rough deal in this book. Our story will be one
of men's bodies forever trying to make the best of a bad job, while the woman's body outsmarts and outmanoeuvres them at almost every turn. But this at first sight uninspiring scene does give us an Scene 4
opportunity to watch men doing something fairly impressive. A Topping Up
man may not look particularly sophisticated at the moment of ejaculation, but something remarkable is, in fact, taking place.
Each time he has intercourse during routine sex , he introduces no Over the next two weeks the couple became quite active, sexually.
more sperm than are needed to 'top up' his partner. How does such The coolness of the woman's fertile week evaporated. Both restraint help him in his pursuit of reproductive success? To partners went through a phase of anticipating and enjoying their understand what the man is trying to do, we have to follow further sexual activity more than they had for about a year. After making those sperm we last saw swimming through the channels in the up on the Saturday night, they had sex twice on the Sunday, once woman's cervical mucus.
in the morning when they first woke and again in the afternoon at A small proportion of these sperm, the vanguard, swim straight about three o'clock. Half an hour later, they even tried again. He through her cervix into the womb. Except when she is pregnant, had an impressive erection but, despite ten minutes of intermittent her womb is roughly pear-sized as well as pear-shaped. As with thrusting and encouragement, he eventually had to accept that he the vagina, the walls press closely together, so there is little space wasn't going to ejaculate. Then they missed a few days.
inside. Once in the womb, sperm swim close to the walls and are Wednesday night was the woman's weekly night out with helped by the womb to reach its top, the widest part of the pear: in girlfriends; Thursday night the man's weekly night out 'with the effect, they surf-board, carried on the crests of muscular ripples boys'. On both nights, when the reveller eventually crawled into passing along the womb's walls. At the top of the womb on each bed, the partner was asleep, or at least pretending to be. On Friday side (where horns would be if the pear shape of the womb were a night, however, they had sex and did so again on both Saturday bull's face) is the opening to a narrow tube, the oviduct. Although and Sunday. The next week followed a similar pattern, until the there are two oviducts, only one will contain an egg during any woman's period began on the Saturday morning. Then they given menstrual cycle. Once out of the womb, the sperm swim a abstained until the following Saturday, by which time her short distance along an oviduct until they reach a rest area. Here menstrual bleeding had finished.
they cease swimming, settle down, and await developments.
Back in the cervical mucus, another set of sperm swim along more diagonal channels and stream into tiny crypts in the wall of ew couples have their routine sex at absolutely fixed the cervix. These sperm also, once in the crypts, cease swimming, F intervals. In the four weeks we have been following this settle down, and conserve their energy. Over the next four to five couple, they have had penetrative sex ten times and the woman days they will gradually wake up and re-enter the cervical has been inseminated nine times. But the time interval from one channel. Then they, too, will complete their journey through the intercourse to the next has varied from as short as thirty minutes mucus, surf-board through the womb, and head for the rest area in (albeit without ejaculation) or seven hours (with ejaculation) to as the oviducts.
long as seven days.
The final set of sperm simply stay in the cervical mucus. They 26
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just sit there, cluttering up the mucus channels. Eventually they die ensure a continuous passage of fresh sperm to the rest areas in
--- or are killed. Their lethal assailants are the marauding hordes of the oviducts. If he injects more sperm than are needed, they white blood cells which are unleashed by the female from the walls will be wasted; the reservoirs will overflow and even more of her womb within minutes of insemination. As they advance sperm will simply hang around in the cervical mucus and fall through the cervical mucus, these killer cells engulf and digest live prey to the female's white cells. There is also a danger that too and dead sperm alike. At their peak the white blood cells can many sperm will arrive in the oviduct and, with a surfeit of the match the numbers of sperm, but within twenty-four hours of chemicals that they carry on their heads (Scene 7), actually insemination these hordes have gone, leaving behind much smaller kill any egg that may be present. On the other hand, if the man numbers to complete the mopping-up operation. Multitudinous doesn't fill the reservoirs enough, too few sperm will arrive in though the white cells may be, they do not pursue sperm into the the oviduct or the reservoirs will dry up prematurely. The cervical crypts.
man's challenge I to adjust the number of sperm he introduces An average inseminate contains about three hundred million according to the number needed to top up his partner's sperm. Of these, the woman will eject about 150 million in the reservoirs. This he seems to do with remarkable precision.
flowback. A few hundred sperm may go straight to the oviducts The adjustments we are talking about are roughly as and about a million may first go into the cervical crypts to form follows. If more than a week has passed since the man last reservoirs, leaving in order to complete their journey to the inseminated his partner, her reservoirs will be empty and he oviducts over the next five days. In all, about twenty thousand will introduce a full load of sperm, say four hundred million.
sperm from each inseminate eventually pass through the oviducts.
Of these, perhaps just over a million will fill the reservoirs. If The remainder, those not ejected in the flowback, clutter up the the gap is only three days, he will introduce about two cervical mucus, eventually to be mopped up by white cells or hundred million, and half a million will top up the half-empty carried by the slow, glacier-like flow of the cervical mucus (Scene reservoirs. If the gap is only three hours, he will introduce 3) back into the vagina.
about thirty million and if only a few minutes, he won't It might seem exceedingly wasteful to introduce three hundred introduce any. Even after half an hour, he may find it difficult million sperm when only about a million enter reservoirs. But all is to ejaculate, like the man in our scene. His body is effectively not what it seems. As far as topping up the woman is concerned, saying that there is no point. His partner's reservoirs are full the important point is that the size of the reservoirs depends on and any sperm ejaculated will simply be wasted.
how many sperm the man introduces. If he puts in only two Our couple have had penetrative sex ten times in the four hundred million, then the reservoirs will be only half as full as if he weeks we have watched them. In that time, about three put in four hundred million.
thousand million sperm will have passed from one to the From every insemination, a man and woman contrive between other. So precise is the man's ability to top up his partner that them to produce a steady passage of fresh sperm through each if they had doubled their rate of intercourse, or if they had oviduct over a period of about five days. This traffic probably halved it, it would have made scarcely any difference to the peaks about one to two days after insemination, then gradually total number of sperm she would have received.
declines as the reservoirs of sperm in the cervical crypts slowly So men's bodies inject only the number of sperm needed to shrink. This is where topping up comes in. If the male can keep the top up their partner. How do they do it? To answer this, we reservoirs of sperm in the cervical crypts topped up, he can need to understand more about both the architecture of the male reproductive tract and the mechanics of ejaculation.
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Imagine that you are a doctor, sitting on a chair, and a naked inside the testis and join this queue. Each sperm will then spend a man is standing in front of you waiting to be examined. His genitals further two weeks queuing in the epididymis and up to a further five are at your eye level. Note his navel, his pubic hair, and the penis days or so in the vas deferens. There is a little queue-jumping as hanging down, slightly askew, in front of the scrotal sac containing some young sperm from the back of the queue are shunted ahead
his pair of testes. Hold his flaccid penis in the palm of your right of older sperm at the front, but this need not concern us here.
hand and, if he has one, make sure the foreskin is pushed back.
Now, let's follow what happens to our medical model as he goes The rather swollen knob at the end of the penis is called the glans off with his two columns of sperm and has intercourse. While he and, right in front of you, is the vertical, slit-like opening of the was standing in front of you he had no sperm in his urethra, but two urethra. Through this, the man both urinates and ejaculates. Fix sperm tubes containing in total up to about a thousand million the line of his urethra in your mind. It runs in a straight line from the sperm. Nothing will change when his penis becomes erect, not opening slit, back through the penis shaft, into his body and up to even during the early stages of penetration and thrusting.
join his bladder. Fix your eyes at the top of his pubic hair and Eventually, though, sperm will be shunted out of each sperm tube imagine you can see inside to where the urethra and the bladder and into the urethra. A round sphincter that normally prevents urine join. Just below this point, the urethra is joined from left and right leaking out of the bladder also prevents sperm from entering the by two tubes. These tubes run all the way down to the testes and bladder. The man's urethra is now loaded, ready to fire.
each one contains, in effect, a column of sperm. Where these While loading, the man will feel a pleasurable urgency at the base
tubes join the urethra, they are surrounded by a walnut-sized mass of his penis. He will also know that ejaculation is imminent. just of tissue. This is the prostate gland, which produces the bulk of the how imminent is, to a limited extent, under his conscious control.
seminal fluid.
When he finally ejaculates, seminal fluid pours from his prostate So where do these two columns of sperm come from? Even as into his urethra. Then muscles contract and the mixture of fluid and the man stands in front of you, his testes are a hive of activity.
sperm is projected in a series of spurts along the urethra and out Inside, cells are multiplying, growing and finally maturing into into the woman.
sperm. By the time the sperm are mature and fit to be ejaculated, Now, it is not difficult to understand how the man's body controls they have already been herded into the single column of sperm the number of sperm he ejaculates. Depending on how many of his from their testis. They are in the sperm tube, but they are still in, or loading muscles work, and how strongly, he can shunt any length rather on the surface of, the testis. The sperm tube changes in of each of his sperm columns out of their tubes and into his character along its length: in the testis the tube is called the urethra. Even after loading, his body can change its mind. By epididymis, and from the testis up to the urethra it is called the vas varying the number of spurts, usually from between three and deferens. Whereas the vas deferens is more or less straight, the eight, he can ejaculate a different proportion of the loaded sperm.
epididymis is incredibly zigzag and convoluted.
Any sperm and seminal fluid left in his urethra after ejaculation can Once the sperm are in the epididymis they are, in effect, simply be flushed out at the next urination.
queuing up to be ejaculated. Each time the man ejaculates some Of course, somewhere there needs to be a link between the of his sperm, the rest shunt forward. As part of the front of each man's brain, which keeps track of when he last inseminated his queue is lost through ejaculation, newly mature sperm join the partner, and his genital musculature. Given such a link, it is not back of the queue in the testis. Very approximately, it takes two months for a sperm to develop and travel from deep 30
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difficult to see how his body can top up his partner so accurately.
had done all the work. Slowly he had begun to enjoy himself.
Nobody suggests, of course, that a man has conscious control They weren't very practised at having sex with her on top, and a over sperm number. In the midst of thrusting and at the point of couple of times he had slipped out. She had had to work quite loading his urethra, he does not ask himself consciously, 'Is this a hard but eventually he had ejaculated. Tonight, they had tried the hundred-million occasion or a four-hundred-million?' His same position but this time, for some reason, it just hadn't worked.
subconscious mind and body have done this for him. When the Eventually, they had reverted to their usual missionary routine.
moments to load and ejaculate arrive, his various body parts As she drifted into sleep, things were happening inside her body respond accordingly. This leaves his conscious mind free to that would change her life for ever. She had ovulated Wilier that concentrate on his thrusting --- and the woman.
evening and her egg was just reaching the place in her left oviduct where fertilisation would occur. As it arrived in the fertilisation zone, three fertile sperm arrived simultaneously.
They began to burrow through the outer layers of the egg. Two of Scene 5
them were delayed for a few seconds as they bumped into each other, attempting to penetrate the same point in the egg's defences.
Conception
The prize of fertilisation went to the third sperm, which had a clear run, unhindered by any others. By the time another sperm It is Friday night and twenty-one days have passed since the arrived only a few seconds later, the egg had put up its barriers beginning of her last period --- bleeding that signalled a second!
and there was no way in. The egg had been fertilised by the first month without conception. Briefly, the couple had feared: for sperm to get through. Three months after giving up contraception, their fertility. They were calmed, however, both by the the woman had conceived.
experiences of friends and by the discovery that a couple must In twenty days' time, an overdue period would prompt her to have unprotected sex for a whole year before they qualify for carry out a pregnancy test. Two hundred and fifty days after that medical investigation. With these reassurances, they had put the she would give birth. The identity of the father, however, would month behind them and started afresh. Now, they have just had never be known. For the sperm waiting in her oviduct that Friday sex and are drifting off into post-coital sleep. Tonight, she won't night had in fact been from two different men.
wake to go to the toilet and her flowback will wet the sheet.
In the past two weeks, their sex life had more or less followed the routine they had established since giving up contraception.
here is one final phase to the odyssey of fertilisation --- a T
Sex on Saturday, Sunday and sometimes, as this week, also on phase that can be critical in a man's and a woman's pursuit of Friday had become the norm. This week, though, had been reproductive success.
slightly different. On Wednesday night, as soon as she had got In previous scenes, we have followed sperm from their earliest into bed after returning from her weekly night out, she had life in the testes to the moment they are shot into the woman's stroked his body until he awoke and had played with his penis vagina. We have watched them attempt to escape from the until he was erect. Then, she had sat astride him and manhandled seminal pool, migrate through the narrow channels of cervical his penis into her vagina. He had slipped in easily, because she mucus and eventually make their way to a rest area in an was very wet, and from that moment she 32
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oviduct. There we left them, waiting for the final stage of their layer, the zona, which is the outer membrane of the egg itself.
journey.
Under the zona is a narrow space which surrounds the final, most Sperm may rest in an oviduct for as long as a day and, at any vulnerable barrier, the vitelline membrane.
one time, up to a few thousand may be resting and waiting. One Using its head, the sperm hacks its way through the cumulus by one, they wake up and swim further along the oviduct. Their cells. If successful, and it reaches the zona beneath, it sticks the initial destination is a region in which, if an egg is present, side of its head on to the membrane with chemicals. With this fertilisation can occur. But usually no egg is present, and the chemical attachment serving as an initial purchase, the sperm sperm simply pass through and eventually die.
again uses its head to cut a way through, this time employing a As a sperm approaches the fertilisation zone, it changes its pointed spike that has been exposed at the tip of its head. The behaviour. Its tail starts to beat more vigorously and, once it lashing tail provides the force to push the sperm forwards. Finally, arrives, it often swims frantically in circles or figures of eight. At if this sperm is the first to get through the zona, cross the any one time, the fertilisation zone may contain anything from underlying space and touch the vitelline membrane, it is engulfed one or two to up to a thousand sperm, all looking for the egg that by the egg in a welcoming embrace. Having embraced one sperm, usually never comes. After a while, they leave the zone, one by the egg passes a chemical message across its surface and, within one. As each leaves, its place is taken by a new, fresher arrival seconds, becomes impenetrable. If you are a human sperm, there from the rest area. Having left the fertilisation zone, each sperm is no prize for coming second.
then travels the remaining distance up the oviduct until eventually The successful sperm sheds its membranes within the egg, it swims out into the woman's body cavity --- which it can easily releasing its genetic heart of DNA. This then travels to fuse with manage because the end of her oviduct gapes open, its opening the similar heart of the egg. Fusion of the DNA from sperm and surrounded by finger-like projections.
egg mixes together the genes from father and mother in equal Now let's consider the egg.
proportions. A new person has been conceived, with A short distance away from the end of each oviduct, suspended characteristics that are a subtle mixture of his or her two parents.
like a relatively huge planet next to a black hole, is an ovary. Tiny We know with certainty the mother of the child in our scene.
hairs on the inside of the oviduct create a current in the body fluid After all, the child will spend nine months developing inside her.
so that when an egg is released by an ovary, it is slowly wafted But who is the father? As we saw, in those few critical days before towards the black hole of the oviduct. Like a waiting hand, the she ovulated the woman had collected sperm from two men --- her finger-like projections funnel the egg into the tube. From here, the partner and her lover. To see what happened, and to work out who egg begins its five-day journey down towards the womb.
is the father, we need first to go back ten days. We are about to To achieve fertilisation, a sperm has to do more than simply witness a sperm war.
encounter an egg in the fertilisation zone, because the egg arrives in that zone surrounded by three lines of defence --- a fortress that has to be breached by the sperm before the egg will yield. The outer line of defence, the cumulus, is a thick layer of shapeless cells which the egg has brought with it from the ovary. Beneath the cumulus is another relatively thick, smooth 34
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eventually finished with him on discovering his many and varied infidelities. At that vulnerable stage in her life she had needed CHAPTER THREE
someone she could rely on. Now, however, meeting him out of the blue, many of her old feelings returned. All the same, HI the end of the evening she rejoined her group.
Sperm Wars
At lunchtime the next day, he turned up at her work and took her out for a snatched bar lunch. Over lunch, they arranged to meet for a meal that evening. As it was Thursday and her partner would be out with his friends, she reasoned there was no need or point in telling him. As far as she was concerned, the evening SCENE 6
would be totally innocent and therefore not worth mentioning anyway. Even so, she took her ex-boyfriend to a restaurant some A Chance Affair
way out of town where they were unlikely to Be seen.
All through the evening, it was obvious he was expecting them The woman was out on her Wednesday night ritual with eight of to end up in bed back at his hotel. He was very attentive and her girlfriends. She had been going out like this for over a year.
flirtatious and from time to time would find an excuse to touch About a dozen of them were involved, but not everybody went out her. But the thought of infidelity never seriously crossed her every week. Typically, their night centred on lots of drinking and mind. She still found him attractive and his touches arousing, but talking, a meal and sometimes a club. Occasionally, a man or two she also found his expectation of sex irritating, almost offensive.
would move in and try to prise somebody away from the group.
As a result, she had long cool phases inwards him throughout the They expected each other from time to time to talk to, and perhaps evening. Eventually, he got the message and backed off. On the even leave with, a man. Even though most of them had a male return journey to her home they simply exchanged pleasantries.
partner at home, the group enjoyed an unspoken sisterly In the few moments before she got out of his car, they spoke as complicity.
if they were never going to meet again. She surprised herself Tonight, it was her turn. Quite by chance, who should walk when a sudden feeling of warmth, nostalgia and maybe guilt into the bar but the man she had met during her last schoolgirl prompted her to kiss him briefly on the cheek. She surprised summer --- the one who, for a few months, had been her weekend herself even more when she kissed him again, this time on the sexual partner during her first term as a student. They recognised lips. Somewhat flustered by this momentary surge of passion, she each other immediately and spent virtually the whole evening got quickly out of the car, wished him a good life, and went talking, catching up on events since their last, rather acrimonious, inside.
meeting. She learned that he now worked at the other end of the When her partner returned home an hour later, she was in bed country but was in town for a week on business, staying in a pretending to be asleep. As he fell into a drunken sleep and began nearby hotel. Now nearly thirty, he was still not living with a night of snoring, her thoughts and dreams raced around with the anybody, but had a girlfriend --- or two.
excitement of the evening. At some unknown He still oozed masculinity, promiscuity --- and unreliability.
Kudos though there had been in being his girlfriend, she had 36
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hour of the night she surfaced just enough to realise she had she found the courage to phone just once, but got no answer.
climaxed in her sleep.
After that, her nerve failed and she didn't try again that day. On All the next day, at work, she couldn't believe how easy it had Wednesday morning, her mood changed from fear and guilt to all been. She had spent the evening, albeit quite innocently, with one of calm confidence. Why shouldn't she see him again? He another man, and absolutely no one had known about it. The was an old friend and this could be her last opportunity. After man, their evening, their conversation and their kiss, as well as all, their previous evening together had been innocent enough ---
memories of their earlier sex life when she was still a teenager, there was no need to feel guilty or nervous. But maybe there was were at the back of her mind continually as she worked. Her no need to tell anyone, either.
thoughts kept her in an almost permanent state of subliminal At her third attempt, he answered his phone. He was pleased excitement. Her knickers were damp virtually all day and on one and surprised to hear from her but was in a hurry and, without visit to the toilet she masturbated.
time to discuss arrangements, suggested that she call for him at She didn't have sex with her partner that Friday night but she his hotel that evening. She agreed, and spent the rest of the day did both on Saturday and on Sunday. On Saturday night she in a state of high excitement. She told her friends at work that more or less insisted that he gave her an orgasm before entering she had to visit her sister, and so would not be with them at their her. It was rare for her to climax during intercourse itself. She weekly get-together. She told her partner, as she left him at never expected to and on the occasions when she really wanted seven o'clock, that she felt like going on to a club and so might an orgasm she made sure it was during foreplay. On Sunday be late. He complained, but not much.
morning she had masturbated while in the bath, then appeared She was nervous as she arrived at the hotel and the first few naked in the lounge and seduced her partner into sex on the minutes of conversation were very awkward. However, even floor. During each orgasm over the weekend, even during before they had finished their first drink at the hotel bar, it was foreplay, the fantasy in her mind was not of her partner (it never as if they were students again. The last six years apart had never was these days!) but of a real or imaginary scene from the past happened. Tonight, her mood and behaviour were quite different with her ex-boyfriend.
from the previous Thursday. After another drink she sat with her All weekend, she secretly relished her burst of sexual activity knees touching his, and as the conversation flowed touched him and excitement. At no point, however, did she ever contemplate frequently on his leg or arm with her open hand. When he doing anything more dangerous than fantasise about illicit sex.
suggested they eat in the hotel restaurant 'to avoid going out in But on Monday, back at work, her mood began to change. Her the cold', she readily agreed. After eating, he 'just had to go up to ex-boyfriend was leaving on Thursday and she might never see his room' to get a photograph to show her. She went with him him again. An idea began to form in her mind and her because she had 'always wanted to see what the rooms were like excitement slowly turned to nervousness. Maybe she should see in this hotel'.
him just one more time. It would be easy to arrange. Instead of He never did show her the photograph. Within moments of going out with her friends on Wednesday night, she could spend closing the door they were kissing and removing each other's the evening with him. All she had to do was pick up the phone, call his clothes. Almost before she could take a breath they were naked mobile, and arrange it. Easy.
on the floor and he was inside her, ejaculating. She had been The thought both excited and frightened her, so much so that taken aback by his urgency but made no attempt to slow him all day Monday she did nothing but relish it. On Tuesday down. He did not offer to use a condom or to withdraw, and 38
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it never crossed her mind to ask. Her vagina had been wet with The next day, her ex-boyfriend left for home. They were never anticipation all day and as she walked into his room it had been to see each other again. The day after that she ovulated and in full flow. Penetration had been quick and easy and ejaculation conceived. Over the next three weeks, she and her partner had had been swift.
sex nearly every other day. By the time she discovered her When it was over he apologised, saying that his urgency was pregnancy, her night of infidelity had become a distant memory.
because he had never stopped loving her and had been desperate The guilt and fear had all but gone and she could almost believe for her. He promised that if they got off the floor and into bed he it had never happened. She gradually convinced herself that the would make it up to her. And he did. For half an hour he baby was in fact her partner's. After all, she'd had sex with him caressed and played with her body with an understanding of her about sixteen times that month compared with that single night womanhood that her partner had never shown. After she with her ex-boyfriend.
climaxed, they dozed for a while in] each other's arms. Then they Nine months later she was to have a daughter. Two years after began all over again. He still 1 penetrated her early, but this time that, she and her partner had a son, followed three years later by his urgency had gone. Thrusting was slow and long. Unusually another daughter. As the elder daughter grew she came to look for her, she climaxed) during thrusting, just a few seconds before more and more like her mother. She also became noticeably he ejaculated.
more attractive, more dynamic and more popular than the two They settled into another post-coital embrace, but their younger children. However, the differences between them tranquillity did not last for long. For the first time that night, seemed no greater than between many brothers and sisters.
guilt and panic began to grow in her mind. It was getting late In the years to come, the woman's partner never once Quickly, her fear became all-consuming. She had to get home.
inspected that at the conception of her first child her body had He urged her to stay the night --- to phone her partner and give contained sperm from another man, as well as from him. Even some excuse for not going home. But she would not hear of it.
she, of course, never knew for certain what happened inside her She just had to get home. Eventually, she escaped from his bed body over those few critical days. Neither of them was ever to on the pretext of going to the toilet. Then she refused to return know that the tiny sperm that entered her egg to produce her first and began to get dressed. Conversation became tense and forced.
daughter was in fact not her partner's but her ex-boyfriend's.
She even became irritable with him and their parting was an awkward affair. As she taxied home, her flowback seeped on to her knickers in a replay of past times. But she did not notice. Her he two scenes (6 and 7) in this short chapter explore first T
mind was too full of what she should do when she got home.
the promotion and then the process of sperm warfare. In Quietly, so as not to wake her partner, she undressed, washed (act, only one of these scenes involves people --- the one we herself thoroughly, then got into bed. Then she set about waking have just witnessed. Scene 7 is not really a scene at all. As a and arousing him. When he was erect, even before he was fully description of sperm wars in action, it is the only occasion in this awake, she sat astride him, inserted his penis, and after a while book in which it was more appropriate to combine scene with managed to get him to ejaculate inside her. He dimly registered interpretation.
that she was very wet but thought no more of it, and We have just witnessed a textbook scene of infidelity. The concentrated instead on enjoying an intercourse without effort.
subtleties of behaviour all play their part in influencing the 40
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paternity of the woman's first daughter. We should note in then on the following Wednesday. She took one opportunity, passing the unreliable, promiscuous masculinity of the woman's Mil not the other. The Thursday evening had been instigated by ex-boyfriend and that his child showed certain more positive her ex-boyfriend and the woman was in an infertile phase of her characteristics than the children the woman had with her partner.
cycle. Her body found barely any attraction in sex with this man.
We should also note the number and timing of her orgasms, both Her coolness that evening had kept him at arm's length, even male-induced and via self-stimulation. We will discuss later the though he was manifestly hoping for sex. On the Wednesday, significance of these elements. Here, we concentrate on the however, her mood was quite different. As she moved into her infidelity itself and on the factors which led the ex-boyfriend's fertile phase on the Monday, the idea of seeing her ex-boyfriend sperm, rather than the partner's, to achieve fertilisation. Clearly, began to appeal to her. Her motivation to do something about it, the outcome had a major impact on the reproductive success of however, did not peak until the Wednesday. Unknown to all three characters in the scene.
everyone, including herself, this was the day that insemination We have already mentioned that a woman is slightly more was most likely to lead to conception.
likely to have routine sex with her partner during the infertile When the Wednesday evening came, her mood and body postovulatory phase of her cycle (Scene 2). The same is not true language were very different from the previous Thursday. Most for infidelity. A woman is much more likely to have penetrative of the leading suggestions still came from the man, but whereas sex with a man other than her partner during her fertile phase.
the week before she had made it clear she was not interested, this Moreover, she is much less likely to use or insist on the man time she readily cooperated. In his bedroom, she cooperated using contraception on such occasions.
further to ensure that she obtained his sperm. She accepted In order for these patterns for infidelity to be detected penetration and ejaculation with the minimum of foreplay, and statistically, women must have cycles of mood and behaviour ignored the question of contraception completely. Later, her that promote them. We can see a hint of how this might occur, conscious mind would rationalise her behaviour in terms of not only in the scene we have just witnessed, but also in the first being overwhelmed by the excitement and passion of the scene involving this couple. The first month we met them, the moment. In reality it was simply that, two days in advance of woman did not conceive. She was cool towards her partner ovulation, her body was eager to collect this man's sperm. The during her fertile period and we suggested that her lack of reason her body wanted a second insemination we shall see later conception was a success for her body, not a failure by the (Scene 25), but once she had collected his sperm she lost interest couple. At that time, the only man available to her was her in staying with him. Then, by far the most important thing was partner, and her body had decided --- for the conscious brain is to get back to her partner.
not involved here --- that it was not yet a good time to give him Subconsciously, there were probably two main reasons why the paternity of her first child. To achieve this, it had generated a her body engineered such a sudden change of mood towards her feeling of coolness towards him for the duration of her fertile lover. In part, the reasoning will also have been in her conscious period.
mind, though she will have given herself slightly different This month, a chance meeting with her ex-boyfriend meant explanations. The underlying strategy her body was pursuing that the woman had an alternative potential father for her first was that, no matter who fathered the child, the man best suited to child --- an alternative which her body actually preferred. She help her raise it was her partner. It was vital to this strategy, had two opportunities to be unfaithful, first on the Thursday, therefore, that any infidelity should not be discovered 42
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Her body generated a fear of discovery and a sense of panic, but father's sperm out-competed the sperm from one or more other needed to recruit her conscious mind to work out the finer details men within the reproductive tract of their mother. If this does of timing and story-telling. The two together seem to work well.
not seem very many, it nevertheless means that since about Surveys suggest that one-off infidelities such as this are rarely 1900 every single one of us will have had an ancestor who was discovered, and even longer-term infidelities have only a fifty-conceived via sperm warfare. Every one of us, therefore, is the fifty chance of discovery. On this occasion, as we have seen, the person we are today because one of our recent ancestors woman succeeded in covering her tracks.
produced an ejaculate competitive enough to win a sperm war.
There is one further stage in her body's strategy which her Most often, because a woman only produces one egg at a conscious mind is most unlikely to fathom. When she gets home, time, sperm warfare can produce only one winner, as in Scene 6.
she works very hard to have sex with her partner. Consciously, Occasionally, however, a woman produces two eggs at the same she will have seen this as helping to avoid detection. If she can time and gives birth to fraternal twins. Under such get her partner to inseminate her, any tell-tale damp patch on the circumstances, a different outcome of warfare is possible --- a sheets or any smell of semen will not arouse his suspicions.
draw. There are several remarkable cases on record --- most What her conscious mind will not realise, though, is that having obvious when the two rivals in sperm warfare are of different collected sperm from her ex-boyfriend, her body is now very races --- in which fraternal twins have different fathers.
keen also to collect sperm from her partner. Her body hall Let us go back to the moment of conception that we already decided that, on balance, her ex-boyfriend would make a witnessed earlier. Three sperm arrived at the egg better genetic father than her partner. The one thing it doesn't simultaneously. They were all from the woman's lover. If we know is how their ejaculates compare. She wants to have hell move back down her oviduct to the collection of sperm waiting egg fertilised by her ex-boyfriend only if his ejaculate is also the quietly in the rest area for their turn to swim up the oviduct, we more fertile and competitive. The way for her to discover this is find that nine out of every ten are also from the lover. The to pit one ejaculate against the other. In other words, her body woman's partner had lost this game of sperm wars in a big way, wants to promote sperm warfare between the two men, and this even though he had done all he could in preparation. We are is probably her only chance ever to do so.
back to routine sex.
Once a woman's body contains sperm from two or more So far, we have interpreted a man's interest in routine sex different men, those sperm compete for the prize of fertilising simply in terms of his attempt to maintain a steady flow of her egg. But the contest that takes place is not a simple game of fertile sperm through a woman's oviduct Routine sex, however, chance, nor is it just a race. It is indeed a war --- a war between does more than just top up the partner with fertile sperm: it also two (or more) armies. And it is this warfare between ejaculates, prepares for sperm warfare. Moreover, the level of preparation or the threat of it, that has shaped the sexuality of every man and depends on the risk of war. In deciding how many sperm to load woman alive today, as well as the sexuality of just about every and ejaculate during routine sex, the man's body weighs up the other animal that has ever existed.
chances that his partner might contain sperm from another man.
Sperm warfare is more common and more important than His body does this very simply by registering how much time he most people suppose. A recent study in Britain concluded that 4
has spent with the woman he is about to inseminate since they per cent of people are conceived via sperm warfare. In other last had sex. If they have not had sex for over a week, then he words, one in every twenty-five owe their existence to the fact registers how much time he has spent with her over the past that their genetic
eight days.
Crude though this strategy might seem, it does work. The less 44
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time a man spends with his partner, the greater the chance of her hundred million or so. As far as 'Infidelity Wednesday' is infidelity. If he spends more than 80 per cent of his time with concerned, sperm wars began with the lover putting a sperm army her, there is virtually no chance of her being unfaithful. But if he into the woman's tract that was twice the size of her partner's.
is with her for as little as 10 per cent of his time, there is over a So the lover had a twofold advantage over the partner from the 10 per cent chance. In other words, as far as the man's body is very beginning. By the time the war was coming to its climax and concerned, if he has spent less time with his partner since they the prize of fertilisation was nearly ready to be claimed, however, last had sex, there is a greater chance that when he inseminates the lover had a ninefold advantage. (Remember that in the rest her her body will already contain sperm from another man. To area of the woman's oviduct, nine out of every ten sperm waiting increase his chances of winning the sperm wars that might to set off for the fertilisation zone were the lover's.) What had follow, he needs to introduce more sperm. And this is just what happened during sperm warfare to shift the odds even further in he does.
the lover's favour? The first step in finding out is to meet and The difference in the number of sperm he will ejaculate, appreciate the soldiers themselves --- the sperm.
depending on the circumstances just outlined, is quite large. In The most common sperm in the human ejaculate is, of course, the scene of infidelity we have just witnessed, the woman the magnificent, sleek athletic cell that most people know, with a returned home on the Wednesday night and had sex with her head, a mid-piece and a long, slender tail. The head is paddle-partner. In deciding how many sperm to introduce, his sleepy shaped, oval in outline but flattened and wearing a cap. This cap body will first have registered that it was three days since they is filled with important fluids. Inside the head, densely folded, is last had sex (Sunday). The average top-up for such a gap is the package of DNA, the genes that a fertile sperm will deliver to about three hundred million sperm. His body next registered that the heart of the egg. The head perches like a lollipop on the short, they had been together about 50 per cent of the time since then, stiff mid-piece which is the sperm's powerhouse, the place where giving an average chance of infidelity. So the average top-up of stored energy is mobilised to activate the tail for swimming.
about three hundred million is about right, and that's the number These sleek individuals travel effortlessly through the female's of sperm his body should have loaded and then ejaculated. If the body fluids, pushed forward by elegant waves whipping in slow couple had been in each other's company continuously during motion down the length of their tail.
those three days, the risk of her infidelity would have been near Familiar though this image will be to most people, such sperm zero and he would have introduced only about a hundred million comprise only just over half of the total in a normal ejaculate. A sperm. On the other hand, if one or other of them had been away sperm army is a much more motley collection of characters than from early Monday morning to late Wednesday night, the risk of most people expect. For example, some sperm have a big head, her infidelity would have been greater and he would have others a small one. Yet others, the pin-heads, have a head that is injected about five hundred million.
so small that there is no room to carry the genetic package of For the woman's lover, the situation was quite different. It DNA. Some sperm have a round head, some a cigar-shaped one, was the first time he had inseminated this woman for over six some a pear-shaped one, some a dumb-bell shaped one, and some years. Moreover, even over the last eight days he had spent only a head that is so irregular in shape that it defies description. Some a few hours with her. His body judged, correctly of course, that sperm, the real monster troops, have two, three or, very her body had a very high chance of containing sperm from occasionally, four heads.
another man, and will have responded by loading and ejaculating The shape of the head is not the only feature to differ. Some six hundred million. Half an hour later, he injected a further 46
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sperm have short tails, some have tails coiled like a spring, and crypts. These emerged and entered her mucus channels in a vain some have two, three or occasionally four tails. Some sperm, the attempt to make good the numbers being lost into her vagina.
hunchbacks of the force, have mid-pieces that are bent into a However, the numbers being lost were greater than the number of right-angle. Yet others, like hikers carrying a rucksack, have their replacements, and all day her partner's cervical defences had bags of cell material on their mid-pieces. On average, only about been slowly declining.
60 per cent of the army are the familiar, sleek athletes; the remainder are this collection of deviants. All, however, have an The sperm lodged in her cervical mucus are not the sleek important part to play in sperm warfare.
types already referred to. Instead, they are sluggardly blockers On 'Infidelity Wednesday', it was the performance of the sperm whose role is to prevent any later sperm from passing lover's army as a whole that helped to increase the odds in his through to her cervical crypts and womb. Sperm with coiled tails, favour, as the sperm war progressed, from 2:1 to 9:1. To find out a bent mid-piece, a large 'rucksack', a large head, or with two, how, we need to climb into the woman's body with a micro-scope three or four heads can block very effectively any of the very and follow the war in detail through all its campaigns. We will narrow mucus channels in which they lodge. So, too, can two begin at the moment the woman and her lover walk into his hotel sperm side by side. As her lover thrusts inside her, however, bedroom, undress and begin to have sex on the floor.
relatively few of her mucus channels are still blocked by this rapidly dwindling collection of her partner's sperm.
These blocking sperm are not her partner's only defence inside her body. Roaming around in the void of her womb are a few SCENE 7
more of his sperm, though these too are dwindling in numbers.
These sperm look familiar. They are svelte and athletic, but they A Sperm War
are not there to fertilise. These are killer sperm, roaming around in search of sperm from other men to destroy. Each time a killer As the woman and her lover sink to the floor, only moments encounters another sperm, it tests the chemicals on the surface of away from intercourse, her body already contains sperm. Her the other's head. If those chemicals are the same as on its own partner inseminated a total of six hundred million during their head, the killer recognises an ally and moves on to continue its routine intercourses the previous weekend. Most were ejected in search. So far, all encounters inside this woman have been with her various flowbacks, but even so some are still inside her.
allies and the killers' deadly services have not been needed. Many Their ability to influence the outcome of sperm warfare, are now beginning to move slowly, and large numbers are dying however, depends on where they are.
of old age. The weakest have been in her womb for three days.
A few ineffectual sperm are at the top of her vagina, carried The more active are more recent arrivals from the reservoirs in there by cervical mucus, which has been dripping out of her her cervical crypts.
cervix and oozing down her vagina all day in anticipation of this The woman's womb is not the only territory stalked by killers.
moment of infidelity. Each drip of mucus carried with it a few of A few more are scattered along her oviducts. There is even one her partner's sperm. As these sperm were lost from the future swimming solitarily in her body cavity near to her left ovary.
battleground in her cervix, they were partly replaced higher up These killer sperm in her oviducts accompany the last handful of by the last handfuls of sperm from her cervical the partner's fertile sperm, the egg-getters. Killer sperm and egg-getters look very similar. They are both sleek and athletic 48
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in form but, whereas the killers have average-sized heads, the at every sperm they encounter, comparing its surface chemicals heads of the egg-getters are slightly larger. If the woman ovulated with their own and checking for similarities and differences. If a now, her partner would still have a good chance of fertilisation.
killer finds a sperm from the rival's army, it tries to jab the deadly But ovulation is still two days away, and war is about to begin.
tip of its head against the vulnerable side of its opponent's head, After very few thrusts, the lover deposits his seminal pool in the applying a small amount of corrosive poison with each jab.
woman's vagina. Her cervix dips into and stays in the pool, and the Having jabbed several times it moves on, leaving the other sperm vanguard of his army begins to stream into the channels of her to die.
cervical mucus. This army contains about five hundred million A single killer sperm carries enough poison to kill many sperm killer sperm, about one million egg-getters, and about a hundred from the rival army, but gradually its cap runs out of chemicals, million blockers. Some are denied passage through mucus for it has no reserves of energy to make any more. In a last-ditch channels by the partner's blocking sperm. So few of these blockers attempt to kill just one more sperm, it tries to stick its head to a remain, though, that almost all of the cervical channels are now rival's and apply the last drops of its lethal fluids. As the war clear. The invaders pour through in waves. A few hundred egg-progresses, there is a gradual increase in these pairs of dead and getters with support from killers travel straight through the cervix dying sperm, joined at the head in a deadly embrace.
into the womb, heading immediately for the rest area in the In this initial skirmish, one or two of the partner's killers do oviduct. The remainder of the egg-getters, some of me killers and their job and some of the lover's egg-getters and killers die from the youngest of the blockers --- a few million in all --- head for the head-to-head combat, their heads coated in the poison. Any initial cervical crypts. They pour in, settle down, and await success of the partner's sperm, though, is short-lived. In their turn, developments. The remainder of the killers travel more slowly they are found by the invading bands of killers from the lover through the cervix into the womb, leaving behind the much slower which accompany his egg-getters. In a frenzy of kamikaze blockers. These latter distribute themselves throughout the mucus mayhem, killer sperm from both sides attempt In annihilate each channels, then settle down, many immediately coiling their tails as other's troops. Outnumbered by at least a thousand to one, if in anticipation of a long wait.
however, the last remaining sperm from the partner are soon Some of the vanguard of the lover's egg-getters do not make it killed.
to the oviduct. As we have seen, the partner has relatively few The battlefront now moves into the oviducts, where the killing killer sperm still active in the womb, but those that are there do continues. With only a few losses of their own, the lover's sperm their best to stem the lover's tide. As soon as a killer from either systematically wipe out the partner's last remaining egg-getters man first encounters a sperm from the rival, it is alerted that war and killers. By the time the woman and her lover have sex again, has begun. For an hour or so, the killers from both men swim much an hour later, the first battle is over and none of the partner's faster than normally, seeking out as many rival sperm as possible.
sperm remain alive inside her. Actually, the role of the second Their aim is to poison the rival's egg-getters and killers using the insemination in this particular sperm war is more complicated deadly cocktail of fluids in the cap which they each carry on their than it seems --- but here that discussion would be a distraction.
heads. They do this via head-to-head combat. First, as we have So far, our war has been so one-sided that it has been little seen, they probe with the tips of their heads more than a brushing aside. The main battle is still to come. It begins when the woman gets home and her body urges her 50
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to sit astride her partner, push his penis into her vagina, and channel leading to an empty crypt, but the majority get stranded in stimulate him to ejaculate. By doing so, she has staged a real war.
the mucus where they fall prey to the combined forces of the Nevertheless, even though her partner now enters a fresh army of lover's sperm and the woman's white blood cells.
three hundred million sperm into the arena, the contest is still going Clearly, the Wednesday encounter in this war has gone very to be one-sided.
much in favour of the lover, and nothing much happens over be As soon as the newly introduced sperm from the partner attempt next two days to redress the balance. As the woman goes about as to leave the seminal pool, they encounter problems. The channels of normal on Thursday and Friday, the population of blocking sperm the woman's cervical mucus are nearly all blocked, not only with from both men in her cervical mucus slowly declines. Some drip sperm from the lover, but also with white blood cells from the into her vagina, carried by mucus. Others are mopped up by woman herself. The huge number of the lover's sperm and the rearguard white blood cells. Even when some of these blockers are matching number of white blood cells are doing their job almost replaced higher up in her cervix with sperm from the cervical perfectly, and the partner's sperm are much more hindered in leaving crypts, the new recruits fail to make good the loss and the blockers the seminal pool than were the lover's, a couple of hours earlier.
dwindle. The killer sperm in her womb, after an initial decline Queues of the partner's sperm develop in the blocked channels, from battle losses, actually build up in numbers on Thursday with producing tailbacks all the way to the seminal pool. As a result, only a fresh recruitment from the cervical crypts. Then the killers also a small proportion of the partner's army manages to escape the pool begin to decline in number. A steady flow of egg-getters from both before the woman ejects her flowback.
men (but mainly the lover) leave the crypts, heading for the rest Even those sperm which do escape the pool and find a clear areas in the oviducts. En route, they have to run the gauntlet of channel are not yet out of trouble. The small vanguard of egg-getters rival killer sperm in the womb, and most of the partner's egg-and killers which head straight into the womb find themselves getters fail because these killers are almost all from the lover. By having to run the gauntlet of hordes of the lover's killers. Inevitably, Friday night, with only hours now to go to ovulation, the partner's one or two get through without being poisoned, but only to run into egg-getters in the oviducts are outnumbered by about one hundred further problems as they then try to leave the womb. The entrance to one.
into each oviduct is narrow, only just large enough to allow easy When the woman and her partner have sex on the Friday night, passage to a descending egg. Moreover, both oviduct entrances are there is only one more hour to ovulation. Now, the partner's sperm blocked by lover's sperm and patrolled by killers, and many of the have a much easier passage through the cervical mucus because partner's sperm are killed as they try to push through. Even those the number of blockers is much reduced. Although most of his few that do escape and eventually arrive safely in the oviduct rest sperm head for the now half-empty cervical crypts, a vanguard of area are still at risk to the lover's killers, which patrol the whole egg-getters and killers head straight for the oviducts. Many are area.
killed or slowed down in the womb by the lover's patrolling killers, Lower down in the woman's tract, in her cervix, many of her but enough get through to reduce the odds in the oviducts from a partner's sperm are trying to enter her cervical crypts. But the crypt hundred to one to about ten to one. It is at this point that the entrances too are patrolled by killers and, in any case, inside they woman produces an egg from one of her ovaries and a chemical are virtually full of the lover's sperm. Just occasionally, some of the signal passes down the adjacent oviduct. This signal activates partner's sperm stumble across a
hundreds of the sperm in the rest area, and a wave 52
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of sperm begin to make their way up the oviduct towards the fertilisation zone. It is now a race, or rather an obstacle race because there are still killers in the oviduct, mainly from the lover. The CHAPTER FOUR
partner's sperm, particularly those few which have just arrived straight from the insemination, are actually fastball than the lover's - if all else were equal, the partner could still win the prize of fertilisation.
Counting the Cost
But all else is not equal. One after another, the partner's egg-getters run into the lover's killer sperm. As the egg reaches the zone of fertilisation in the oviduct and the first sperm arrive, the odds against the partner have reduced to five to one, but that is not enough. The first three sperm to arrive are all from the lover, and one of these claims the SCENE 8
prize. An hour later, with the partner's fresh sperm now overwhelming Doesn't He Look like His Father?
the lover's at all points in the woman's tract, the odds in the oviducts swing heavily in the partner's favour. But it is too late. The lover has made it and the woman's daughter, to be born in nine months' time, will As the man drifted back into consciousness, he painfully turned over not have been sired by the man she will call her father. But nobody will his left hand which had been resting, palm down, on the bed. His ever know.
partner reached out and placed her hand in his, distressed by the coolness of his skin. As their eyes met, she shook her head, answering his mute question.
The man knew that death wasn't far away, but he couldn't die yet.
He had set himself one last task and had to live just that little bit longer. Despite the drugs and the pain, panic rose within him that he might fail and die too soon. His son was on his way, flying from the other side of the world, and the man desperately wanted to see him just one more time. Nothing else would make his last moments peaceful.
His eyes closed and he drifted off once again into semi-consciousness. Scenes from the past opened and closed so vividly he could swear he was actually there. He walked into the room where he met his lifelong partner and saw her for the very first time. He saw the blood and water as his son shot that last short distance out into the world. The midwife picked the baby up, identified his boyhood, and in the next breath remarked how much he looked like his father. Then he was wrapped and placed in his father's arms, his tiny, wizened face pointing upwards, bottom lip quivering as he sucked at a 54
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non-existent nipple. It was the most emotional moment of the man's come into the room. He was sure it was his son, and he looked so life, his own flesh and blood there in his arms.
well, so successful --- and so strangely young. The man smiled. He The man opened his eyes again. Still all he could see was his had done it. He had hung on just long enough.
partner. After their son had been born, she had never really wanted His partner knew he was dead. She had felt his hand growing any more children, but he hadn't minded. Just having the one child colder and colder. Now he was gone. She thought she had used up all meant that they had never needed to stint on their son's comfort, her tears, but more came. After a while, she called for a nurse; then, development and education. At the same time, they had found it after a few more moments of contemplation, left the room to wait for relatively easy to become modestly wealthy. Their investment of her son. He finally arrived two hours later. After she had broken the time and money had been more than repaid by their son's successes.
news to him, the pair of them went in and stood over the man's body, Three times, as his son was growing up, the man was almost now totally cold. The woman tried to console her son by telling him tempted into infidelity. But each time, at the last moment, he had that in the man's last hours, during his few moments of resisted for fear it would break up his home. He would have been consciousness, he had spoken of nothing else but of him and his sad to lose his partner, but he would have been heartbroken to lose family.
his son. The two of them had always been close. They had shared all While openly weeping, her son cursed the airport delays and of those things that a father and son can share, even through the heavy traffic that had made him too late. Then, in an outburst he boy's difficult adolescence. He relived the pride he had felt at seeing would later regret, he turned on his mother and swore at her. He him graduate, then watched once more as his career went from cursed her infidelity and lamented the day that she had saddled him strength to strength. He met again the succession of pretty girls who with her secret. For ten long years she had made him keep up the clamoured for his attention, and the beauty who was to become like a pretence until, in the end, the burden had become too much and he daughter to him. He remembered the surges of grand-paternalism as, had felt driven to emigrate. But most of all, he cursed her for making one by one, they had given him five grandchildren.
him hate himself today. During the long flight home, a single thought As real as if it were actually happening, he felt himself lift the had plagued his mind. Why am I bothering? --- he's not even my real photograph which was now by his hospital bedside but which for father.
years had had pride of place in his lounge. After his son's emigration, prompted by a career move apparently too lucrative to refuse, the picture had taken on a special significance. It was of his n many occasions in this book, we encounter people who dynasty, as he called it; a professional photograph of himself, his O enhance their reproductive success via infidelity. Such son and the five grandchildren. As he never tired of saying, the behaviour, however, is only advantageous if the person concerned picture showed his contribution to the world and to future manages to gain the benefits of infidelity without incurring its even generations, a contribution more lasting than any work of art. His greater costs.
son and his grandchildren had already inherited his genes. Now, very soon, they would inherit a large part of his wealth.
This chapter is concerned with the potential costs of being unfaithful. It consists of Scenes 8 to 11, each of which explores one His heart skipped a beat as he thought he saw a young man or more of the costs and dangers of infidelity. Some of these dangers are experienced by the person who is being unfaithful; some by their partner. In this first scene, we examine 56
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the reproductive repercussions for a man of being unknowingly tricked tricking other men into raising his children as if they were their into raising another man's child.
own.
The comments that people make when they are first confronted by a The greatest reproductive success is achieved by people who new-born baby show a surprising preoccupation with seeking a strike the best balance between the pursuit of wealth and status and resemblance between the baby and the presumed father. It is not known the production of children. This principle applies just as much to an how often such comments and comparisons are accurate. In Scene 8 the African cattle-herder as it does to a Western industrialist. It also midwife was wrong, but the man would have found it reassuring none applies to other animals. A male bird, for instance, has to strike a the less. But, as life turned out, it might have been better if he hadn't ---
balance between gaining a better territory and feeding its young on he might have been more likely to retrieve his situation, reproductively.
the one hand, and finding opportunities to mate on the other. The In his generation's cruel competition to pass on its genes, the dying best balance, of course, can be elusive. Spend so long accumulating man was a reproductive failure. For him there were no descendants; no resources to invest that you never actually find time to reproduce, dynasty. He had been outmaneuvered in life's mating game by his and your strategy will fail. Spend all your time having children and partner and a man he never even knew --- the man who was the real, none accumulating resources, and your strategy again fails. Your genetic, father of his 'son'. Between them, the two had tricked him into children may die of malnutrition or become so unhealthy and dedicating all of his reproductive effort into raising a child who wasn't disease-ridden that they become unattractive or infertile.
his, just like the small bird that is tricked into raising a monstrous The single-child strategy, which is the ultimate in investment, cuckoo chick.
can be successful as we have seen --- but it can also fail. Moreover, Had he not been duped in this way, there was in principle nothing when it does fail, it does so spectacularly. If that child dies through wrong with his strategy of having just one child. Recent studies have accident or disease or is infertile through some misfortune of shown that, all else being equal, increasing one's wealth and investing genetics or infection, the single-child strategy is a total failure. Or, more into each child can increase reproductive success just as much as if your situation is like that of the man in Scene 8, the single-child having more children. It does so because each child then has a greater strategy is again a total failure.
chance of survival, grows to be healthier and wealthier, and so becomes For the woman in the scene, however, the strategy worked more likely to attract the opposite sex. Eventually, such a child should wonderfully. She produced a son who survived and avoided major produce more grandchildren or great-grandchildren than a child who diseases. Moreover, through his receipt and use of the higher-than-received less investment from his or her parents.
average family wealth, he was able to achieve a status in terms of Sons, in particular, make good investments (Scene 18). Wealthier, health and wealth that made him a popular target for attractive and healthier sons have more opportunity to inseminate girls before they fertile young girls (Scene 18). For all his mother knew, her son choose a long-term partner, are more likely to obtain an attractive, might have produced children with some of these other women. He fertile and faithful partner, and are more likely to have the opportunity might even have tricked other men in the same way that his genetic for infidelity. Even apart from the grandchildren such a son might father had tricked the man who had just died. Even apart from such produce through his long-term relationships, he is also more likely to potential satellite children, her son had successfully produced five produce 'satellite' grandchildren via other women, often in the process children with his long-term partner. Had the woman had more than the one child, the reduced investment in each could have led to her 58
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having fewer grandchildren. As events turned out, her strategy was a support agencies are reporting a non-paternity rate of about 15 per cent.
good one.
All figures for non-paternity are of the proportion of children actually The strategy also worked well for the genetic father. Not only did he born. The non-paternity level for children conceived will be even enjoy the same reproductive benefits through his son as did the woman, higher. This is because a woman is more likely to abort a child but he undoubtedly enjoyed further reproductive success with his own conceived via a man other than her long-term partner. Almost certainly long-term partner. Biologically, his success contrasts with the failure of this happens primarily when her partner either knows or has a good the man who raised his, the genetic father's, child as if it were his own.
chance of finding out that he is not the real father. The abortion then Having been deceived early on in his reproductive life, the latter had represents an attempt by the woman to avoid the costs of infidelity several opportunities to retrieve the situation but, as events turned out, discussed in Scenes 9 and 11.
he responded disadvantageously. He could have been more persuasive Although properly controlled DNA fingerprinting studies have not been in changing his partner's mind about not having more children, but he carried out on humans, they have been carried out on a wide range of wasn't. He could have taken the opportunities for infidelity that apparently monogamous birds. The results suggest a roughly 30 per presented themselves, but he didn't. He could even have left his partner cent incidence of males raising other males' offspring, comparable with and tried a long-term relationship with another woman who would have but slightly higher than the level in humans. So it would seem that the given him children, but he didn't. For him, the dangerous strategy of average male bird has even less reason to be reassured by a passing having only one child was a disaster.
resemblance to its offspring than has the average man.
Had the child he was raising been his own, his character and his responses to the challenge of child-rearing would have been advantageous. The couple would both have reaped the rewards of a successful son. But because the child was not his own, biologically his SCENE 9
genetic package of characteristics was a failure. With all the cruelty that Making Mistakes
is natural selection, his genes were weeded out, never to be passed on to future generations.
The experience of the dying man in Scene 8 is by no means rare.
The woman turned the corner, then stopped under a street lamp to World wide, it has been calculated from studies of blood groups that check that her keys were in her bag. A few minutes more would see her about 10 per cent of children are in fact not sired by the man who thinks home, and her spirits were sinking fast. Although the night was cold, he is their father. This is also the level found in industrial Western she paused for a while under the light --- anything to delay the moment societies (see Scene 18 for further details). There is a real need for an of arrival.
extensive study using modern techniques such as DNA fingerprinting.
She had spent the evening at her sister's, about fifteen minutes' walk So far, the nearest thing to such a study comes from the paternity tests away, seeking peace and asking advice. Her sister was in no doubt.
carried out by child support agencies. They are responding to absent
'Take the children and go,' she had said. 'Stay with mother --- she'll
'fathers' who demand such tests in an attempt to avoid or delay the have you while you sort things out.'
enforced financial support of an ex-partner. Internationally, child 60
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Still standing under the light, the woman fingered her cheek bone.
her. He didn't need to phone her sister, he said --- he knew. She told The tenderness had nearly gone, but she knew it wouldn't be long him he was drunk and crazy, that there was no talking to him any before the bruises were back again. She took a deep breath, braced more, and that she was going to bed. Now, for the first time since her herself, and walked the remaining distance to her front gate. She had return, he looked up at her face and told her to stay where she was.
hoped he would be in bed by now, but as she went up the path she She saw the wild look that always came into his eyes before he could see that the sitting-room light was still on.
attacked her. As he demanded to know who she had been with, fear Her partner didn't look up when she walked into the room, his gaze gripped her. He said he knew she was screwing around. She had staying firmly fixed on the TV screen. There was a can of beer in his always screwed around. He just wanted to know who it was, so that hand, and a further eight crushed empty ones littering the floor. She this time he could kill him.
recognised the atmosphere only too well, and knew she had to be As he staggered to his feet, she backed away, pleading with him not careful. For a while she busied herself with minutiae, tidying up the to hurt her again. He demanded even more loudly to know who she debris of his evening at home with their two children. In the end, she was screwing. She half cried, half shouted that there was nobody.
could stand the silence no longer and asked, as calmly as she could Ignoring her, he yelled back that whoever it was he wasn't going to manage, if the children had gone to bed without fuss. Without looking have a free ride. He told her to take off her clothes and accept what at her, he spat his reply. Her children had gone to bed fine. He didn't was coming to her. She whimpered 'No', but it was no good. His fists have any.
and hands were everywhere as he manhandled her to the floor. As She knew better than to contradict him. Both of the children were new bruises were added to old, the pain was familiar but more intense in fact his, but recently he had decided they were not. Since then, he
--- so intense that it was almost a relief when he stopped beating her hadn't missed an opportunity to voice his new-found doubts --- to her, to tear off her underwear. Then he unzipped his trousers and entered to the children, to the neighbours, in fact to anybody who would her, thrusting vigorously and painfully.
listen. She sighed more aggressively than she intended, then said that Almost as soon as he had inseminated her he stood up, telling her if he was going to start that again, she was going to bed.
that if he ever found out who she was seeing he was a dead man. If
'Come here,' he ordered.
she was lucky, he might let her live. Now, he was going to bed and She hesitated, a familiar fear rising inside her.
she could sleep on the floor where she belonged.
'Come here,' he repeated, even more forcefully, still not looking at The next day she packed her and her children's belongings and her.
walked out, taking her sister's advice and moving in with their She knew she had no choice. Running away only made him worse.
mother. Over the next few weeks, she considered legal action for She walked over and stood in front of him. He remained seated.
violence and rape but eventually decided that her best option was to
'You've been with him again,' he said flatly, staring through her have nothing further to do with him. She never saw him again, and he stomach at the television behind.
never tried to contact her or the children. Later, she heard that only She said she hadn't been with anybody, only her sister. There two weeks after she had moved out, a girl of about nineteen had wasn't anybody. He should phone her sister if he didn't believe moved in. A year later, he was dead, murdered by the nineteen-year-old's father.
The woman stayed with her mother far longer than either 62
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of them wanted. Eventually, she moved in with the first man who greater risk. Thirdly, he risks being deserted by his partner if she was prepared to take on her and her children. Having been deserted judges the other man to be a better prospect --- in which case, she by his previous partner after a barren relationship, he had no children may either take their children with her or leave them behind.
himself. At first, he was a good father to hers. But no sooner had she Whichever she does, his reproductive success may suffer.
given birth to his daughter than his attitude changed. He began to hit If she takes his children, they may be raised by a stepfather, her son and, unknown to her, to sexually abuse her elder daughter, which could be reproductively costly. Studies of many different who became morose and rebellious. After a particularly savage cultures around the world have all shown that children are much beating from his stepfather, her son left home to live with his more likely to be abused or even killed by a stepfather than by their grandmother until he could support himself. Many years later he was genetic father. But if his ex-partner tries to raise their children on diagnosed as infertile, the result, he always maintained, of that final her own, this too can be costly. In at least some societies, the beating. Her elder daughter, once in her early teens, simply ran away children in single-parent families have a higher mortality risk. The and never again re-established contact.
same risk exists if his partner leaves their children for him to raise The woman never forgave her new partner for driving away her single-handedly. Even if he manages to attract another partner, he older children, but rather than repeat the mistakes of the past she still risks having them abused or murdered --- this time by their stayed with him. Once her son and elder daughter had left, her stepmother.
relationship with him seemed to improve. They had another child Humans aren't the only animals known to behave more and managed to raise their family without too many problems.
aggressively towards their stepchildren. Male lions provide a good example. Lion prides contain two or three males and up to eight females and their young. Wandering over the savannah are bachelor here are pros and cons to both fidelity and infidelity. From the groups of two or three males, each group looking for a pride from Tviewpoint of reproductive success, neither is inevitably which they can oust the current males. If they succeed, the first advantageous or disadvantageous. What is always disadvantageous thing they do is kill the cubs, the pride's legacy from the previous is making mistakes. Choosing an unsuitable partner from among males. The females are brought into heat by the loss of their young, those available is one mistake. Another is to misjudge a situation and giving the new males an early chance to sire their own offspring.
be unfaithful when it would be better to be faithful --- and to be Some monkeys that live in harem groups --- one male with faithful when it would be better to be unfaithful. Yet another is to be several females --- behave in the same way. if the harem-owner is under-or over-zealous in attempting to prevent a partner from being driven out, the new male kills the previous male's offspring. Even unfaithful. The people who do best in life's generation game are monkeys that live in much larger groups, consisting of many males those who judge their situation correctly and then respond and females, show similar behaviour. More often than not, a male appropriately. A man has a lot to lose from his partner's infidelity.
acts aggressively towards young which cannot be his. On occasion, First, he may be tricked into devoting a lifetime of wealth and effort however, he may do the exact opposite and go out of his way to help into raising another man's child (Scene 8). Secondly, he is at greater a female look after such young. But this is not the act of selflessness risk to sexually transmitted diseases, because his partner is at it might seem --- it is instead a ploy to gain sexual access. Once the female produces a baby that could be the male's, he behaves more aggressively towards
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her older offspring. Note the similarity of such behaviour to that at least three potential disadvantages to behaving aggressively shown in Scene 9 by the woman's second partner.
towards one's sexual partner. First, as long as a male (or a female) There are two ways in which a man may try to reduce the chances needs the partner's cooperation in having and raising children, then of his partner's infidelity. Crudely, these masquerade as that partner's continuing health and fertility are essential. Violence, possessiveness and jealousy. As noted in Scene 6, on the one hand he and any damage it may cause the partner, are therefore can spend so much time with his partner that she has very little disadvantageous to the aggressor as well as to the victim. Secondly, opportunity to be unfaithful. On the other, he can threaten her with there is the danger of such vigorous retaliation on the part of the undesirable consequences if she is unfaithful. His two main threats victim that it is the aggressor who eventually ends up the more are first, desertion, and secondly, violence --- towards her, her lover, damaged. Finally, other individuals with the victim's interests at or both. The man in Scene 9 used violence, and carried it to excess.
heart, such as parents, siblings or potential partners, may also offer a Such behaviour is not uncommon.
vigorous defence, as the violent man in Scene 9 found to his cost.
Infidelity and, just as potently, the suspicion of infidelity are two This man showed a level of aggression towards his partner unusual of the main causes of domestic violence. They are given as the among animals. His urge to inseminate her on suspecting infidelity, reason for over half of reported cases of the abuse and murder of a though, is less unusual, and has its counterpart behaviour among partner. In this, humans are for once relatively unusual. Studies of many other species. Male birds, for example, on seeing their partner other animals, mainly birds, have shown that males rarely respond to having sex with another male, fly straight at that male and knock him a partner's infidelity with aggression, though they may behave off. They then immediately inseminate the female. Male rats and aggressively towards the other male. Monkeys and apes are a little monkeys respond similarly. After inseminating his partner, a male rat more similar to people. Even so, they are still less predictable than or monkey would normally wait a while before doing so again.
humans in showing aggression towards an unfaithful partner.
However, if he sees her mating with another male, he re-inseminates Why humans should show more aggression than other animals in her immediately. Even if they have simply been apart for longer than such circumstances is unclear. One possibility derives from the usual, he is more likely to inseminate her when they next meet.
differences in size and strength between men and women. In most Such rapid re-insemination is an important strategy for success in animals, there is little such difference between the sexes. Potential sperm warfare (Scene 21). If the second male waits too long, more of victims can usually give as good as they get. In humans, however, the first male's sperm have time to leave the seminal pool. In men do have a considerable physical advantage over women, and addition, the first male's army has the chance to distribute itself most domestic violence is perpetuated by men on women, rather than throughout the female's tract in an optimum way --- blocking vice versa. This physical difference gives men more potential than cervical channels, filling cervical crypts, and organising the next few the males of other species to be violent to their female partners.
days' passage of killers and egg-getters. On the other hand, if the Measured aggression, or its threat, may play an important part in second male can inseminate the female quickly enough, his own preventing a partner's infidelity. But if it is misjudged, either in army is there in time to compete for prime positions in the female.
timing or in vigour, the reproductive costs may greatly outweigh the Studies on rats have shown that virtually every second counts. The reproductive benefits. This is because there are longer the second male waits before inseminating the female, 66
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the more pups in the litter will be sired by the first male. Speed is he was not their father --- in which case, their prospects would have everything.
been no better or worse with their real father than with a stepfather.
It is for this reason that rats, monkeys --- and men --- become Given her situation, the woman was always going to be in danger of sexually excited by the sight of another couple having intercourse.
achieving few or no grandchildren via her first family. However, by The male's penis becomes erect and he may even load his urethra leaving her violent partner when she did, she at least managed to with sperm. Along with almost all other aspects of human sexuality, produce a second family, this time with every chance of having the appeal of hard-core pornography owes its existence to behaviour grandchildren.
shaped for success in sperm warfare.
Men seek to avoid the costs of their partner's infidelity by being vigilant for signs, minimising opportunities, and threatening
desertion or retaliation. If signs of infidelity are detected, then guarding and threats are escalated. Only if infidelity actually occurs, SCENE 10
however, are the threats usually carried out. Even then, a man may decide that his long-term prospects for reproduction are still better if Licking Infidelity
he stays with his current partner than with anyone else --- in which case, the threats are curtailed.
In the first few moments after it was over, they felt awkward. Having In Scene 9, separation was costly to both the man and the woman.
picnicked in the sun in a secluded hay-field, they had been carried by Their son, at least, may have suffered reproductively as a direct sexual excitement to the brink of infidelity. But she had resisted and consequence of the separation. The daughter, too, may have done so, in the end, with her encouragement, he had simply ejaculated on to though her fate is unknown.
the grass. Now, as passion and frustration subsided, so did the Had the violent man actually been correct in claiming that neither awkwardness. She promised there would be other occasions and child was his and that the woman was being unfaithful, his extreme better moments. Soon they began to relax.
behaviour might still have been advantageous. Starting again with a They stayed in the field for another half-hour, him stretched out in new and younger partner could have been a better strategy than the sun, her sitting in the shade and occasionally talking. Reluctantly, staying with an unfaithful older partner. But he was wrong and, as it they eventually packed up and drove back to their home town. He happened, his misjudged violence reduced his reproductive success dropped her in the car park at work, and then they drove home in two ways: first, via the two children he had sired; secondly, by separately to their respective partners.
leading to his early death it robbed him of the chance of producing As soon as the man walked through his front door and exchanged further children.
greetings, he sensed a strangeness in his partner's mood. The phone Although deserting her first partner was costly to the woman rang, but when he answered the caller hung up. Over dinner, his through its effect on her children, she probably made the best of a partner showed no interest in his day. He told her where his business bad job --- in so far as her reproductive survival was concerned, had taken him and who had gone with him, but got no reaction. All anyway. Had she stayed with him any longer, his violence could evening, she busied herself, spending scarcely any time with him. On have been so physically damaging that she might have been unable the few occasions they spoke, she hardly looked at him. When asked to have more children. He might even have turned on her children, how her day had been, she shrugged and said it had been normal.
acting on his mistaken conclusion that 68
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She had taken the children to and from school and done the shopping; the hay-field was also having problems with her partner. Once their otherwise she had been in all day. The highlight had been an hour's children were in bed the pair had sat on the settee wearing only their sunbathing early in the afternoon. Then, for no apparent reason, she dressing-gowns, supposedly relaxing before going to bed. They each volunteered the information that the bed had needed changing and had a cat curled up on their lap. The man had been irritable all she had washed the sheets. At the end of the evening, as they went evening, and she knew why. He was not happy that she had been on a upstairs, she complained of how hot the day had been and said she business trip all day with another man. Every so often since they had felt like a long bath.
eaten he had tried to ask about her day, but the children and their While his partner bathed, the man lay naked on their bed, enjoying evening routine had prevented any sensible conversation. Now, quiet the humid heat of the summer night. He thought of the other woman, at last, he sought reassurance.
their picnic, his near-infidelity, and her promise of other occasions He asked how she had got on with the other man, commenting that and better moments. He became aroused. When his partner came into a whole day was a long time to be in somebody's company if you the room he was visibly ready for sex, but she ignored him and didn't know them very well. She replied that it had been OK, said busied herself tidying clothes. Usually, she would walk around naked truthfully that they had talked mainly about work on the way down, after a late-night bath, but tonight she was wearing her bath robe. She then lied that she had slept most of the way back. He complained that also switched off the light before undressing and getting into bed, but they should have gone by train, disliking the idea of their having been she probably needn't have worried. The marks on her back were alone in the privacy of a car. The woman shrugged, saying she had nowhere near as obvious as she imagined.
had no choice. The man had wanted to drive, and he was the boss.
When he began his sexual overtures, she complained of her Then, in an inspired moment, she said she was glad they had driven.
tiredness. But he was determined not to be denied a second time that It meant they could open the windows. It had been so hot --- and the day. For a moment she stiffened and held his head as he worked with man had smelled really bad all day.
his lips down from her breasts to her navel. When he reached her There was a pause, so she pushed home the advantage gained from pubic hair, she complained again that she really didn't feel like sex.
her lie. She complained that the man had really annoyed her over He told her to relax and offered to lick her in just the way she liked.
lunch. He had seemed to disapprove of everything she liked and Tonight, she said, she didn't feel like that either. But it was too late.
believed in. At times, it had been really difficult not to tell him what His head was already between her legs.
she thought of him. Her partner relaxed a little, somewhat reassured He nuzzled her pubic hair, which was sweet-smelling and still by her lies.
slightly damp from her bath. So too were her thighs, but when he Suddenly, she had an idea. Gently pushing the cat off her lap, she began to part her vulval lips with his tongue she galvanised into swivelled round towards her partner and placed her hand partly on action, moved down the bed, and began to kiss his face. With hardly his thigh and partly on the cat still on his lap. Making up the story as any further foreplay she took hold of his penis and guided him into she went along, she told him of a dream she had had while dozing in position. He thought it was too soon but, inside, she was surprisingly the car on the way back. As she talked, she stroked the cat on his lap, wet. Intercourse was long. She didn't climax, but he did.
apparently accidentally rubbing her partner's penis under his On the other side of town, the man's near-mistress from dressing-gown with the back of her hand. In graphic detail, she described how, in the
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dream, the cat now on his lap had been giving her oral sex. Its tongue days of their menstrual cycle. The tampons were placed in open had been rough, but gentle. She had got really excited and nearly tubes, so they could be smelled but not seen, then given to a panel of come, feeling embarrassed when she woke in case the driver had assessors. The smell of each tampon was ranked on a scale from 'very noticed her flush. Now with her partner's full attention, she continued unpleasant' to 'very pleasant'. Pleasantness of smell changed with that the thought of oral sex had been in her mind ever since.
stage of the menstrual cycle, being most unpleasant during Complaining that it was a long time since he had obliged her, she menstruation. On average, the smell was slightly, but not urged him to do so now.
consistently, more pleasant during the fertile phase. So by nuzzling a As usual, she got her own way. She didn't climax from his licking, woman's vulva, a man can at least tell if she is menstrual.
but pretended that she did. Then, with the charade over, she let him As long as a woman's secretions pass a man's health and fertility have intercourse.
test, the main piece of information he is seeking is whether she has recently had sex with another man. The man's body can then use this information to change the number of killers and egg-getters he umans are not, of course, the only animals to indulge in oral introduces into hers. As we have already seen, crude adjustments are Hsex. M
ost male mammals, from rats and dogs to elephants and made on the basis of what proportion of time he has spent with the monkeys, nuzzle, smell and lick the female's vulva during foreplay.
woman over the past week or since their last intercourse (Scene 6).
Monkeys also touch a female's genitals, sometimes inserting their The less time he has spent with her, the greater the possibility that she fingers in to her vagina, then smelling and licking them on might contain sperm from another man and the more sperm he withdrawal. What all these males are doing is collecting information.
introduces. This method works, but it is crude. If his body could They are seeking the answer to three questions. Is the female healthy?
know whether sperm from another man are present, it could make a Is she fertile? And has she recently had sex with another male? A man much finer adjustment to its own sperm numbers.
is doing exactly the same --- and the information he collects can be a In Scene 10, the man came home to a partner who, at some time big help in his pursuit of reproductive success.
during the day, had clearly been unfaithful to him. She had covered If a woman's secretions smell or taste particularly unpleasant, the her tracks as best she could by changing the bed, washing the sheets male may lose interest in penetration altogether. The smell may and preventing him from seeing her back in case he noticed the small indicate disease. Such information is most useful when a man is marks left by her lover. Most important of all, however, she had also contemplating sex with a new woman. And because diseases can had a long bath to try to remove all traces of her lover from her pubic come and go, it is also worth a man testing the health of even a long-hair, thighs and vulval lips. In all of this, she was obeying her term partner's secretions from time to time.
conscious mind, albeit driven by a body that wanted neither to be In many mammals, the smell of the female's secretions is clearly beaten nor deserted.
different and more pleasant to males during her fertile phase. In Her body had ejected her lover's flowback many hours ago, but women, though, and in other mammals which hide their fertile phase, some traces of semen always remain in the vagina, sometimes for up the change in smell during the cycle is much less apparent. In one to a day. At first, she had tried to avoid sexual contact with her experiment in the USA, a group of volunteer women each wore a partner completely. Her body favoured the tampon overnight on different
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lover and wanted to give his sperm as easy a victory as possible. At mind consciously pursues superficial stimulation at the behest of a the same time, though, she did not want to lose her partner's support.
body aiming to achieve much more potent ends.
Consequently, when he began to nuzzle her vulva, and the risk of her There is no intrinsic reason why licking a woman's genitals should infidelity being discovered increased, she changed her strategy. She stimulate her sexually any more than stamping on her foot.
switched from avoiding intercourse to precipitating it solely to Nevertheless, one action is a sexual stimulus, the other is not. What distract him from oral sex.
tends to happen in the evolution of sexual stimulation is that On the other side of town, the woman had returned home to a unequivocal signs of sexual interest become stimulating, while other suspicious partner. She had the advantage, however, that her vagina signs do not. If this were not the case, males and females would be contained no evidence of how close she had come to infidelity. As a continually responding sexually to the most irrelevant signals.
result, she had the opportunity to both reassure and mislead her For the reasons we have already discussed, male ancestors were partner, not only verbally (by criticising the man she had been with) driven by their bodies to seek the valuable information contained in but by forcing him to smell and lick her vulva so as to confirm her and around a female's vagina --- the inevitable site of insemination.
innocence. By the end of the evening, both his mind and his body Failure to seek this information before intercourse cost the male in should have been reassured.
four ways: it meant a greater risk of disease, more chance of Together, the two scenes of oral sex we have just witnessed inseminating an infertile female, less chance of winning sperm wars, illustrate the interplay of reassurance and subterfuge that is a and a reduced chance of combating infidelity. From the female's hallmark of routine sex between couples. Men may not be able to perspective, these pressures on the male meant that, when a male lick their partner's infidelity via oral sex, but they can certainly nuzzled her vulva, it unequivocally signalled his sexual interest. If collect information useful for deciding what to do next. In the short she was uninterested, she could simply walk away. If interested, she term, this information can help men to prepare for sperm warfare. In needed to prepare for intercourse by lubricating her vagina, and so the medium term, it can help them to adjust the intensity with which forth. Such advance preparation would make the process of they guard their mate or search for another partner. In the long term, insemination itself more efficient and less damaging. All in all, it can help them to assess the desirability of desertion and, if their females who responded to being nuzzled by an attractive male by partner produces a child, to judge the probability of the child having becoming aroused will have reproduced more successfully than those been fathered by someone else. At the same time, through strategic who did not.
prevention or encouragement of oral sex, a woman can attempt to The same arguments apply to the male. If female ancestors reassure or dupe her partner with regard to the actual situation.
allowed him to nuzzle their vulva, instead of walking away, this Of course, people do not always realise that they are indulging in indicated that they were interested in receiving his sperm. Males who oral sex for the above reasons. Consciously, what a man thinks he is responded by becoming aroused will have missed fewer doing when he licks a woman's genitals is stimulating her into opportunities for intercourse than males who did not. All in all, males becoming lubricated for penetration. Most often, in the absence of who gained sexual stimulation from nuzzling the vulva of a female infidelity, what a woman thinks she is doing is seeking sexual will have reproduced more than those who did not.
stimulation. Both of these things are happening, of course, but they All of these responses were shaped long before there were are merely the conscious veneer of the behaviour, not its ultimate humans. When our species first evolved, the males simply inherited function. As in so much of sexual behaviour, the from our primate ancestors a predisposition for 74
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nuzzling, smelling, licking and fingering the female's genitals. We lover's birthday and she had insisted on more of his time than the also, male and female alike, inherited a predisposition to find such usual hour. Otherwise, she would spend the evening with friends. In behaviour stimulating.
the end he had invented a story which, he had to admit, seemed rather good. He had told his partner that a long-term visitor from the other side of the world, on discovering his interest in chess, had challenged him to a match and had offered to cook him an authentic SCENE 11
ethnic meal into the bargain. He had reminded his partner that chess took a long time, that they would probably play the best of three, and Checkmate
that it could be a long evening, maybe even midnight before he came home.
The bright-red display on the bedside clock changed from 11:59 to The evening had been perfect, a memory for a lifetime. He had 12:00. It was midnight. While his lover had slept her post-coital cooked his lover a meal and by seven they were in bed, drinking sleep, the man had been clock-watching. Reluctant though he was to wine, listening to music, and playing with each other's bodies as swap the warmth of her bed for the chill air of her room, it really passion came and went. Altogether it came and went, if with was time to go.
increasing difficulty, four times. The last time he had only pretended He gently began to wake her by kissing the middle of her back.
to ejaculate, but she had climaxed for the second time that evening.
Their affair had begun half a year earlier in a dark summer wood Now, though, their party was over, and ahead of him were two when, in an unplanned, abandoned moment, they had stripped each prospects he could do without --- running the gauntlet of arrest for other naked and she had helped him to ejaculate. Two months later, drunk-driving and, even worse, the guilt and discomfort of having to soon after she had moved into a bed-sitter of her own, they had full fabricate the evening's events to satisfy his partner's curiosity.
intercourse for the first time. Although they worked in the same He had never quite been able to fathom why he worried so much building, they rarely met during the day, taking great care to hide about being discovered. It wasn't really the prospect of his partner their liaison from everybody. Two or three times a week, he visited leaving him, though he would miss their two children. In truth, it her bed-sitter for sex. They always went straight to bed. Time was would worry him more if he lost his lover. Maybe it was his partner's short --- they rarely had more than an hour together. Even so, they threat to spend every penny he had rather than let him squander it on often had sex twice in a session. He was inseminating her about five another woman. Or maybe it was her oft-repeated 'joke' that if he times a week, while still inseminating his partner once or twice a were ever unfaithful she would cut his balls off. He was sure she week. His lover was eleven years younger than him, but he had didn't mean it. But would he ever feel safe again when she picked up learned more about sex in six months of snatched moments with her a pair of scissors or a knife? Whatever the reason, the prospect of than he had in ten years with his partner.
being discovered terrified him.
For his partner's benefit, he had created a fictitious web of weekly When his young lover finally surfaced from her sleep, she asked events at work. These gave him routine, almost infallible, alibis him not to go, gently at first, then with mounting irritation. Finally, which freed him to call in on his lover sometimes on his way to indicating more than a little disfavour, she work, sometimes on his way back. Tonight, however, had been special. This freezing late-January night was his 76
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told him he must go. He dressed in the cold of her room, kissed her, next time --- and couldn't they please go to bed because he was drunk hesitated a little in a vain attempt to pacify her, then left to walk to and tired.
his car. He always parked two streets away. The police did not stop She moved towards him until their faces were almost touching and him as he drove home, despite a bad few minutes while he appeared stared into his eyes. She told him he was lying --- that she knew he to be being tailed. Thirty minutes after leaving his lover, just after was lying. Why didn't he smell of smoke and beer? She paused, then one o'clock in the morning, he was home --- and his partner was accused him of infidelity. He denied it but she shouted him down, waiting for him.
asking who it was. He proclaimed his innocence yet again and Hardly had he closed the front door than he was being asked objected to her refusal to believe him.
almost hysterically what was going on. Taken aback, he apologised She went quiet for a second, thinking hard. Then she told him to for being so late. The games had lasted longer than expected. But he take off his trousers. He protested. She insisted. He said she was had won in the end, he added, seeking conviction in detail. She being stupid. Angrily, she began to unzip his trousers. He pushed her paused, then asked him why, if he had been playing chess with his away, told her to stop, and said that he would do it. As he dropped foreign friend all evening, had that very same person phoned a his trousers and underwear, he hoped against hope that there would couple of hours ago and asked to talk to him. The man felt his mouth be nothing for her to see or smell. But there was. She swore at him, freeze open. Panic swept through him. He couldn't believe his bad slapped his face, told him to leave her, their children and their house, luck. In the two years that his colleague had been at his institution, and said that she never wanted to see him again. When he hesitated, not once had he phoned. How was it that, of all the nights to break she pushed him, trousers still round his ankles, towards the door.
his silence, he had chosen tonight?
At first, he didn't resist but at the door he refused to leave.
The man's mind raced as his face reddened and his underarms Eventually, she agreed to his spending the night on the settee as long prickled with sweat. For a moment, he almost told her everything.
as he had gone by the morning. He spent an uneasy night, unable to Then he lied that it had been his assistant's birthday. He had been sleep partly through discomfort, partly through worry about the invited to a men's night out of drink, food, strippers and pool. He future, but most of all because he was afraid. The thought that his knew how much she hated him going on such nights and worried partner was about to enter the room, knife or other weapon in hand about him drinking and driving, so he had thought it best not to tell and intent on revenge, plagued him all night.
her.
He left early, before she came downstairs, but returned home at She stared into his eyes, trying to work out if he was telling the mid-day. With the children at school, they had a long argument. His truth, then went across to the telephone. Pausing, phone in hand, she partner told him she could never trust him again and that she couldn't asked him for his assistant's number. He said he didn't know. In any live with someone she couldn't trust. He maintained that the evening case, the others wouldn't be back yet, because they had gone on to was a one-off. He said the woman was an ex-girlfriend who had another club. He had left them to come home because he knew she emigrated years ago and then, just last week, had contacted him out would be worried if he was too late. She stared at him again. Not of the blue. About to visit the country again for a few days, she knowing how to respond, he hid behind laughter. He said this was wanted to look up old friends and to see him again. He had agreed, silly. He was sorry he had lied to her, but he really had been trying to save her worry. It wouldn't happen again. He would tell her 78
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not expecting anything to happen after all this time. But they had got him gonorrhea and she departed just in time to avoid being infected drunk, she had invited him back to her hotel and things had just herself.
happened.
This was the beginning of the worst phase of his life. With He was really sorry. He wished he'd resisted, but she had gone now treatment, he recovered from his infection but was warned by his and it would never happen again. He'd had time to think and the fear doctor, correctly as it turned out, that he might no longer be fertile. He of losing her and their children had made him realise that all he really was forced to sell the house so that his ex-partner could take her share wanted was her, his home and their family. He would leave if she of the equity. The cost of supporting his two children combined with wanted but did she realise they couldn't afford to keep the house and losses from two silly financial gambles reduced him almost to penury.
pay for a flat for him? If she wanted him gone, they would have to His days of affairs with younger girls apparently over, he moved in sell the house and buy something smaller for her and the children.
with a widow, ten years older than himself, whose children were Was it really worth putting the children through a separation? All living abroad. After this, life slowly began to improve.
because of a night's weakness on his part that would never happen At first his own teenaged children had lived amicably with their again?
mother and her new partner. But when she began a second family, In the end she agreed that he could stay but said he would have to relationships in the household became strained. Eventually, his sleep on the bedroom floor. Nor should he imagine he would ever children moved back to live with him and his new partner. Luckily, have sex with her again. Or that she would stay faithful. As soon as she proved to be a good stepmother, treating his children in the few she could find another man, she would be gone, taking the children years before they left home as if they were her own.
with her.
In fact, he was allowed back in her bed after only a few days and they had sex again after six weeks. He never did tell his lover what hy is it so important to a woman to prevent or, failing that, W
had happened and their affair continued undiminished for another six detect her partner's infidelity? What are the repercussions of months. She then met a man of her own age and ended their failure for her pursuit of reproductive success?
relationship. He stayed with his partner for another five years but A woman has a lot to lose from her partner's infidelity. And many, during that time, without her knowing, was unfaithful with three though not all, of the dangers are the same as for a man. First, there is women. The first, another girl eleven years his junior, conceived the risk that she will have to share his wealth, time, energy and other during their affair. But then, after two months, the man she was living resources with the other woman. Secondly, there is the danger that he with deserted her, doubting that the child was his, and she miscarried.
will eventually leave her for the other woman, reducing his support Just briefly, he considered leaving his partner for this younger woman for her still further. Whichever of them looks after the children, they but after some hesitation the girl herself decided she did not want face the dangers of single-or step-parenthood which we discussed in him.
relation to Scene 9. Thirdly, there is the greater risk of contracting Ironically, despite his four affairs, it was not his infidelity but his sexually transmitted diseases, because her partner is at greater risk.
partner's that eventually ended their fifteen-year-long relationship. As There is one risk, however, that does not good as her word, as soon as she met another man she left, taking the children with her. She didn't know it but her timing was perfect. His final infidelity had given
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affect her. Unlike a man, she is in no danger of being tricked into A few seconds later, male and female hopped back into each other's raising any children by her partner's lover. This means that, on view, past the bush. Still intently pecking at morsels, the female balance, infidelity is slightly less of a threat to a woman than it is to acted as if nothing had happened.
a man.
Nearly as appealing is the film, shown worldwide, of a female This conclusion is as applicable to monogamous birds, monkeys monkey foraging on the ground for food while being watched and apes as it is to humans. The result is that, although both males attentively from a high branch by her consort. Alongside her comes and females of all these species try to prevent their partner from another male. He sits down, innocently picking at himself, hiding his being unfaithful, males are significantly more possessive of their erection from her consort. Every time the consort's attention is partner than are females. They are significantly more aggressive, and distracted, the other male taps the female on the shoulder. In an significantly less forgiving. Females may attempt to drive away other instant she stands and presents and the male inseminates her. So females. They may attempt to intervene between their mate and quick is their intercourse that by the time her consort looks back in another female. They may even desert their young if they receive too their direction, they have resumed their previous activities ---
little time and help from their partner. However, since their physical innocence personified.
commitment to preventing infidelity is less than the male's, they are Maybe a female dunnock who flies into vegetation is no more less likely to desert if their partner is unfaithful. The same is true for subtle than a male who hides there, waiting. Maybe a female monkey humans.
who feigns innocence until her partner is distracted is no more Women do sometimes wound or kill a partner if he is unfaithful.
sophisticated than a male who hides his erection and inseminates at They do sometimes wound or kill his lover, leave their partner or the speed of light. And maybe a woman who has sex with the drive him out, and they also sometimes abandon their children to window-cleaner while her partner is at the shops is no more him to raise. But again, they are less likely to do all of these things sophisticated than a man who has sex with his secretary in a than are men and are more likely to overlook discovered cupboard at the office party. But, on balance, one always has the indiscretions. Nevertheless, the threat of retribution is always there, feeling that the female of the species, whatever the species, has that and real enough for most men to attempt to hide their infidelity.
slight edge when it comes to ingenuity and imagination. As far as Arguably, male animals are never quite as subtle over their humans are concerned, the best we can use as evidence is that, taking infidelity as females, maybe because the costs of discovery are less.
thousands of instances into account, the man is more likely, on My favourite description of sophisticated infidelity on the part of the average, to have his infidelity discovered than the woman.
female concerns a small brown bird, the dunnock. The male and In Scene 11, the woman needed to check her mate's genitals only female, the epitome of contented monogamy, were first seen as they superficially to confirm his infidelity. Had he been more cautious and hopped side by side across a lawn, pecking up morsels of food.
washed himself before returning home, he might have escaped When they reached a bush, the male went round one way, the female detection. Had he fabricated a better story, he might, again, have the other. As soon as the bush shielded her from her partner, the escaped detection. But he did neither, and suffered the consequences.
female flew in an instant into dense vegetation nearby. There, she From the moment his infidelity was uncovered, his partner decided copulated with a lurking male, then flew back to her position behind that when the right moment came she would leave him, rather than the bush.
wait for him to leave her.
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Had the man's infidelity not been discovered, he would probably they are likely to suffer even more if their partner is unfaithful ---
have done better reproductively: at the very least, he would have especially if they fail to detect it.
had the chance of a third child with his partner. As it was, he did Sometimes the benefits of infidelity will outweigh the costs and not. Nor did he manage to compensate for this loss by siring a child sometimes they will not. As we noted earlier, the reproductive via infidelity or via a second longer-term partner. He nearly successes of each generation will be those people who, consciously succeeded in fathering a child by another man's partner, but failed.
or subconsciously, judge correctly when it is and when it is not He nearly attracted another fertile partner through his infidelity, but advantageous to be unfaithful. Then, when infidelity is judged to be failed when it came right down to it. Any further chance he had of advantageous, the most successful will be those who hide their own producing children faded when he contracted gonorrhea (at least infidelity while preventing or at least detecting their partner's. The half of all human infertility is due to sexually transmitted disease).
reproductive failures will be those who misjudge their situation, fail Even if he had remained fertile, his age and reduced circumstances to hide their own infidelity or fail to prevent or detect their partner's.
made him less attractive to fertile women. Instead, his major Because of these conflicts of interest, there is very little variation reproductive strategy became his partnership with an older, probably in the strategy shown by men, women and virtually all other species post-menopausal, woman --- in the sense that, with her help, his of animals which form long-term relationships --- to attempt secret children will probably have left home fully able to realise their infidelity on the one hand while preventing a partner from doing the reproductive potential. Eventually, they would give him same on the other.
grandchildren. Had his infidelity not been discovered, he might have had more grandchildren, but at least he had some.
Had the woman not discovered her partner's infidelity, she would probably have done worse reproductively. Of course, she might have had another child with him. But all the time she was with him, she would unknowingly have been vulnerable to sudden desertion and decreased support. As it happened, she would also eventually have contracted gonorrhea and risked future sterility. Instead, her discovery helped her to take advantage of his support for five more years, then pick her moment to leave him for another man and a second family. She will have ended up with the same number of grandchildren as him via their mutual children, plus more via the children in her second family.
Reproductively, infidelity has the potential to benefit both men and women, as we shall see later in this book. However, as these last four scenes have shown, it can also be costly even if it is successfully hidden from the partner. On top of this, however much a person may suffer from their own infidelity, 84
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cubicle door and switched on the shower, his penis was ready for action. As he pumped himself, he searched through his mind for a CHAPTER FIVE
sexual image. For about the tenth time in recent months, he tried mentally undressing his partner's sister, but the image was losing its power. He tried undressing her again, this time from the back, but it Secret
still failed. Then he remembered the young girl in the lift. OK, so the lift breaks down between floors. They both undress, he kneels down, Anticipation
she stands astride him, begins to crouch in order to sit on his erect penis, and. . . . But there was no need for an 'and'. With that image, he ejaculated, flushed the semen down the plughole, then continued with his shower as if nothing had happened. The whole exercise had taken about two minutes.
SCENE 12
As he showered, he mused over these routine urges to masturbate.
A Double Life
It was as if he had a double life --- sex with his partner on Saturday and Sunday, sex with himself on Tuesday and Thursday. Sometimes an occasion would be missed, sometimes an occasion would be Another day at work was over, and the man on the fifth floor was just gained, but on the whole these were his two routines.
leaving for home. As he stepped into the lift, his eye was caught by a Of course, his sex life with himself was not entirely routine. There new piece of graffiti. He smiled. In colourful slang it implied that the had been the occasional highlight, particularly when he was younger.
boss of their section was not to be trusted --- because he spent too A goodnight kiss with a new girl, or a heavy but unconsummated much time masturbating.
petting session at a party, had both at one time or another sent him The lift stopped on the third floor and a young girl stepped in. He into a toilet to seek relief in ejaculation. Even now, an erotic scene at had seen her only once before, but she had immediately won a the movies or on TV would sometimes have the same effect. Such starring role in his fantasies. She was new to the section, an extra highlights apart, though, his sex life with himself was as much a secretary for the man who was the target of the graffiti. He watched routine as his sex life with his partner. Usually, just like tonight, it her face as the door closed. She saw the words immediately. Her eyes was barely even sexual, having more in common with urination and flicked sideways and caught his. They smiled at each other and she defecation than with intercourse and sexual excitement. There was blushed, but nothing was said. When the lift reached the ground floor little urgency, little excitement, and little feeling of satisfaction ---
and they stepped out, she turned right and he turned left, heading for just a feeling of relief.
the car park and home.
Thirty minutes later, he drove into his garage. Once in the house he kissed his partner, admired his children's latest drawings, and ost men should be able to identify with this scene. For two-M
went upstairs to undress for a shower. Even as he was locking the thirds, their very first ejaculation will have been triggered by bathroom door, he was handling his genitals, encouraging an self-stimulation. Over 98 per cent will masturbate erection. By the time he had shut the 85
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at some time in their lives. Moreover, virtually all will have done so into the potential female. Not only that, but he can also adjust what by the age of twenty. However, despite such widespread practice, few proportion of those sperm will be blockers, killers and egg-getters.
men would view their habit of shedding sperm as an important A man's body can distinguish between masturbation and weapon in their pursuit of reproductive success. Yet this is just what it insemination. The ejaculates produced are not identical. Many factors is. Scene 12 is the first of three in this chapter, each of which explores influence the number of sperm introduced during intercourse --- such one or more aspects of the shedding of sperm (through masturbation as how many are needed to top up his partner and to succeed in or 'wet dreams').
warfare, given the perceived level of risk. But, apart from a man's age, How often a man masturbates depends on how old he is and how only one major factor --- time since last ejaculation --- affects the often he ejaculates for other reasons. On average, how often he number shed during masturbation. When a man masturbates, he voids ejaculates altogether (intercourse, masturbation, and nocturnally) will about five million sperm for every hour since he last ejaculated. This closely reflect his rate of sperm production. This varies from man to seems to be the rate at which sperm exceed their sell-by date as man, depending on the size of his testes. It also varies with age. From blockers, killers and egg-getters.
almost immediately after puberty to the age of about thirty, an Sperm change their roles as they age. Most are killers when they average man produces around three hundred million sperm a day and are young and blockers when they are old. Killers need to be full of ejaculates between three and four times a week. By the age of fifty energy and movement and to have a cap full of lethal chemicals these rates have dropped to about 175 million a day and to twice a (Scene 7). Blockers, however, can be old. Or, to put it another way, week and, by age seventy-five to about twenty million a day and to the only use for geriatric sperm is as blockers. To block a cervical less than once a month. If a man under thirty has intercourse three channel, a sperm needs to have just enough energy to swim out of the times or more a week, he will rarely masturbate. If he has sex only seminal pool and travel a little way into the cervical mucus. Then it once a week, he will probably masturbate about twice.
can simply coil its tail and sit still. It can even die if it wants. The Men are not the only mammals to shed sperm through channel will still be blocked.
masturbation. Dogs, of course, are notorious for such behaviour. One Egg-getters also change with age. Important chemical changes of their habits is to affectionately clasp a person around the knee with have to take place on an egg-getter's surface before it can penetrate an their front limbs and to rub their genitals up and down the dismayed egg, changes that do not occur until the sperm gets close to the person's leg. Albeit using other methods of self-stimulation, a wide fertilisation zone in an oviduct. As a result, an egg-getter's life is range of other species, such as rats, mice, squirrels, porcupines, pigs, divided into two phases of activity. It has its first burst of energy deer, whales, elephants and monkeys, are also known to shed their before it is fertile --- this is when it surf-boards and swims to the rest sperm. Just like men, the males of these species will often masturbate area in an oviduct. Then, during its brief phase of fertility, it has a between routine inseminations of females.
second burst of energy-when it reaches, then swims through, the zone Masturbation may not seem a very sophisticated activity, but it is.
of fertilisation. After that, it dies.
It is the means by which an active, or hopeful, man tailors his next The two columns of sperm queuing to be ejaculated (Scene 4) are inseminate to its likely circumstances. By anticipating what those not just a homogenous, characterless mixture. Inevitably, those at the circumstances might be, he can use masturbation to adjust the age and front of the queue, near the man's urethra, are the number of sperm he will then introduce 88
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oldest. The ones at the back, way down in his testes, are the youngest.
further blockers are redundant. In fact, they are worse than redundant, There may be some mixing of ages as the sperm are loaded into the for they probably hinder the escape of his younger sperm from the urethra. Even so, when he places his seminal pool at the top of a seminal pool into the cervix. Beyond a certain point, therefore, the woman's vagina, the oldest sperm tend to be introduced first and go to man's best policy is to shed the oldest part of his column of sperm the bottom of the pool. Younger sperm arrive in later spurts and go to before inseminating a woman, rather than leaving them for her to eject the top.
in her flowback. This is one of the functions of masturbation.
The younger sperm, being more active, will be the first to enter the If the gap between inseminations exceeds four days, the ideal cervical mucus. Older sperm leave the pool more slowly. Very old inseminate is produced by masturbating two days before the next sperm cannot leave the pool at all and are doomed to be ejected by intercourse. This gives a man two sperm columns, each with about the woman in her flowback. From their position higher up in the twenty million aged blockers at the front of the queue and from a seminal pool, the younger sperm may have to swim down through hundred million to five hundred million younger blockers and killers groups of older ones before they can swim up and enter the elephant's further back. Scattered among these younger sperm are egg-getters, in trunk of the cervix. Much depends on how deeply the cervix dips into a ratio of about one egg-getter to ninety-nine kamikaze types. About the pool. Too many old sperm in the pool hinder the youngsters as 10 per cent of the egg-getters are already at their peak of fertility and they try to escape into the cervix.
will go immediately to the oviduct. The remainder will reach their Masturbation between intercourses usually means that a man peak at different times over the five days after insemination.
inseminates his partner with fewer sperm than if he had not This profile allows a man maximum flexibility in adjusting his masturbated. However, the sperm he introduces are younger, more sperm army according to the risk of warfare. If he has guarded his dynamic, and less hindered by supernumerary geriatric sperm. As a partner closely since they last had sex, he needs to introduce into her a result, just as many, if not more, manage to escape the seminal pool full quota of blockers but only a few killers and egg-getters. So he and stay in the woman. Moreover, the sperm which escape are injects all of the blockers at the front of the queue, plus a small portion younger and more active --- altogether a more efficient army.
of the queue behind containing the killers and egg-getters. If he has All the same, a man needs to inject some old sperm as blockers ---
spent less time with her, so that the risk of sperm warfare is greater, he as many as are needed to top up the population of blockers in his needs more killers and egg-getters. So he ships in more of each partner's cervical mucus. For three days after a couple's last routine column. The number of blockers stays the same, but he introduces intercourse, the ageing of sperm in a man's tubes tracks the loss of more of the younger sperm, the killers and egg-getters.
blockers in his partner's cervix with exquisite precision. Given any In order to have a two-day-old column of sperm waiting to be gap between successive intercourses of from thirty minutes to three introduced, a man needs to anticipate his next intercourse with his days, he can introduce into his partner the perfect ejaculate to top up partner. Subconsciously, the brain must play a major role in this her population of blockers. Once the gap exceeds three to four days, anticipation. The urges that men get to masturbate are timed by their however, his sperm queue develops an excess of blockers. This brains and bodies to achieve this gap between masturbation and happens because there are only so many channels in the cervical intercourse. The man in Scene 12 most often masturbates on Tuesdays mucus, and once he has enough old sperm to block these, any and Thursdays in routine anticipation 90
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of sex on Saturdays. Occasionally, he may masturbate only on is then unfaithful in the next few days, her lover's army will have the Wednesdays. The result is that he rarely inseminates his partner with advantage (Scenes 6 and 26).
an ejaculate older than three days or younger than two. This should mean that, at each intercourse, the army he injects is ideal for the circumstances. More often than not, of course, an army is unnecessary: no war takes place, and all he really needs is to introduce a few million Scene 13
egg-getters of different ages. But, just in case his partner has been or Multiply, But Don't Divide
might be unfaithful, he injects a measured number of blockers and killers.
The major reproductive problem a man encounters with routine The evening flight had taken three hours. Arriving just after midnight, masturbation is that there is an unpredictable element to routine sex.
the four business colleagues, two men and two women, had taken a As we have seen, this unpredictability is generated largely by the taxi from the airport and gone straight to their hotel. Their rooms were conflict between men and women over the function of routine sex, and all on the same corridor. As they unlocked their respective doors, the the problem occurs when anticipated inseminations fail to materialise man said goodnight to his three associates, then went into his room.
(though spontaneous and unexpected seduction by his partner can also They all had an early start in the morning.
be problematic).
Once unpacked, he undressed and showered. The room was very For example, thanks to his masturbation routine, the man in Scene hot. Too restless to sleep, he lit a cigarette, then lay naked on his bed, 12 arrives for intercourse each Saturday night with an ideal ejaculate staring at the ceiling. Handling his cigarette dextrously with one hand waiting in his tubes --- a balanced mixture of blockers, killers and egg-and his genitals abstractedly with the other, a kaleidoscope of thoughts getters. Suppose, however, that one Saturday night the couple argue, began to pass through his head. Momentary images of his children pass out through drink, or experience any one of the myriad flitted by --- followed closely by images of his partner. Remembering circumstances that can prevent them having intercourse. On Sunday, their last intercourse, two nights ago, he mused over whether she had the man now has in his tubes an ejaculate that is rapidly going past its really climaxed. Or had she been faking? Perhaps her performance best. His body then has the choice of either waiting for the next had been a gift to him, a memory to take on his trip. If so, it was a pity intercourse or masturbating. If he waits for the next intercourse, he their mutual sexual act had been superseded. The following night, the will introduce in his partner an ejaculate that is on the old side of its one before his trip, he had slipped into the bathroom and masturbated prime, with too many geriatric blockers and many ageing killers and while she was on the phone to her mother.
egg-getters. On the other hand, if he masturbates, but then His thoughts turned to his companions and his strategy for the next unexpectedly has the chance of intercourse with his partner only an two days. He could hardly have been luckier. The two most desirable hour or so later, he will introduce an ejaculate short on blockers.
women in the organisation were both on the trip, and he had two Neither alternative is ideal and could put him at a disadvantage if nights in which to try to bed them. Not for the first time since the trip either of those ejaculates really does have to fight a sperm war.
had been announced, he toyed with the idea of being in bed with them This problem for the man is an opportunity for the woman. One both at the same time. He imagined
way she can maneuver her partner into injecting a sub-optimal army is to change their sex routine unexpectedly. If she 92
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them naked, writhing over his body, each begging him to enter her tell, both went into his boss's room. At five he thought he heard her first.
leaving.
As his fantasy unfolded, his penis grew in his hand and his brain The following evening was quite different. The boss ignored his whispered that maybe he would like to ejaculate. He stayed on the conquest of the night before and made immediate overtures to the bed for a while, enjoying his fantasies and the growing sensation in other woman. Without hesitation, she responded warmly. He tried to his genitals. Then, when the time came, he went over to the capitalise on the turn of events, but for a while the jilted woman was washbasin and finished himself off. Later, as he drifted off to sleep, single-mindedly sullen. Then suddenly, almost as if a switch had been he wondered how well the next two evenings would match his flicked, she began to respond to his advances. Eventually, he realised fantasy.
that her responsiveness had more to do with making his boss jealous The following evening, back in his hotel room, he phoned home.
than with genuine interest, but he made the most of it. She became After talking for ten minutes, he sent his love to the children, blew very drunk and by the time the four of them arrived back at the hotel, his partner a kiss, and rang off. Reassured that everything was as it he thought she was either going to pass out or throw up. He was should be with his family, he went to his fifth-floor window and undecided whether he should try to have sex with her, but she made looked out over the city skyline. Perhaps his wasn't a bad job, after the decision for him.
all. Business was over for the day. Now all he had to do was look Waiting until the boss and the other woman could see what was forward to the evening with his three colleagues. There would be happening, she grabbed his arm and virtually dragged him into her food, drink and, with any luck, sex.
room. Once in, she fell on to the bed and began a verbal assault on The evening began well but ended badly. In the taxi to the their two companions. Her tirade scarcely faltered, even when he restaurant, he sat next to the woman he most wanted to see in his bed undressed and then entered her. As he had masturbated three times in and interpreted her body language favourably. However, as soon as the last three days, and as he was fairly drunk, intercourse was long.
they hit the city bars, it was obvious she preferred the other man, his He needed many minutes of thrusting before he began to feel like boss. As the evening progressed, he could do nothing but watch as ejaculating. His concentration wasn't helped by the way the woman they became more and more physical. He made a few vain attempts scarcely seemed to know he was inside her. Throughout his sexual to get between them but she virtually ignored him. Trying to make performance, she never once stopped talking.
the best of the situation, he turned his attention to his second choice.
After he had ejaculated, she gradually ran out of verbal steam and But after a few drinks she began complaining of feeling tired and fell into a drunken sleep. Two hours later, he tried to have sex with unwell. He suggested accompanying her back to the hotel, hoping the her sleeping body. But she woke and, with irritation in her voice and evening might not yet be over --- but it was. At the hotel, she made manner, told him to stop and leave. She wanted to sleep --- but first, her excuses and went straight to her room. He stayed in the hotel bar she had to be sick. In the end he gave up, got out of bed, and went for a while, then went to his own room.
back to his own room. He was just in time to see the second woman All he had left for the evening were his fantasies. For the third closing the boss's door and crossing the corridor, naked buttocks night running, he masturbated before going to bed. It was like being a peeping out from the clothes she was clutching round her front.
teenager again, masturbating nearly every day for a week or so at a The four missed each other at breakfast and did not meet until time. He slept only fitfully. At two in the morning he heard his boss and the woman come back and, as far as he could 95
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it was time to take a taxi to the airport. There was an uneasy however --- if it is to be reproductively successful --- is an ejaculate politeness, and nothing was said of the night's events. At the airport, rich in killers and egg-getters. The woman he is about to inseminate the man bought toys for his children and perfume for his partner.
has an above average chance of containing sperm from another man, The woman whose bed he had shared the night before spent most of especially if she has a regular partner. She will already have blocking the flight in the toilet, being sick.
sperm in her cervix. These may or may not need topping up, That evening, back at home, he told his partner he thought his depending on how recently she has had sex, but blockers are not a boss had had sex with both of the women. Responding to her lover's main concern. What he needs is young, active sperm that can questioning, he denied that he had found either of them attractive.
get through the cervix in numbers and prevail in combat. Blockers Later that evening, unusually for a Thursday, he and his partner had are at best a luxury; at worst a hindrance. As with the man in Scene sex, and over the next few days life at home and at work returned to 13, once the brain begins to anticipate infidelity, the body increases normal.
the masturbation rate, thereby producing and maintaining a young, Two months later, the woman who had slept with both men on killer-rich ejaculate in his tubes, ready and waiting for action. The the business trip announced her pregnancy. There was some story ideal inseminate for infidelity is one that has been waiting to be about being sick and her pill failing, but the man never quizzed her ejaculated for no more than about twenty-four hours too closely. Six months after the business trip, he met the woman Another situation in which the ideal inseminate is twenty-four and her partner at a party. As he listened to the certainty with which hours old or less occurs when a man has no regular sexual partner.
the couple spoke about their forthcoming baby, even he began to (All men have such a phase during adolescence, and many have wonder if he had really ever had sex with her.
additional such phases later on when 'between partners'.) In this situation too, he needs to keep his sperm column young and in a state of continuous readiness --- intercourse and sperm warfare could be he role of masturbation in a man's pursuit of reproductive just around the corner. As he searches for a sexual opportunity, he T success is not limited to its role in routine sex (Scene 12). In needs a waiting ejaculate that is heavily dominated by young, fact, in many ways, it becomes a much more potent weapon in his energetic killers and egg-getters primed to head straight for the preparation for infidelity and sperm warfare.
oviducts. Frequent masturbation maintains such an ejaculate ---
As we discussed in Scene 12, most of a man's sex life with hence the appropriate urges experienced by single men.
himself is just as routine as his sex life with his partner. Not Almost as interesting as the function of masturbation is its secrecy surprisingly, as routine sex is the main focus of his sexual activity, and lack of social acceptability. Among humans, it is most often it is this to which his body is most finely adjusted. But infidelity conducted in private. It is often also the target of prejudice. The introduces a non-routine element into his sex life with his partner ---
graffiti artist in the lift in Scene 12 has his counterparts all over the and, therefore, into his sex life with himself as well.
world. Everywhere, people vilify men for masturbating, often using When a man has an opportunity to inseminate a woman other terms of abuse specific to the behaviour. So strong is this social than his partner, he has a problem. The ejaculate waiting in his disapproval that many cultures and religions actually outlaw the sperm tubes is tailored to top up his partner, and so is relatively rich activity. Even
in blockers. What he needs for infidelity, 96
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in cultures that stop short of outlawing it, stories and folklore may for a man to hide his masturbation routine from everybody in the first exist (such as 'masturbation leads to blindness') that are designed to place. Only among groups of adolescent males without partners is scare men into refraining. The irony, of course, is that the graffiti such secrecy perhaps less important. All adolescents know that they artist and all his counterparts worldwide will almost certainly are each on the lookout for intercourse. Frequent masturbation, even practise masturbation themselves. So why is masturbation so often if obvious to other partnerless males, gives little away.
surrounded by secrecy, prejudice and hypocrisy?
The secrecy which surrounds masturbation is therefore If a man is to hide infidelity from his partner, it is important that understandable, given its function in the context of reproductive there is no overt change in his behaviour: any change could alert her success. So, too, is prejudice and hypocrisy. Since the aim of to his new situation. He cannot, for example, alter their usual sex masturbation is to give the male an edge over others in sperm routine. Nor --- if she is aware of it at all --- must his partner notice warfare, he gains most if he masturbates but can dissuade those a change in his masturbation routine. As we have seen, a sudden around him from doing so. That way, he gains competitive benefits increase in his masturbation rate could mean he is anticipating that his rivals do not. The worldwide tendency to criticise, even infidelity. A sudden decrease could mean he is already being victimise, other people for masturbating while continuing to unfaithful, ejaculating so often through intercourse that he would masturbate oneself is thus as strategic as masturbation itself.
gain no benefit from masturbation.
There is one further element in Scene 13 that should be discussed Assuming, again, that he had always been secretive about his now --- alcohol. This is, and has been (probably for many thousands masturbating, he has two options. The first is to maintain his usual of years), an important factor in many people's sex lives. It also has a routine. But if he does this, he injects inefficient sperm armies into very well documented effect on sexual behaviour. The more men and his lover. The alternative is to continue to be generally secretive women drink, the more they both seek intercourse --- or, at least, the over his masturbation so that no change in routine can be noticed. It less they resist it. Perversely, however, beyond a certain level of is, of course, no threat to a man's strategy if his partner detects an intoxication, both men and women find it more difficult to become occasional episode. In fact, deliberately allowing detection can aroused. Men find erection more difficult --- the 'brewer's droop'
sometimes be a strategy in itself --- especially if it reassures or mis-syndrome --- and women find their vaginas, and often their clitorises, leads. A man need worry only if his partner detects so many less sensitive. This secondary effect eventually makes intercourse occasions that she is able to work out his whole masturbation impossible for a man, but not for a woman. Thus, the more men routine.
drink, the more they want sex but the less able they are to have it. In Obviously, secrecy is most important once males have partners, contrast, the more women drink, the more they want and can have or are competing for partners. Then, masturbation patterns need to sex. It is just that, beyond a certain point, they may not enjoy it be hidden not only from the partner but also from other males.
much.
Imagine a situation in which a man allowed a male friend to know Alcohol does not negate any of the strategies we discuss in this his routine. Then his body urged him to increase his masturbation book. All of the patterns are still there: for example, women still rate in anticipation of infidelity --- with the friend's partner! Just in show a menstrual cycle of varying sexual interest. Even under the case such a situation might arise, it is far better influence of alcohol, they are still more likely to be unfaithful 98
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didn't fully wake until he felt the semen trickling over his belly, teens do they occur often enough to be a direct substitute for other down his side, and on to the bottom sheet. He groaned inwardly and outlets. The adolescent's body aims to ejaculate at least three times a wiped the ejaculate off his body with the top sheet.
week, and if he omits to do so via masturbation (or intercourse, if he That was his first wet dream for a year. He turned over, away is lucky), wet dreams act as insurance.
from the rapidly cooling wet patch. Briefly, he was an adolescent During adolescence, wet dreams probably tailor the ejaculate just again, worrying how he could hide the patch from his mother in the as precisely as masturbation. Later, they occur much too rarely to be morning. At times during his early teenage years, he had even worried part of the three-a-week system. From his mid-twenties onwards, about going to bed at all in case he ejaculated. It was bad enough at even if a man fails to ejaculate via intercourse or masturbation for home, but if ever he stayed at a friend's house he could scarcely sleep days or even weeks, wet dreams may not occur. He will still get all night for fear of leaving his mark. Eventually, he had discovered virtually nightly erections during REM sleep (the deepest kind) and that if he masturbated before going to sleep when away from home, dreams, but his body seems to inhibit ejaculation.
wet dreams rarely happened.
After adolescence, nocturnal ejaculations are probably most likely Since then, these nocturnal surprises had virtually disappeared from to occur when the sperm waiting to exit have been damaged in some his life. Now, in his early thirties, they were a rare event. The last way. A high temperature, for example, during flu or other infections, time, a year ago, was when he had flu and a slight fever. Then his can kill or damage these waiting sperm. The body still generates an partner had reacted badly on discovering the mark on the sheet, urge to masturbate under such circumstances, but if the man gets no claiming it was a slight on her sexual attractiveness --- and how opportunity for secrecy during the day, the body forces a wet dream could he be feeling like sex if he was ill, anyway? He wondered if she to rid his sperm columns of these moribund tenants at night.
would react the same way this time. But, unlike during adolescence, Humans are by no means the only species to ejaculate spon-the thought of being discovered did not keep him awake. Within a taneously. Rats, cats and probably most mammals will from time to minute, he had drifted back into sleep.
time ejaculate in their sleep, especially around puberty. In men, it is sleeping with a partner that most often seems to mark the change from the function of wet dreams as a back-up in his three-a-week or one in five men, their very first ejaculation occurs system, to their being rare events.
Fsp ontaneously. Most often, this first occurrence is a wet dream, As we have already discussed (Scene 13), the timing and fre-but for a few unfortunate boys it occurs in public. This is usually quency with which a man sheds sperm can give a clear indication to due to subliminal stimulation (watching a film, climbing a tree), or an observer both of his current sexual activity and of his extreme stress (reading in front of a class at school). After the first expectations. Secrecy is important to the success of male strategy, few occasions, however, almost all spontaneous ejaculations occur and it is probably this need for secrecy that has caused men's bodies in private, at night, while asleep --- as wet dreams. At some time in to avoid wet dreams as sexual outlets once they have a partner. They their lives, over 80 per cent of men experience these nocturnal are not as easy to hide from a partner as masturbation, because the events. So, how do they help a man in his pursuit of reproductive evidence remains on the sheet. Since a man has much more control success?
over when and where he ejaculates during masturbation, wet dreams Wet dreams can occur at any time of life, but are most common in are a suitable back-up for masturbation only in young men without a the teens and early twenties, and are most likely after periods of partner.
abstinence from intercourse and masturbation. But only during the 102
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had arrived an hour earlier he would have found another man in the house.
So far, her genuine claims of fidelity during his long absences had always been accepted --- eventually. Her position in such pleadings was particularly vulnerable because her elder daughter was not his, Successful Failure
and he knew it. She was the product of a springtime indiscretion. As a twenty-two-year-old farm girl, she had allowed herself to be coerced into sex with the man for whom she worked. Never would the woman forget that day, twelve years ago, that nearly ruined her life. Even now, the man's eyes still stared at her in her dreams and SCENE 15
from her daughter's face.
Home for the Day
On finding she was pregnant, she had lost her job, her mother's love, and her freedom. She was banished, first to live with her grandmother for a few months during the most obvious phase of her The soldier stopped pedalling and allowed his bicycle to free-wheel pregnancy, and then to a confinement in the house of a tyrannical, down the steep hill. He welcomed the brief moment of relaxation. It moralistic midwife. There was no doubt that she owed this soldier was over two hours since he had cycled out of his barracks in the who had just walked through the door a lifetime's gratitude for heat of the June evening. Now, as the sun dipped towards the horizon offering to take on and support her and her baby daughter. And he behind him, he still needed another half-hour to get home. His bike had done this despite the opposition of his own parents and despite had no lights, but he might just arrive before it would matter. As he the prejudice of the villagers in whose community they lived and gathered speed and the fields and hedgerows raced past him, he worked. Four years after they had met, she had given him his own could scarcely believe his luck, both bad and good. The bad luck was daughter, the consequence of New Year celebrations --- but he that, for some wartime reason, the whole barracks was being moved desperately wanted a son. Maybe if war hadn't broken out, they much further away from his home. The good luck was that he had would have had another child. But it did, and they hadn't.
been given an unexpected twenty-four-hour leave. He had his bike, He enjoyed the camaraderie of army life, but constantly worried he had the strength and energy, and he certainly had the motivation.
about what his partner was doing back at home. Knowing this, she A three-hour ride? Nothing to it.
shuddered at what might have happened had he arrived home and His partner didn't know he was coming home. For a moment she found another man in the house. In fact, her relationship with this was stunned when, just as it was getting dark, the back door opened.
other man had so far been totally platonic. But she knew his Her two daughters, aged eleven and seven, were upstairs, asleep.
intentions were far from innocent and tonight, for the first time, she Otherwise, she was alone in the house. When she identified the had found herself being tempted. Who knows what would have intruder, she was both pleased and unnerved. Pleased, because she happened if the girls had gone to bed at their proper time, instead of missed his company during the long weeks between visits home.
staying up as unwitting chaperons?
Pleased, because she had been feeling sexually frustrated for days.
After a welcoming hug and kiss, she told her partner to wash Unnerved, because if he
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away his cyclist's sweat while she prepared what food she could Just about the only reliable element in the cycle is that once a from a temporarily thin larder. He waited until they were in bed and woman has ovulated she will menstruate fourteen days later (but see becoming aroused before breaking the news to her that he'd had no below). Everything else is highly variable, as her body contrives to chance to buy or borrow any condoms. She protested that the last make itself unpredictable to men. Particularly crucial to her strategy thing she wanted at the moment was a baby. He said it would be all is the tremendous variation in the number of days from the end of right because he would withdraw before he came. Maybe it didn't menstruation to ovulation. This variation (which we shall soon matter anyway, she said, because her period was due any day.
discuss further), however, is only one element in her unpredictability.
He didn't withdraw, either then, first thing in the morning, or Another less well known feature is that even apparently normal again in the early afternoon. An hour later he was gone, cycling the cycles are by no means always fertile: a woman experiencing such three-hour journey back to his barracks and imminent relocation.
cycles may not in fact be ovulating at all. Scattered among her fertile Even as he cycled, one of his sperm was entering his partner's egg, cycles, every healthy, fertile woman routinely also has infertile ones.
and by the time he saw her again she was experiencing pregnancy There are at least three different types of infertile menstrual cycle sickness. A few months later, during the hottest week in March for
--- and most women experience them all. In the first type, a woman twenty years, his son was born.
neither menstruates nor produces an egg. In the second, she Fifty years later, the woman would have seven grandchildren, the menstruates normally, but still does not produce an egg. In the third, soldier six-one from his daughter, and five from the son conceived she both menstruates and ovulates, but curtails (from fourteen days when he was home for that day in June.
to about ten) the normally consistent interval from ovulation to menstruation. This curtailment prevents a fertilised egg from implanting.
ach of the three scenes in this chapter deals with a situation in In the short term, phases of infertility are an important method by E which a different woman appears in some way to fail. Yet in which a woman's body subconsciously seeks to do two things: on the failing, each actually benefits --- as if her failure were strategic. In one hand, to confuse men; and on the other, to organise the number Scene 15 we encounter a woman who is apparently convinced that and spacing of children over a lifetime. Only if such infertile phases the last thing she wants is to conceive. However, not only does she persist for long periods, such as several years, might they indicate a fail to avoid conception, but her body goes to some lengths to make problem. Even then, they may still be part of a woman's natural sure that she does. Fifty years later it is clear that her body had subconscious ability to plan her family.
engineered a very successful failure --- a real bonus in her pursuit of The proportion of cycles that are fertile varies in a fairly reproductive success.
predictable way throughout a woman's life. Obviously, she does not The conscious reason that this woman allowed unprotected sex, ovulate during childhood, though she may ovulate before having her even though she didn't want to conceive, was because she thought first period. And even once she has begun to have periods, few conception was unlikely. Her spur-of-the-moment reasoning was cycles are fertile. By the age of twenty, a normal, healthy woman that it was so long since her last period that her next must be due any produces an egg in fewer than half of her cycles. Even at her peak, day. But as we noted in Scene 2, and as she soon discovered, the when around thirty years old, still only about 80 per cent of cycles human menstrual cycle is nowhere near as predictable as many are fertile. After thirty, the proportion begins to decline, slowly at people think.
first, then rapidly after she reaches forty.
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By fifty, women more or less cease to ovulate, though there are At the latitude of Britain and Canada, more babies are born in unconfirmed reports of women giving birth up to the age of seventy.
early spring (February and March) than at any other time of year.
What seems to happen in each cycle is that in the days after the There is a second, smaller peak in early autumn (September). At the beginning of a period, a woman's body goes through a series of latitude of Central America, more babies are born at the coolest time hormonal changes. These changes prepare her body to produce an of year (December/January). In the southern hemisphere, the birth egg but, about one or two days before ovulation can occur, her body seasons are the same as in the northern. But the months, of course, goes on hold. Whether she eventually produces an egg or not are half a year different.
depends on the events of the following few days, or even weeks.
Just as these seasonal birth peaks reflect peaks of conception nine This holding period is an opportunity to collect sperm, perhaps just months earlier, so do these peaks of conception reflect peaks of from her partner, perhaps not --- perhaps just from one man, perhaps ovulation. Suppose Scene 15 was set in Britain. There, women are from two or more. In part, whether or not she ovulates will depend more likely to produce an egg in May/June and December than in on how her body feels about the man or men from whom she has any other month of the year. If the scene had been enacted in collected sperm. Most of all, however, it will depend on how it feels October rather than June, the outcome might have been very about trying to produce a baby in the current circumstances.
different. In October, even if the woman's body had been on hold, The woman in Scene 15 thought her next period must soon be due she might not have responded to intercourse by ovulating. But it was because it was so long since her last one. She was wrong. Her body June. Moreover, she was thirty-four years old, it was eight years was on hold. In the absence of her partner for the foreseeable future, since she last conceived, and her body rarely had the chance to it had momentarily considered collecting sperm from another man.
collect sperm. Despite what her brain might have thought, her body But when it collected sperm from her partner, it responded by decided on that summer day that it was actually a very good moment producing an egg. Consciously, the woman thought it was a bad to conceive --- and it was right.
time to conceive, but her body knew better. Given that it was eight Fifty years later, her son had not only survived, he had given her years since she had last conceived and that her ability to have and five grandchildren. The average number for women living at her time raise a third child would soon begin to decline, now was precisely and in her society is likely to have been four. Without her son, she the time to conceive --- especially as it was June.
would have had only two grandchildren, half the average. Because Many mammals, such as squirrels, sheep and bears, breed only at she had had her son, she achieved seven grandchildren in all, nearly a particular time of year. This way, their bodies can time giving twice the average, giving her every chance that her descendants birth and raising young to coincide with the best weather and the would be present in the generations to come.
greatest availability of food. In contrast, most of the larger monkeys The man, of course, did not fare quite as well as the woman from and apes, living in more uniform tropical environments, will breed their partnership. But he still fared quite well, and for him the son at any time of year. Nevertheless, conceptions and births are not was even more important --- without him, he would have had only evenly spread throughout the seasons: more still occur in some one grandchild. Then there would have been a very real danger that months than in others. Humans are just the same.
accident or infertility would rob him of all descendants within a generation or two (Scene 1). Because he had had his son, he too 108
achieved an above-average number of grandchildren. So from the point of view of his reproductive
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success it had been a good decision to take on this woman, despite met her current partner and they began living together almost the cost of raising her daughter from another man. It had also been a immediately.
good decision to take on a three-hour cycle ride in the heat of that For four years, they had always been able to find an excuse to wait June day.
'just another month or so' before having a family. More than anything, they were waiting for his promotion --- but it never came. Eventually, despite their financial problems, they decided to wait no longer. Part of her motivation had stemmed from her secret hope that a family SCENE 16
would draw them back together again --- because as their debts had mounted so their relationship had deteriorated. More and more The Stress of It All
frequently, irritability had begun to give way to open hostility.
To her dismay, she hadn't conceived. Month after month went by, As the woman fingered the piece of paper in her hand, tears began to and she began to worry that she was infertile. As it turned out, her roll down her cheeks. Ironically, only yesterday she had thought that fears were unfounded. But it took nearly a year of unprotected sex things couldn't get any worse.
before, relaxing on a holiday they couldn't afford, she eventually Seven years ago, when she and her partner had first started living conceived. Then, nearly three months later, her partner lost his job together, the future had looked bright. But, somehow, it had all gone and within a week she miscarried.
wrong. Maybe they shouldn't have overstretched themselves From that tragic moment, their lives had gone from bad to worse.
financially with their first house. Maybe they shouldn't have spent so The house was repossessed and they were forced to move from one much on holidays and entertainment in the first few years together.
rented accommodation to another. With each move, as they struggled Maybe they should have seen the danger signs earlier and drawn in to manage on her income, they lowered their sights and their standard their horns when they began to slip into debt. But her partner had of living. Their current flat was cramped. Although pleasant enough insisted they could manage. Promotion and solvency were always in summer, it was cold, damp and mouldy in winter. Eventually, her just around the corner. But now, seeing this final demand, she partner had got another job, less well paid than the first but at least realised things were never going to get better. As she sobbed, it with prospects. By then, however, they were so far in debt they had seemed to her as if life had been one long chapter of stress and no choice but to stay in their cheap flat, waiting for financial unhappiness.
recovery.
It had begun ten years ago. In her late teens she had become During the worst of their deprivations they rarely had sex, and involved with a brilliant young man. But their relationship was whole months sometimes passed without intercourse. With her fraught. He had been continually critical of her body and general partner's new employment, however, their sexual interest in each appearance and had refused on principle to use, or allow her to use, other returned. But it was now two years since her miscarriage, and any forms of contraception other than rhythm and withdrawal.
still she had not conceived. Their finances were slowly improving, but Haunted by the fear of pregnancy and obsessed by the fear of their standard of living was still far worse than they had originally becoming fat, she had lapsed into anorexia. After a year of despair, expected it would be by now. They still she finished with him, counselled herself out of her eating problems, and eventually qualified with distinction for the career she had always wanted. Two years later, she
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argued frequently, sometimes violently, and often had bouts of ill-sick every morning. Having told her new partner she was infertile, it health.
was a surprise to both of them to discover she was pregnant. They had Suddenly, she stopped crying, screwed up the paper and threw it at no idea when it had happened until a routine scan told her the baby's the wall. Her mind was made up. She scribbled a note to her partner age. Then they calculated that she had conceived the very first week and walked out of the door. At the end of the street, she went into a they had begun to live together.
telephone kiosk and dialled a familiar number. When the man Her ex-partner refused to leave them in peace, and from time to answered, she gave him the message he had been waiting all month to time throughout her pregnancy caused great stress. The baby hear: if his offer was still open, she was ready to leave her partner and threatened to miscarry on several occasions, but this time she hung on move in with him.
to it. In due course she gave birth, albeit slightly prematurely, to a Ten minutes later, she was in his car. Thirty minutes after that, small but otherwise healthy daughter. Now her ex-partner became they were in his house in the suburbs. Ever since their affair began, even more demanding, claiming the child to be his. Surrounded by he had been trying to persuade her to move in. His house was nothing conflict, the woman lapsed into a deep post-natal depression and special, but compared to the pit in which she was living it was a began to neglect and even to mistreat the baby. It might have died had palace. Although maintenance payments to his ex-partner were a her new partner not devoted himself to its protection and care, losing drain, he was not in debt, his house was warm, dry and well his job in the process. The woman returned to work, leaving her new appointed, and he had a car.
partner to take the major role in raising the child.
She spent most of the day in tears and most of the night having Her ex-partner faded from their lives for a while. The woman sex. The next morning, she went back to her flat to collect her emerged from her depression, her new partner found employment belongings. Her new partner wanted to accompany her, but she again, and they were able to afford child care. Then, just as her life wouldn't let him and took a taxi instead. Her ex-partner was in bed was settling into a comfortable routine for the first time in years, her when she arrived. As she collected her clothes and other possessions, ex-partner reappeared. Now with a good job and rejuvenated the arguments and recriminations reverberated around the bedroom.
physically, mentally and financially, he wanted to press his claim for He eventually collapsed in tears. Then, begging her not to go, he told the baby he insisted was his daughter. He paid for a paternity test. The her how much he still cared for her.
new partner cooperated, confident that the results would end the She responded in a way that later she still could not believe. As he argument once and for all. They did, but not in the way he had hoped.
sobbed, she suddenly remembered the athletic, ambitious and He was devastated. The baby girl he had cared for so much was not in arrogant young man she had once found so attractive. In a flood of fact his daughter.
compassion, she comforted him, calmed him, then positively Within weeks of the result, the woman left to share her old encouraged him to have intercourse with her. However, almost partner's new and much improved lifestyle, taking her daughter with immediately afterwards, she turned on him again, announced it was her. From then on, the woman's fortunes went from strength to still over, and left.
strength and within three years of their reunion she and her original Over the next few weeks, she settled into her new relationship.
partner had two more children.
Sexually, they were very active --- until she began to feel 112
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reproductive success, but there is more than twice the danger that both will die. Unless the woman's circumstances are very favourable, she is less likely to raise two healthy, fertile children by conceiving twins n Scene 15, we met a woman who enhanced her reproductive than she is by conceiving two children a few years apart.
Isuccess by
conceiving when, consciously, the last thing she Women inherited a basic problem from their primate ancestors ---
wanted was another child. In this scene we meet the converse --- a it is very difficult to carry more than one child at a time when walking woman who enhances her reproductive success by failing to conceive long distances. This difficulty is particularly great when walking when consciously she really wants to.
upright on two legs, and has plagued women throughout human Most people think of family planning and contraception as modern evolution --- it is not totally unfamiliar even to those living in modern inventions. They are not. Even 'deliberate' contraception is not that industrial societies. Of course, the limitation was, and still is, new. For centuries, women in various cultures have been placing particularly crucial in those cultures in which women are responsible leaves or fruit (even crocodile dung!) in their vaginas in an attempt to for collecting and carrying large quantities of food, water, firewood, avoid conception. Chemical contraception, as in the pill, isn't even a or other materials. Carrying even one child as well is difficult. Under human invention. Female chimpanzees, for example, at appropriate such circumstances, the greatest reproductive success is achieved by times chew leaves that contain contraceptive chemicals. In fact, the those who avoid having another child until the previous one can not female body was planning families and avoiding conception for tens only walk but can keep up.
of millions of years before humans had even evolved. Women simply The time interval between successive children is not the only inherited these natural traits from their mammalian ancestors.
aspect of 'family planning' that influences a woman's reproductive For women and all other mammals, the natural mediator between success. Children are most likely to survive and grow into healthy, bad conditions and the avoidance of reproduction is stress. The stress fertile adults if they are born into a favourable environment. Plenty of reaction usually seems like an enemy --- a pathological condition that space and an adequate supply of healthy, nutritious food are we cannot shake off and that prevents us from functioning efficiently paramount. Children then have the lowest risk of contracting diseases and normally. But there is another interpretation: that the stress and the greatest resistance to those they do get. In modern societies, reaction is a friend --- a means by which the body prevents itself from space and nutrition depend on wealth. Even now, the chances of a doing anything disadvantageous when times are bad. In particular, child from a poor family dying before reproducing are double those of stress is a powerful contraceptive. And, to a woman, the avoidance of a child from a rich family. In the historical and evolutionary past ---
conception is an invaluable ally in her pursuit of reproductive when wealth will have been measured not in terms of money but in success! How can this be?
terms of crops and livestock, or even simply in terms of access to the The key paradox is that a woman does not necessarily achieve best areas for food, water and shelter --- these differences will have greatest reproductive success simply by having as many children as been even greater.
possible as quickly as possible. The very fact that women, like most There is a general principle, considered briefly in Scene 8 in primates, usually have only one child at a time is testimony to the connection with the benefits and dangers of a 'one-child' family: dangers and difficulties of trying to raise more than one child namely, that for any given woman in any particular situation there simultaneously. Twins might seem a good way of increasing 114
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will be a size of family which will give her the greatest number of the contrary --- but because they lost interest in each other. At times, grandchildren. If she has a smaller family than this, she will naturally they even felt hostile. Their bodies were manipulating their emotions have fewer grandchildren. Equally, if she tries to have a larger to reduce the chances of conception. Rarely, however, did they give family, she risks an overcrowded household and spreading herself up routine sex for long. This is because abstinence is in general and her resources too thinly. The resulting disease and infertility disadvantageous as an overall contraception strategy --- for the again mean that she ends up with fewer grandchildren. The challenge following reasons.
that faces every woman is first to identify the optimum family size As we discussed in Scene 2, the primary function of routine sex is for her circumstances, then to ensure that she has that number of not conception: it is for the woman to confuse the man --- and it is for children. Another factor that influences the number of grandchildren the man to protect himself against his partner's infidelity by a woman may have is how she times her conceptions. Life is a maintaining a sperm army inside her. Since neither partner can afford mosaic of situations. Health, wealth and circumstance vary with time, to give up routine sex for too long, both men and women have and some periods in a woman's life are better for having children mechanisms other than abstinence which, despite continued sexual than others. Those who time their conceptions to coincide with the activity, reduce the chances of conception when the situation is good times will produce the most grandchildren.
unfavourable.
It is not just the children who may suffer from being conceived Women in particular have a wide range of such mechanisms. One when times are bad --- the mother may suffer also. An untimely of these is widely known: the influence of lactation on ovulation. If a conception may damage her health and situation so much that she woman breast-feeds her baby for a few months after giving birth, she may never again be able to conceive. If the woman in Scene 16 had is unlikely to ovulate during that time. This is the case even if she produced a child during any of the most stressful phases in her resumes her periods. Absence of ovulation is one of the main ways in relationships, she could have suffered irrevocable damage (the which a mother spaces the conception of successive children.
demands of a child when a couple can scarcely maintain themselves However, most of the ways in which she avoids reproducing at may even be fatal). Under such strained circumstances, there is an inappropriate times involve stress. In Scene 16, not only did the increased risk of ill-health and subsequent infertility. Hostility also woman avoid conception during her most stressful phases, she also increases, making physical abuse or even murder more likely. The miscarried, then later threatened the life of her new-born baby, in woman in the scene, by delaying her first child until circumstances response to stress.
improved, managed, eventually, to have three children for whom she The stress reaction manifests itself in many ways. In the scene, had the space, time and resources. In the end, she also had the faced with a difficult relationship during adolescence, the woman support of an able partner. Had she tried to reproduce earlier, she lapsed into anorexia, as do 1 per cent of girls between sixteen and might not only have failed but might also have forfeited her chances eighteen years of age. The physiological stress caused by such near-of conceiving in the future.
starvation is contraceptive --- ovulation, and often menstruation, are The best method of avoiding conception is, of course, sexual inhibited. Usually the situation is temporary. Although a few abstinence, and the woman and her partner did indeed have spells anorexics (5-10 per cent) die as a result of their behaviour and a few without sex in their most stressful days. This happened not because more (15-20 per cent) continue to be anorexic throughout their lives, they consciously wanted to avoid conception --- on the majority (75 per
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cent) emerge from the condition to live a normal, healthy and intense reappraisal --- primary targets are her partner, home and eventually reproductive life.
general environment. These spells often manifest themselves as Most contraceptive reactions are less extreme than anorexia. Even phases of worry, depression and irritability. Finally, there is often a so, the more a woman is stressed the less likely she is to ovulate preoccupation with the future. Any major deterioration in a woman's (Scene 15). She is also less likely to help sperm reach the egg or to circumstances at this time can lead to pathological depression and the allow a fertilised egg to implant in her womb. Finally, she is more later rejection, or even abuse, of the baby.
likely to miscarry, particularly during the first three months of Post-natal depression as an irresistible urge to abandon, abuse or pregnancy.
even kill a new baby is widely recognised. So widely, in fact, that It is estimated that, whereas most fertilised eggs survive to reach many legal systems around the world accept that a woman may not the womb, on average about 40 per cent fail to implant and, of the be responsible for her actions in the phase immediately after giving remainder, about 60 per cent die before the twelfth day of pregnancy.
birth.
Even then, about 20 per cent are miscarried during the next three Throughout human history infanticide has been, and still is, one of months. All of these figures are higher if a woman is stressed, lower the major forms of family planning employed by women. In hunter-if she is not. The death of a partner, a partner's infidelity, or the gatherers, people who live by hunting and foraging rather than by outbreak of war, for example, are all known to increase the chances cultivation, about 7 per cent of children are killed by their mother.
of miscarriage. During the first few months, miscarriage is also more According to the World Health Organisation, infanticide was the likely if there is anything wrong with the baby, either genetically or most prevalent form of family planning in late-nineteenth-century developmentally.
Britain.
At first, it might seem odd that a woman has so many different Such behaviour is not restricted to humans. Like all the other ways of avoiding having a child. Certainly, if any one of these forms of natural family planning, we inherited infanticide from our systems were efficient, there would seem no need for others. But this mammalian ancestors. Anybody who has kept pets such as rabbits, apparent excess of responses is not an error in female programming.
gerbils, hamsters or mice will know that if the mother is at all stressed Circumstances change, often quickly, and a woman's body needs to soon after giving birth, she is likely to kill, even eat, some or all of respond equally quickly. For example, circumstances may be her litter. Such infanticide is not pathological: it reflects the mother's favourable when she ovulates but no longer so by the time the egg subconscious decision not to raise the litter in the current reaches her womb. So she will ovulate, but then avoid implantation.
circumstances. She opts instead to delay her attempt until Or circumstances may be favourable at the time of implantation but circumstances improve.
may become unfavourable a month or so later. So, having become So far, we have concentrated on family planning from the woman's pregnant, she miscarries.
viewpoint. But men, too, have many of the same problems. They Even if circumstances remain favourable throughout early direct a large part of their reproductive effort into preparing an pregnancy, they may yet deteriorate before the baby is born. The last environment for their children. During hard times, a man should want three months of pregnancy are often associated with marked changes to avoid raising children just as much as his partner.
in a woman's psychology. First, there are the well known spells of Most of the time, a couple's interests coincide. The woman's body
'nest-building' --- strong urges to prepare the environment into which will plan their family to their mutual benefit. But there are times the baby will be born. Also there are spells of when their interests do not coincide. Then, a man needs 118
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a contraceptive mechanism of his own. Interests are most likely to responded to stress by abstaining from routine sex, there would be no conflict when the couple's circumstances are almost, but not quite, such chance.
good enough to have a child. In this situation, if the woman meets In Scene 16 this strategy worked successfully for the woman's first someone her body deems to be genetically superior to her partner, she partner. He managed to prevent her becoming pregnant throughout may be tempted into trying to have a child with another man. In such her weeks of infidelity. But when, eventually, she conceived, he was circumstances, discussed further in Scene 18, the reproductive benefit the victor in the sperm war she had promoted.
to the woman of a child with this other man would be worth the risk As we have now seen, the bodies of both men and women have a of overstretching her and her partner's resources. Obviously, her range of natural methods, mainly triggered by stress, by which they partner would gain no such benefit.
avoid having children when times are bad. We might expect, For him, this is a dangerous and delicate turn of events. Somehow, therefore, that societies living in generally more stressful situations he has to prevent the situation just described from happening. At the would have fewer children. But they do not --- in fact, exactly the same time, he has to avoid impregnating his partner himself. Without opposite is true. How is this possible?
knowing it, the man in Scene 16, the woman's original partner, was in The explanation is that the factors that influence the best number of this situation in the weeks before her desertion. The only option for children to have are different from the factors that influence the best such a man is to use routine sex to prevent his partner from time to have those children. Historically and geographically, the conceiving to anybody, himself included. And men have a very number of times a woman gives birth in her lifetime is linked closely sophisticated mechanism by which they can do just that: they wage to the chances of her children surviving to adulthood. When survival war on their own sperm.
prospects are poor, a woman gives birth to many children. If she does There are two types of sperm in a man's ejaculate which strongly not, few or none may survive to adulthood. She avoids having reduce the chances of conception if they are present in large numbers.
children during only the very worst times, and conceives whenever It seems that these sperm might actually be programmed to destroy a circumstances show signs of improving. In contrast, as we saw man's own egg-getters. One of them has a cigar-shaped head and is earlier, when survival prospects are good a woman gives birth to called a tapering sperm. The other has a pear-shaped head and is fewer children and lavishes much more of her time and resources on called a pyriform sperm. Just as for women, stress is contraceptive.
each. Her effort is less likely to be wasted because each child's chance When men are stressed, they produce much greater numbers of these of survival is high. Again, she avoids having children during bad so-called family-planning sperm.
times and only conceives when circumstances are really favourable.
The more family-planning sperm and the fewer egg-getters a man In all of these situations, stress is the contraceptive. But because introduces into his partner, the lower the chances that she will women in different circumstances have different expectations, they conceive. But if she is unfaithful and sperm warfare occurs, her are stressed by different levels of deprivation. Circumstances which partner's family-planning sperm can help his conventional killers would stress a woman in the suburbs of Western Europe or North overcome the other man's egg-getters. Furthermore if, despite the America would not stress a woman living in a drainpipe in the Third partner's efforts, an egg-getter does get through, there is at least a World. It is a woman's expectation of living standard that determines chance that the child will be his. Had he the number of children she attempts to have. Whatever her expectation, as circumstances fluctuate and her expectations are exceeded or disappointed,
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stress comes and goes. As it does so, it influences just when she has example of the conflict between the conscious brain and the each child as she strives to reach her preferred total.
subconscious body.
Small families are not a new invention. For most of human history, As we have repeatedly seen, a woman's body may interpret its from about one million years ago until as recently as ten to fifteen circumstances very differently from her brain. We encountered this thousand years ago, all people lived as hunter-gatherers. Men hunted conflict in Scene 15, in which the woman thought the last thing she animals and women foraged for fruit and vegetables. Societies were wanted in the middle of wartime was to conceive. Nevertheless, her made up of small, scattered bands of people. They had a good, body actually went out of its way to become pregnant. In that protein-rich diet and most deaths were due to accident, predation and instance, the body was proved right and the woman achieved most of inter-group warfare rather than disease. The children of hunter-her reproductive success through the son 'mistakenly' conceived on gatherers had an excellent chance of survival. Using nothing but the that occasion.
natural, stress-related methods we have discussed, women gave birth It would, of course, be wrong to conclude that the body is always to only three or four children in their lifetime. Of these, two or three right. No body is programmed to respond perfectly to every situation.
survived.
The very fact that in every generation some people achieve a greater Large families did not appear until about ten thousand years or so reproductive success than others indicates that some bodies make ago, when agriculture brought a change of lifestyle. In the most more mistakes than others. Quite possibly, though, bodies make fewer fertile areas, large and concentrated communities developed, living mistakes than brains. Yet recently, brains have been given greater on a carbohydrate-rich diet. Disease and infant mortality were rife.
power in this question of contraception. Modern contraceptives, such The average number of children was about seven or eight, but double as the pill and the cap, at first sight would seem to take the control of figures were commonplace. Even so, whole families could be wiped conception away from the body and hand it much more firmly to the out in days by virulent disease. As with the hunter-gatherers, on brain. But this change in control may not, as we have seen, influence average, only two or three in each survived.
the total number of children a woman may have. Rather, modern With the advent of 'modernisation', the infant mortality rate began contraceptive methods supplement a woman's natural mechanisms by to fall and so, too, a few decades later, did the birth rate. In Western helping her to control when she has her children --- and with whom, Europe this decline in birth rate was again the product of natural as we shall see in the next scene.
family planning, for it preceded by up to a century the availability and use of modern contraception. So this reduction in family size to the levels found in modern industrial societies was due not to improved contraception technology, but to women subconsciously planning smaller families in response to the improved survival prospects of their children.
Many women will read this discussion of natural family planning with some cynicism, wondering how, if their bodies are so wonderful at family planning, they managed to conceive at precisely the time they least wanted. This is yet another 122
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and flirtatious, he had once commented on the bikini she was wearing in the garden. Her partner had overheard and accused her of making a pass at the young man.
Despite his return to work, their relationship had failed to improve.
SCENE 17
Early in the month she had vomited on and off for two days, and had been so worried in case she had lost the contraceptive protection of How Forgetful
her pill that she had insisted on him using a condom. He had sulked all month. Then, last night, he had wanted unprotected sex --- a As the taxi pulled up, the woman heard her partner opening the front gesture from her to him to see him through his four weeks away from door. She listened as he came back into the house and picked up his her. She had refused, and they hadn't spoken since. Now he was gone, bags. Holding her breath, she waited to see if he would come back bad feeling unresolved. The day after he left, two things happened.
into the room to say goodbye. But the front door closed, more loudly She finished her current month's supply of the pill and she received than usual, and he walked to the taxi without looking back. He would an apologetic long-distance phone call from her partner. They made be gone for four weeks, and they were parting on bad terms.
up over the phone as best they could. Then, over the next few days, They had been arguing on and off for a year now, and nearly they returned to their normal long-distance relationship, exchanging always about the same thing. He wanted another child --- preferably a platitudes of concern and affection.
son --- but she didn't. She had been under pressure to come off the pill It happened just a week into his trip. It was mid-morning and she ever since the younger of their two daughters had started school. Now had just returned home from taking their two daughters to school and in her early thirties, the woman wanted to return to her career. Over doing the shopping. Just as she had finished showering and drying her the past few months, her partner had become increasingly hair, the doorbell rang. She pulled on her bath robe and went to the disillusioned with his job and recently he had been ill. His door, to be confronted by her partner's immediate superior from work.
disillusionment seemed to have stripped him of his health and energy He had called round to see if she had heard from her partner recently and he had been off work for six weeks, returning only a month ago.
--- because he hadn't. He had tried to phone her but had got no reply Those six weeks had been a nightmare. She knew that what he and, because there was an urgent message about a change of itinerary, really needed to speed his recovery was peace and quiet but, in spite he had decided to call round. She invited him in and, after they had of herself, she just could not oblige. It irritated her, having him under discussed the reason for his call, politely offered him a coffee.
her feet all day while she ferried the children to and from school, did They had met socially a few times before. Once, much to the the shopping and maintained the house. He had insisted on sitting irritation of their respective partners, they had indulged in a flirtatious around downstairs instead of keeping out of her way in bed. Try as conversation at a drunken New Year's party. He reminded her of that she might, she could not avoid showing her irritation, and arguments night, and they laughed. Gradually, their conversation turned to the were frequent. They had even argued over the new window-cleaner.
problems they were each having with their respective partners. She He was a young man, earning money over the summer to help finance didn't notice what triggered her first flutter of sexual excitement as his place on some tropical expedition. Good-looking, confident she busied herself with
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percolator and cups in the kitchen. All she knew was that at some sunbathing in the back garden, she heard the young window-cleaner point she became aware that only her hastily tied bath robe separated arrive at the front. She was inside the house and up to her bedroom in her body from his eyes and that he was watching her intently, waiting seconds, standing in front of her bedroom mirror, back to the window.
for glimpses of her nakedness. As the excitement took hold of her, When she saw the reflection of the young man's face appear at the she found excuses to touch his arms and back as she moved around in window, she slowly took off her bikini, then turned to face him.
the kitchen. She laughed exaggeratedly at his comments and Feigning surprise at seeing him she waved unconcernedly, then busied contrived reasons for bending and twisting in front of him, pretending herself with tidying the room, deliberately choosing jobs that involved not to notice as her robe loosened and the bulge in his trousers grew.
much stretching and bending. When he rang the doorbell for his When the drinks were ready, they went into the sitting-room. She money, she opened the door naked, 'hiding' her body behind the sat opposite him, breasts scarcely covered. Conversation became frosted-glass door panel. She complained of the heat and, looking strained as they each waited for a sign that they would not be down at her nakedness, laughed that she had no money on her.
rebuffed. In a final move, she lifted her legs on to the chair, deftly Inviting him in while she went to fetch some, she joked that he could pushing her bath robe between her legs to cover herself. Then, over have sex with her instead if he liked.
the next few minutes, she watched his eyes flick backwards and No more windows were cleaned on her road that afternoon until, forwards between her face and her genitals as she allowed her bath after her best climax during intercourse for years, she left to pick up robe slowly to slip away, giving him an open display of her vulva.
the children from school.
Minutes later they were having intercourse on the floor and ten She didn't masturbate again that week, but she had sex twice more minutes after that he had gone, suddenly embarrassed by what had just with her partner's boss and once more with the young window-happened but telling her that her body had been irresistible.
cleaner. That weekend, which she spent with her two daughters, it This event began a week that in later life would seem to her like a was as if she suddenly woke up from a dream. The excitement of the scene from a film --- a very bad film. Surely it couldn't have been her week disappeared, to be replaced by sheer disbelief at what she had doing all of those things --- acting out such clichéd events. At the done. On the Monday, she told both lovers that it had been fun but a time, though, she had simply seemed driven by some powerful force mistake, and she was no longer available. The older man was deep inside her. As the week progressed, she was to have many relieved, the younger man disappointed.
moments of fear --- fear that somehow her partner would find out When her partner returned, two weeks later, she told him about what she had done and fear that she had caught something. When, forgetting to start her pills on time but let him have unprotected sex two days after this first infidelity, she realised she had forgotten to anyway as a coming-home present. After that, in the days they were start her new pack of pills on time, she also feared that she might be waiting for her period to start, she insisted he wore a condom.
pregnant. But for most of the week that had just begun, she was simply She never did have her period. Three weeks after her partner's return, to feel a height of sexual restlessness and excitement that she hadn't a pregnancy test confirmed that she was pregnant. Her partner was experienced in years --- and would never experience again.
thrilled, even when the child turned out to be another girl. And he Only an hour after her infidelity, she masturbated. She masturbated never did find out about his boss and the window-cleaner.
again the next morning. That afternoon, while 126
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In her eyes, her partner had decreased in stature over the years. He had failed to live up to the potential he had shown when she committed her first two children to his genes. Now his health also was ost readers will recognise the seduction of the young failing, and he was proving less than robust. As far as she was Mwindow-cleane
r as a cliché (as, later, did the main character concerned, he had no saving graces in terms of intellect or character, in Scene 17 herself). It, or something similar, has been used as a not either. In effect, her body had decided that a third child should be very imaginative 'dramatic device' in a multitude of films, plays and fathered by somebody with signs of a more robust genetic constitution books. If the man involved is not a window-cleaner, he is an than him. So when the opportunity presented itself, her body made electrician, a plumber, a builder, a TV repair man or (in Britain, the sure that she took full advantage.
biggest cliché of all) a milkman. In short, he is any man who has a A woman is less likely to use contraception when she has sex with legitimate reason for visiting a woman in her home while her partner somebody other than her partner. And it is not always because the is absent.
circumstances surrounding the infidelity make the use of Indeed, so hackneyed is this scenario that there is a danger, if we contraception difficult. The first time the woman in Scene 17 had sex are not careful, of missing the important point: namely, that the with her partner's boss or with the window-cleaner, it would have behaviour has become hackneyed precisely because it is so common.
been difficult to insist on their wearing a condom. But on subsequent As such, it plays an important role in the promotion of sperm warfare occasions she, and they, could have been better prepared --- but they
--- and hence in the paternity of children conceived via such warfare.
weren't. In any case, she wasn't dependent on these men and on Why should the woman in the scene, and so many like her, suddenly condoms. Had she taken her pill at the appropriate time, she could still throw herself at two male visitors to her home? What is the have avoided conception. But she forgot. Was it really an accident, a significance of the saga of her contraceptive pills? And how did she genuine lapse of memory? Or did her body subconsciously manipulate benefit from her behaviour in terms of reproductive success?
her into forgetting, so that she conceived to a man other than her When this scene began, the woman genuinely believed that she partner?
didn't want another child. In order to prevent conception, she was The sudden but week-long surge of sexual excitement the woman taking the pill and, when necessary, making doubly sure by forcing experienced was the outward manifestation of hormones produced her partner to use a condom. Then, in the midst of what, sexually, during her fertile period. We have already discussed (Scene 6) how was the most active week of her life, she 'forgot' to take contraceptive women become more interested in infidelity at this time. Her sudden precautions. Was this lapse of memory really a mistake, or was it a loss of sexual interest at the end of her week of infidelity marked the subconscious strategy? And was it yet another example of a 'failure'
end of her fertile period and, as it happened, the beginning of her destined actually to increase a woman's reproductive success? What pregnancy. By the time her partner returned and accepted an this woman's body had really decided was that it didn't want another unprotected intercourse as a coming-home present, the woman will child by her partner. Her brain was then simply coerced into finding a already have been two weeks pregnant.
convincing reason why they, as a couple, should avoid conception.
Women, like most female animals that hide the fertile phase of That reason was so convincing, she even managed to persuade herself their menstrual cycle, continue to have intercourse well into that she wanted to go back to work.
pregnancy. This is the final touch by which they can confuse the 128
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males around them. If a woman lost interest in sex as soon as she she can influence which man's sperm is most likely to have access to conceived, it would be a clear signal to the males around her that an egg. Indeed, our main character made full use of modern conception had occurred. This would allow each of them to make contraception in ensuring that she did not conceive via her partner.
some assessment of who could and could not be the genetic father.
The other two men, however, were given equal chances. All they had Continuing intercourse well into pregnancy guarantees the ultimate to do was win a sperm war.
confusion of all potential fathers. This explains why our main As we discussed in Scene 16, modern contraception may not have character was keen to have unprotected intercourse with her partner much influence on how many children a woman has in her lifetime.
on his return. It meant that in his eyes, and even in hers, he could have But it has provided her with a powerful and efficient tool with which been the father of her third child, even though he wasn't.
to enhance her natural ability to time when and via whom she Given such a short-lived and ideal opportunity for undetected conceives. Rarely is contraception technology used in this way infidelity, the woman's body made a shrewd move in collecting sperm consciously. But in the hands of a woman's urges it is a powerful new from more than one man. She gained two benefits. First, she halved weapon by which she can increase her reproductive success.
her chances of being unlucky enough to collect sperm from a man who just happened to be infertile (10 per cent of men, largely due to sexually transmitted disease --- Scene 11), despite appearing to be a suitable genetic father (Scene 18). But secondly, by putting two men's armies into competition, she increased her chances of being fertilised by an ejaculate competent at sperm warfare (Scenes 6 and 21). She might never again have such a perfect opportunity to conceive a child with better genes than her partner could provide --- not without leaving him, anyway. We do not know which of the two competitors was actually the father, but whichever he was, he was the man who won the sperm war she had promoted.
When a woman has sex with two men over a short period of time, she has three ways of influencing which of them fathers any child that may result. First, she can have sex with one of the men at a more fertile phase of her menstrual cycle (Scene 6). Secondly, she can retain a larger sperm army from one of the males (Scenes 22 to 26).
Thirdly, like the woman in Scene 17, she can use modern contraceptive techniques.
If a woman uses a barrier method, such as cap or condom, with one man but not the other, she can prevent the former from entering sperm into warfare at all. Alternatively, by using the pill and then not using the pill, like the woman in the scene, 130
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feet. There was no danger of her nakedness being seen. The garden was so large, the bordering trees and security fencing so high and the neighbours so far away, that her privacy was complete. When the CHAPTER SEVEN
young man appeared at the french windows to shout his farewell, she was on her way back to the patio. She felt like a Greek statue as she Shopping Around
stood in the middle of the lawn and waved goodbye. For a woman only months from her fortieth birthday and with three children, one now in for Genes
her mid-twenties, her body was in impressive shape.
As the young man turned to leave, she walked back to the patio. In five years, he was probably her best find yet. Her advertisement was simple but effective: 'Part-time gardener required to maintain large garden over summer. Ideal for student during summer vacation'. Each Scene 18
year she had interviewed over twenty applicants. Her choice was based on the student's looks, intelligence, maturity, self-confidence Spoilt for Choice
and sexual aura. She took it as testimony to her own good looks and judgment that it had never taken her more than a fortnight to seduce Despite the open windows, the room was hot and humid. The naked any of her choices. The result was that for two days a week, over woman moved slowly off the bed so as not to wake the young man about three months each summer, she had the sexual companionship sprawled next to her. Without dressing, she walked downstairs, of a young man nearly twenty years her junior. And she had her lawn through the open french windows, and into the bright sunlight. The mowed and her garden weeded.
tiles of the patio were hot to her feet. She paused for a second, then This year she had hired two men, both medical students, whom she ran a few steps and dived into the large swimming pool. The blissfully had found equally attractive. One worked on Tuesdays, the other cool water washed the remnants of her recent intercourse from her Fridays. As she stretched out in the sun on the lounger, she toyed once thighs and pubic hair and, as she swam the length of the pool, carried again with the fantasy of having both young men in bed with her at away her flowback.
the same time. But that was for the future. As she drifted in and out of She had been in the water about ten minutes when the young man a sun-drenched sleep, she reflected on the events that had given her she had left on her bed appeared on the patio. She watched his naked, such a good life.
tanned and muscular body run across the hot tiles and dive not quite It all began on her fourteenth birthday. She had been out with her perfectly into the water. He swam strongly over to her, trod water by mother, shopping around for a new pair of jeans. It was a freezing her side, then kissed her. After a few minutes together, enjoying the cold winter's day, and while they were shopping it had started to snow.
water, she asked him to go. Without argument, he swam back across The town was a forty-five-minute bus ride away from their home, even the pool, pulled himself out of the water, and disappeared into the on a good day. By the time they arrived at the bus stop, the snow was house to shower and dress.
settling fast. The bus never came. But the man in the large and very The woman also left the pool. She dried herself with a towel expensive car did.
hanging from the pool-side lounger, then walked down the steps on to the lawn, relishing the coolness of the grass beneath her 132
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He wasn't really a stranger. When he wasn't at his apartment in the actually discussed which days he could do so, and she would wait for city, he lived in a virtual mansion in their home village. Her father him.
worked for him as a gardener cum handyman, helping to maintain his Winter cut down on the sexual activity with her boyfriend until he house and its grounds. Although for years she had seen him driving passed his driving test and acquired a virtually derelict car. Then, they around, she had never really met him before. All she knew was that became adept at cramped sex on the cold and badly sprung back seat.
he was about fifty years old, very rich, and apparently had no She began to fantasise about doing the same with her father's employer children, despite having lived with the same woman for about twenty in the luxury of his car. It would be like being in bed. Now, stretched years. She had heard her parents talk about infidelity and children by out in the sun by the side of her swimming pool, the woman still other women. She had also heard them talk about infertility and remembered clearly the move that changed her life. On their way women's problems, but had taken little interest.
home from school, waiting at traffic lights, she had put her hand on On the journey home she had been struck by his friendliness. At his thigh and leaned across to kiss him on the cheek.
fourteen, she was well developed and already attractive, with a They never did have sex in his car. But within a week of that kiss maturity and self-confidence that would have graced a twenty-year-she was in his bed, experiencing for the first time the difference old. During the journey, she found herself doing most of the talking.
between sex with a man of fifty and sex with a boy of seventeen.
She liked and felt comfortable with this man and had no hesitation, a Throughout that spring and summer she had sex at least twice a week, week later, in accepting another lift from him when he drove past her more or less alternately with her boyfriend and the older man. Neither at the school bus stop. After that, he drove her home with increasing knew of the other's existence. It was autumn before she and her mother frequency. Her schoolfriends teased her a bit about it, but it didn't realised she was three months pregnant.
bother her.
She refused to discuss paternity with anyone except her parents and The following summer, during the long vacation, she lost her her father's employer. Her parents were told that the father was the virginity. Her lover was a boy of seventeen whom she and her friends young boyfriend who had just left for college and whose parents had had worshipped from a distance for months. After the trauma of their now moved out of the area. Her father's employer was told that the first intercourse, she began to enjoy their sexual activities. She baby was his, as well it might have been. He feared conviction for became the envy of her friends as she described in great, though having sex with a fifteen-year-old girl. But he also felt genuine affection sometimes imaginary, detail her sexual adventures with this young for her and for the child he believed was his. Explaining to her parents idol.
that he would do the same for any employee who was in trouble, he That autumn, she resumed her journeys home from school with her offered to help with the child's upkeep. On the strength of this extra father's employer. She was in his car the day before his partner was income, her parents volunteered to look after the child, a girl, while diagnosed as having terminal cancer. After that, she didn't see him for their daughter finished her education.
several months as he and his partner moved to the city for her to be When, despite the distractions of motherhood, she performed well treated. He did not reappear until a few weeks after his partner's death in her examinations, the man again offered to help. This time he which, she discovered later, had been the day after her fifteenth provided money for her to have a college education. During her two birthday. From then on, whenever he wasn't in the city on business, and a bit years at college, she had about ten he made a point of picking her up from school. Soon, they 134
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different sexual partners. Even so, twice a term she would arrange to her partner, had just announced her first pregnancy. Her sons, aged meet her benefactor at his city apartment for a weekend of sex and a eighteen and nineteen, were both at college studying medicine. She taste of the high life.
took great pride in all her children, particularly her sons --- not She never did graduate. In her third year, faced with a choice because of what she had done for them, which in truth was very little, between months of hard revision and a tempting offer from her but for what they were and for what they had done for themselves. The benefactor, she left college. They travelled extensively for a few boys were very different from each other, perhaps reflecting a months and then, on their return, began to live together with the different paternity. But they were both good-looking and intelligent, daughter, now aged six. At her urging, he sold his mansion and precociously mature and confident, yet still gentle and caring. She had bought the wonderful house in which she now lived. They spent nearly no doubt they were going to break many a girl's heart.
ten years together in comfort and luxury, travelling the world, and Earlier, in their mid-teens, they had been in the habit of bringing mixing with equally wealthy people. They also had a further two home friends from school to stay for a while during the vacations.
children, both boys.
Many a young boy had been shocked and embarrassed at the family's All three of the woman's children were raised by nannies, sent to practice of swimming naked together in the pool. In two weeks' time, boarding school, and spent very little time at home. Her partner was her sons would begin their summer vacation. This time they would stay without doubt the father of her elder son, but she could not be sure with her for only a week before travelling abroad, and, moreover, they who was the father of the younger one. It could have been her partner, were bringing girls with them, not boys. Mischievously, the woman but it could equally have been the politician with whom she had sex wondered if they would swim naked with her this summer --- and, if every day for a week at about the relevant time. Moreover, if he had they did, whether their girlfriends would join them.
been a month later taking her to bed, so too might have been the She got up off the lounger and sauntered across the patio, dragging surgeon, a family friend who had treated her predecessor for cancer.
her towel behind her. It was time to shower and dress so as to be ready Her partner lived just long enough to see the younger son's eighth for her evening's escort. As she made her way indoors, she enjoyed yet birthday. Then, aged sixty-five, he died of a heart attack. That was ten again the thought that for a gardener's daughter she had done rather years ago. She inherited the house and more than enough money to well.
live very comfortably --- she continued to pay for her children's education, travelled when she wanted and indulged in occasional luxuries, like young gardeners. After her partner's death, there had n congratulating herself on her life, the woman in this scene was of I
been no shortage of men eager to share her life. Many were widowed course measuring her success on a hedonistic scale. By her own or separated and most were rich. She was rarely without a sexual and probably most other people's yardsticks, she had indeed done partner, and often successive partners overlapped. However, she
'rather well'. And even on a biological scale, she had done rather well.
stubbornly refused to allow anybody to live with her permanently.
Few factors have more influence on a person's reproductive success Besides, she was increasingly attracted to struggling young men, full than their selection of a mate or mates. Yet mate selection is complex, of drive and ambition, rather than to men saddled with the particularly for a woman. More often than not she has to compromise complacency of success or inheritance.
in many different ways. The scene we
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have just witnessed is the first of four in which we shall explore two An equally difficult problem is to identify which of the few matters --- the problems that people, particularly women, face when available men would make the best long-term partner. The most selecting a mate; and the methods they employ in solving those reliable way would be to look at past performance, but inevitably the problems.
best long-term partners are already paired to other women. Much of Here the central character successfully cleared all of the obstacles the woman's choice, therefore, is limited to young and unattached to reproductive success that women normally encounter when men who have not yet proved themselves as long-term partners. All choosing a mate. First, through her choice of long-term partner, she she can do is look for signs of potential, and hope that her judgment engineered an environment conducive to the easy and successful is accurate.
raising of children (from the point of view of being in a position to Surveys of many cultures around the world consistently show that, offer them every opportunity, anyway). Secondly, she managed to in looking for a long-term partner, women prefer men who have, or collect some of the most sought-after male genes in her vicinity. As have the potential of, wealth, status, stability and durability. In the a result, she produced children with the looks and ability to make the past, in all cultures, the children of women paired to men at the top of most of the comfortable environment into which they were born. Her the scale for these qualities had a far greater chance of survival, strategy was risky, but innate ability was on her side. She made the health and subsequent fecundity. The same holds true even in today's most of her daring and cunning, her composure and good looks, and industrialised societies.
successfully walked the tightrope of disease, discovery and The preferences are clear, but for most women a level of desertion.
compromise is necessary. One man may be wealthy but uncaring; In choosing a man or men with whom to share her life, a woman another may be of high status but unstable; yet another may be poor, has two major issues to consider. On the one hand, she needs a man but stable and caring. So, inevitably, a woman has to opt for the best who can help her raise her children. On the other, she needs genes compromise. Of course, she does not have to stay with her first that in combination with her own will produce attractive, fertile and partner. Again, studies show that when a woman leaves one partner successful children. The better the environment and the better the for another, she invariably moves up the scale to a better assistance, the more fully each child will achieve his or her genetic compromise.
potential.
In choosing a man to help raise her children, a woman is only A woman's difficulty is that she has a much wider choice of men secondarily impressed by looks, whereas in choosing a short-term to provide her with genes than she has of long-term partners. She partner for sex, looks are much more important. The features she could probably persuade many men of her choice to give her their finds most attractive are clear eyes, healthy skin and hair, firm genes --- it takes only a few minutes of sex, after all. Her options for buttocks, a waist that is about the same in circumference as his hips, a long-term partner, though, are much more limited. Most men in shapely legs, broad shoulders, quick wit and intelligence. She is also most societies have not the time, the energy nor the resources to help attracted by symmetry in his physical features. These various support more than one woman and her children at any one time. Her qualities are all reasonably reliable indicators of genetic health, choice of long-term partner is therefore restricted to those men who fertility and competitiveness. As such, they imply a genetic are unattached, ready to desert their current partner, or who have so constitution that would also be desirable in her children.
much time, energy or wealth that they can support more than one Since women are seeking different attributes in short-term and family.
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they may again have to compromise. They have two main options.
start to reproduce earlier, are less likely to have their partners They can choose the best available long-term partner, and then rely impregnated by other men and are more likely to do exactly that to on infidelity to obtain the best genes. This can succeed, but only if other males. So in all ways, men of wealth and status have the they successfully avoid the disadvantages of infidelity that we have potential to be reproductively more successful than their lower-status already discussed (Scenes 8 to 11). Alternatively, they can choose a contemporaries.
man who, although neither the best provider of genes nor the best Returning to birds --- it is rare, unless the male is infertile, for all partner, is at least the best available compromise.
of the young in 'his' nest to have been sired by other males. It is as if As we have found in so many aspects of reproductive success, the female always gives her partner some chance of paternity so as to women's behaviour and experience are mirrored by other animals. In retain his help in paternal care. The same may be true for humans.
this instance, women are not the only females who have to trade off Moreover, when we look at which children are most likely to belong between male support and male genes. One of the most revealing to their partner, women show a clear pattern. As with the woman in studies of the problem concerns a bird, the blue tit. The females of Scene 18, the child most likely to have been sired by a woman's this species show all of the behaviour we have just described for partner is the second; the children least likely are the first, and women. Those lucky ones paired to genetically superior males with particularly the last. The reasons, though, are slightly different for the best territories are totally faithful. Neighbouring females, paired first and last.
to genetically inferior males, take every opportunity to seek infidelity Often, a woman is already pregnant when she settles down with a with the superior males. They sneak into the better males' territories, long-term partner, and occasionally this partner is not the father of solicit intercourse, then return unobserved to the partner they have her child. Sometimes he knows this and takes on the woman and her just cheated. On average, about a third of young birds in a nest have child anyway (Scene 15), for reasons we have discussed (Scene 9), not been sired by their mother's partner. Actual levels range from 0
but sometimes he doesn't know. The woman is least likely to be per cent in the nests of the most favoured males to about 80 per cent unfaithful in the weeks or months preceding the conception of her in the nests of the least favoured ones.
second child. Subsequent children, however, are more and more A surprisingly similar pattern is found in humans. On average, likely to be the product of infidelity.
about 10 per cent of children are not sired by their supposed father.
Identifying the best partners and the best providers of genes, then Some men, however, have a higher chance of being deceived in this pursuing the best available compromise, is only one aspect of a way than others --- and it is those of low wealth and status who fare woman's problem in obtaining a mate. Having selected him, she then worst. Actual figures range from 1 per cent in high-status areas of has to recruit him into the chosen role. She can do this only if the Switzerland and the USA, through 5-6 per cent for moderate-status man finds her attractive enough. If she cannot attract her first choice, males in Britain and the USA, to 10-30 per cent for lower-status she then has to compromise yet again. The man she finally recruits males in Britain, France and the USA. Moreover, the men most will be the best compromise among those she wants and those she likely to sexually hoodwink the lower-status males are men of higher can attract. The woman in Scene 18 was successful because a rich status. Anthropological studies have shown precisely the same and successful man, thirty-five years older than herself, picked her pattern. Men of higher wealth and status obtain partners earlier, out from the crowd. Then, without her infidelity being detected, she set about collecting genes from other successful men. She succeeded once again because these
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men considered sex with her to be worth the risk. In short, she and women. As long-term partners, women tend to prefer men who succeeded because she was attractive to men, both as a partner and as are older than themselves. Such men have had more time to prove a lover.
themselves and more chance to amass the resources a woman will So, what was it about this woman that men found so attractive?
need to sustain any children she may have. Unless he is very wealthy, What criteria do men use in choosing partners and lovers, and how do however, a man older than about fifty becomes less and less attractive these criteria differ from those used by women?
to a younger, still fertile, woman --- because of the increasing risk Basically, men select women for their health, fertility and fidelity that he might die before any children she has with him become
--- though not consciously, of course. On seeing a woman, men do not independent.
immediately remark on her potential for bearing and raising children.
Men, on the other hand, prefer females who are old enough to be Nevertheless, the features that men's bodies are programmed to find fertile, but still have most of their reproductive lives ahead of them.
attractive are precisely those that do reflect this potential. Unlike a This way, they get more children from their investment. Whether a woman, a man uses similar criteria whether he is selecting a partner or man is twenty or seventy, therefore, his preferred age for a new a lover --- for both, his primary concern is with looks and behaviour.
partner is about twenty, or even younger. Hence the frequency with An important feature is body shape, particularly the ratio of waist to which the most successful of men leave their middle-aged partner and hip. Irrespective of whether a woman is thin or fat, men prefer their first family to set up home and begin a second family with a someone whose waist measurement is about 70 per cent of her hip much younger woman.
measurement. This preference is remarkably constant both throughout An older but still fertile woman might also gain from a liaison with history (to judge from statues, paintings and 'girlie' magazines) and a younger man. This is because she can judge a man's physical quality from culture to culture (to judge from rock-paintings and figurines). In more easily when he is at his physical peak. But more often than not some cultures, men prefer thin women; in others, fat. But in all such a man is in no position to maintain an older woman, let alone her cultures, they prefer women with waists significantly narrower than existing children and any new children their liaison might produce.
their buttocks. The explanation is that this shape reflects a good Consequently, older women are most likely to target young men for hormone balance, good resistance to disease and good fertility.
acts of infidelity from within a secure long-term partnership, and are In addition to shape, men all over the world also respond strongly less likely to choose them as long-term partners.
to clear eyes, healthy hair and skin, and the shape of the face, The woman in Scene 18 had been freed from constraints by her particularly its symmetry. Again, these features are strong indicators personal wealth. She could have invited any of her 'gardeners' to live of health and hence fertility. Men of most cultures also respond to with her for a while and perhaps give her another child --- they had breast size and shape, though actual preferences vary and there is no all been carefully chosen for their genetic potential. She could simple link between the appearance of a woman's breasts and her undoubtedly have raised another child by such a man without ability to lactate and sustain a child. Finally, men respond strongly to prejudicing either her own health or the success of her existing certain character traits, such as meekness and dependence, that might children and future grandchildren. Nor need she have short-changed indicate potential fidelity. Such traits, though, are relatively easy to her new child. By the time we left the scene, the woman had not fake, at least for short periods.
followed this course, but she still had time to do so. Many rich There is another difference in mate preference between men women do.
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has ceased to be able to attract younger, fertile women (Scene 11), their (over twenty-seven pregnancies). And even at a more mundane level it criteria for mate choice change. Choice of a long-term partner can still is much easier for a man, potentially, to have more children than a influence their reproductive success, but now of course it is not via any woman --- for the obvious reason that whereas a man can have his children that they might produce together. It is instead via its effect on children with several different women, a woman (until the recent the survival and reproduction of any children they each may already advent of surrogate motherhood) has had to have all her children have from a previous relationship (Scene 11). Wealth, status and the herself. A successful son, therefore, can give a woman far more potential to be a good stepparent or stepgrandparent now become of grandchildren than can a successful daughter. The higher a son's primary importance to both sexes in their choice of a partner. All the eventual social status, the more successful he is likely to be. Since same, most people still have to compromise.
wealth and status, as well as the genetic potential to achieve wealth and We can see quite clearly that nowhere is the conflict of interests status, can be inherited, we might expect higher-status couples to between males and females greater than in the selection and produce more sons than lower-status couples --- and they do. Studies recruitment of a partner --- at any age. Everybody is seeking the best around the world have shown a male-biased sex ratio among the partner in their preferred category, but may not themselves match up to children of couples of higher status (take, as an example, the children that chosen person's preferences. Competition is fierce. Everything is of the men and women listed in the national Who's Who). Usually the compromise, and time is limited. If a person settles too readily for a bias is statistical rather than obvious --- about 115 boys for every 100
poor compromise, they may miss the chance of a much better girls --- but sometimes it can be impressive. The presidents of the compromise later. However, spending too long in search of the best United States, for example, have between them produced ninety sons compromise can be equally disadvantageous. He or she may then pay and sixty-one daughters, the equivalent of 148 sons for every 100
the price of having to settle for a worse compromise, or even of failing daughters.
to attract anybody at all. The best prizes go to the people who judge So why don't all women produce an excess of sons? Actually, to correctly when to continue their search and when to settle for what they some extent they do. On average, about 106 boys are born for every can get --- if only for the time being.
100 girls. But because boys are more likely to die during childhood, by There is a fascinating consequence of the criteria women use for the time the survivors start to reproduce the proportion is about equal.
mate selection --- particularly their preference for, and greater fidelity Even so, not only is the average woman less likely to have a boy than a to, men of wealth and status. The sons of such men achieve greater woman paired to a high-status male, but women paired to low-status reproductive success than their lower-status contemporaries. They do males and women without a partner at all are more likely to produce a this not only through their long-term relationships, but also because daughter. Why?
they have the same above-average opportunities to sire children with The answer is that a son is a much more precarious reproductive the partners of other men as did their fathers. It follows from this that a option than a daughter. Despite his potential to produce large numbers, woman paired to such a man will achieve greater reproductive success he is more likely to die before he begins to reproduce, and he has if she produces sons than if she produces daughters.
much more chance of not reproducing at all, even when he tries. If The greatest number of children ever claimed by a man is 888 (by an they are not reproductively competitive, sons are a poor option.
ex-emperor of Morocco); that by a woman, sixty-nine Imagine a society in which all women produce only two children: for every man
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who sires six children with three different women, there will be two To most people, the whole process of mate selection is a minefield who fail to sire any. There are two ways in which a daughter is the of distractions and pitfalls, particularly during late adolescence as a safer option: first, although relatively few daughters produce large boy or girl searches for their first long-term partner. The woman in numbers of grandchildren for their mothers, relatively few fail to our scene subconsciously wove her way through this minefield with produce any; second, a mother can be certain that all of the precision. She did so by virtue of the excellent genes she herself had grandchildren produced through a daughter are hers. She cannot be so received from her parents. As a result, she ended up with three certain about the grandchildren apparently produced by a son.
children, and perhaps eventually more, all sired by a man or men who Thus, only when there is a very good chance that a son will not were reproductively outstanding in their peer group. Her daughter had only survive but will also be reproductively competitive against other already begun to produce grandchildren; her sons had great potential, males is it worth producing a boy. So, in principle, we should not be not only to produce their own families but also to be the targets of surprised to find that women without long-term partners and women other women's infidelities. She had every indication that her paired to lower-status males produce an excess of daughters --- or to descendants would multiply and flourish. In later generations, her find that those paired to higher-status males produce an excess of genes would mark more of the population than would the genes of her sons. Nor should we be surprised that, in between these two extremes, less successful contemporaries. Her life had been a success --- both most women compromise and show no bias towards either sex.
biologically and hedonistically.
The woman in Scene 18 got it exactly right when she produced a daughter from her 'accident' while she was still at school, and two sons when she was paired to a wealthy man of high status. Just how she will have achieved this bias is not known. The explanation is not that SCENE 19
higher-status males produce an excess of 'male' sperm --- the casual Fair Exchange
lovers of such men produce an excess of daughters, as they should.
Nor does it seem likely that high-status males introduce an excess of
'male' sperm into their partners but an excess of 'female' sperm into It was Saturday night and the two couples were sitting cross-legged in their lovers. The only reasonable explanation is that the bias is a circle on the floor. With plenty to drink by their sides, they began to generated by the woman. Either her body biases the proportion of male play cards. Each of them was privately tingling with nervous and and female sperm allowed through to the fertilisation zone in her sexual excitement. They had great hopes that the next hour would be a oviducts, or she is selective about which embryos she allows to sexual landmark in all of their lives.
implant following fertilisation. Maybe, if the embryo is the 'wrong' sex They had known each other for seven years. Although they had for her circumstances, her womb does not let it implant (Scene 16).
always found each other's partner sexually attractive, no infidelity had ever occurred. The first couple, despite five years of unprotected sex, had no children. The second couple had two. In recent years, for different reasons, each couple's relationship had been foundering.
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The childless couple felt an undeniable emptiness in their lives, when his employers, dismayed by his lack of ambition and charisma, which they could not shake off despite all their money and travelling.
moved him sideways to a lower-profile position. Now, increasingly When they first met, they had seemed perfect for each other. He was frustrated by her partner's mundane job, she was often critical of his tall, muscular, ambitious, witty and dominating. She was effervescent, inability to improve their situation. For his part, having pushed his open and liberated, always dressing provocatively. Women surrounded partner into full-time motherhood, he now found her demure quietness him wherever he went and he could have had a new sex partner every dull and unattractive.
week if he had wished --- and he did . . . often. She, also, was much Recently, each couple had sought to bolster their flagging sexual sought after. Once regarded as an item, they gained great kudos from interest with pornography. But over the weeks the impact of the being each other's partner and, despite their earlier promiscuities, had images had worn off. Then, when the four of them started to watch settled into a serious relationship.
films together, excitement had been briefly rekindled. Even that Four years later, after a year of unprotected sex, they had been source of excitement, though, had eventually begun to wane --- until screened for infertility but there was no clear indication that either was tonight. The idea for the 'game' they were about to play had been infertile. She was ovulating, had no blocked tubes and seemed normal.
seeded by a film showing partner-swapping. In the video they had just He was producing rather large numbers of sperm, but otherwise also watched, the men had thrown their car keys into a pile in the centre of seemed normal.
the room. The women chose a key, then paired off with the owner.
At first, they responded to their problem with intense sexual Soon the room was full of naked, copulating bodies.
activity, but after a further year of failure they gradually lost interest in It was the childless woman who with typical brashness had routine sex. Secretly, they both hoped their combined failure was the suggested they should try swapping. At first they all treated the other's fault, and this thought had led them to be critical of each other's suggestion as a joke, but as they became increasingly drunk they sexuality. She now saw his size and power as futile, boorish and began to talk about the possibility seriously. Soon they were selfish. He now saw her free conversation and provocative dress sense discussing the practicalities of the exercise rather than its desirability.
as public vulgarity, a front to hide her private frigidity.
They devised a card game, based on chance, not strategy, that The couple with children were very different. Both were attractive required the winner to remove an item of clothing. It was decreed that in their own way, but were much less extrovert than their friends.
the man who was the first to lose all his clothes should have sex with What little social kudos they had came from their association with the the woman who lost all hers first.
childless couple. The man was small, quiet, hard-working and reliable.
A run of wins left the smaller of the two men naked almost before The woman was demure, sympathetic and maternal. It had taken them the others had started. He was far from muscular and had relatively eight months of effort to conceive each of their two children but tiny testes, but his penis was larger than average. As he settled back to eventually it had happened and, as a parental team, they were watch the two women progressively expose more and more of their wonderful. When he was not working they were hardly ever out of femininity, he became increasingly proud of his erection. In the event, each other's company.
the cards were disappointing. In a late run, it was his partner who was Lately, however, increasing financial hardship had produced next to be naked. As she
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removed her knickers, she both surprised and excited the other couple from both women, did the trick. At the childless woman's suggestion, by revealing a triangle of pubic hair that struck them as incongruously he entered her from behind as she knelt down, bending forward over a large for such a demure woman. An immediate suggestion that the chair. Watching his partner have sex with another man excited the rules should be changed so that partners did not have sex with each childless man once more. He could scarcely wait for his friend to other was defeated by the alternative idea that they should still have withdraw before taking over.
sex, but in full view of the other couple.
They never repeated the exercise. A month later, both women Less exhibitionist than their friends, the 'lucky' couple found it discovered they were pregnant. They both assumed that the father of difficult to begin their performance. Laughter, self-consciousness and their children was the one who had already proved his fertility. But a rapidly dwindling erection almost ended the enterprise. Eventually, as they were quite wrong. The father of both was the one who had they lay together, it was the serious stroking and kissing of their bodies previously seemed infertile.
by the other couple that took them across the threshold from The couples were to stay together for another five years. For a embarrassment to intense sexual arousal. The intercourse they had, while, until after their babies were born, both relationships stabilised.
while still being caressed by the other couple, was the most exciting As the children grew, however, both relationships once more either had ever experienced.
deteriorated. Despite continuing to have unprotected sex, the extrovert Aroused almost to the point of spontaneous ejaculation by what he couple failed to produce another child and their mutual recriminations had just seen, the childless man suggested they should abandon the intensified. The man began an affair with the other woman. This time, cards. He should now have sex with the already naked and prostrate they kept it secret. Eventually, though, they confessed their infidelity, woman rather than with his own partner. Almost before anybody could both couples separated, and the unfaithful pair began to live together, comment, he was on top of her. The woman was to relive this moment along with the woman's three children.
many times over the next few years. The emotion she was always to Financially, the more extrovert man's life went from success to remember as she felt him, penis even larger than her partner's, slip success and he was able to maintain in some comfort not only both of gently into her was neither guilt nor excitement. It was instead an the children conceived that night but also his two stepchildren. By overwhelming sense of welcome. Excitement followed but was short-now he was convinced that he was infertile. However, his increasing lived. He had been so aroused that he ejaculated within seconds.
wealth and status and his continuing physical attractiveness made him All now naked, there followed a crude and drunken interlude of even more of a magnet to other women. He was often unfaithful. His about half an hour while they first waited for, then tried to help, the partner knew about his infidelities --- but she agreed to tolerate his first man to recover his erection. The childless woman, who had behaviour in exchange for a guarantee that, no matter what happened, perhaps wanted all this to happen more than any of them, began to fret she and her three children would be financially secure. In the years to that she would not have her turn. The pressure on the first man was come, he unknowingly sired two more children via his promiscuity.
intense but eventually the prospect of sex with a different woman, combined with the now totally abandoned sexual encouragement he received
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how could they each have another? The man could manage to have a third child only if he could find somebody who would raise that child without his help. His friend's partner offered just such a possibility.
n previous scenes, we have watched men and women going to great His own partner, on the other hand, could have a successful third child Ilen gths to hide their infidelity. If they failed, they suffered. Yet only with better financial support than he, her present partner, could here we meet four people who are openly unfaithful. Partner-swapping provide. Her friend's partner had potential, argued the woman's body.
is not particularly common in Western society, but it occurs often Not only was he wealthy, he was in a relationship that was looking enough to form a recognisable part of the rich mosaic of human increasingly unstable. Maybe, if she had a child which he thought sexuality --- a part, moreover, that promotes sperm warfare. A survey might be his, he would help her financially. Or she might even be able in the USA in the 1970s revealed that almost 5 per cent of couples had, to wrest him from her friend, his current partner. On top of all that, her at one time or another, openly swapped partners with another couple, body could see a benefit in conceiving via this man: not only was he though nearly 80 per cent of these had done so only once or twice.
very attractive to women, he had also achieved a higher status in life.
What circumstances can lead such behaviour to actually improve a Genetically, a child by this man could be far more successful than person's reproductive success?
another child by her current partner.
The answer lies in the way criteria for choosing partners and lovers Of course, some of the potential costs of infidelity were still there can change with time during the course of a person's life. Of course, for both couples --- risk of disease, for example. But most of the when open infidelity was first mooted in Scene 19, the conscious dangers usually associated with infidelity were minimised by the preoccupation of the four characters will have been with superficial nature of the situation. All of the characters knew and agreed to what matters. Excitement and fear will have been relished in equal was going to happen, so there was no need for deception and hence no proportions --- the excitement of imminent infidelity will have been risk of discovery. By agreeing to have sex in view of each other, they tempered by fears concerning their bodies and their sexual removed all possibility of deceit. Both relationships were already performances. Subconsciously, however, their bodies will have been unstable, and the risk of anybody being deserted by their partner wrestling with more important matters. Would the reproductive because of the night's events would have seemed no greater than benefits of their planned actions outweigh the reproductive costs?
before.
The more extrovert couple had an easy decision. After five years of All four, therefore, subconsciously computed that they might gain unprotected sex, they had failed to produce children. Each thought from a bout of partner-swapping. And as it turned out, all four were their partner might be sterile, and here was a golden opportunity to correct. This is easy to see for three of them. The childless woman have sex with someone of proven fertility. Both their conscious and conceived. Her partner sired two children in one night. The other their unconscious brains might well have reached the same conclusion.
woman struggled initially, but eventually wrested the first man from The other couple had a more difficult decision, though consciously his partner, benefited from his wealth, and successfully raised three neither would probably have appreciated their body's logic. Their children. Without that night of abandonment, she might have raised family was rapidly outgrowing their home and finances. Even two only two --- and those, with difficulty. Only for the other man is it less children might be too many for them to raise successfully without an easy to see the value of his decision. Of course, he thought he sired improvement in circumstances. So
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he had the stress of raising a third child (which wasn't his, though he clustered around his partner's egg. Multiple sperm entered the egg thought it was). Eventually, he was deserted by his partner for a man simultaneously and dense concentrations of deadly chemicals were with whom she had first been unfaithful with his consent. As a result, released by the surrounding sperm hordes. The egg always died. But he also lost day-to-day contact with the children, for whom he cared send his sperm in to battle, and he was virtually invincible. His huge very much.
armies would decimate those of lesser opponents and, having been At first sight, his may not seem much of a success story. However, reduced in number themselves, would then send the correct number of as a result of that night's events, the two children who really were his sperm on to seek an egg.
were raised more easily and given a better launch into life than he On that night of sexual revelry, the less extrovert man produced could ever have given them. He still saw them often and gave them small armies, rich in blockers (Scene 7) and family-planning sperm what help he could. From time to time they lived with him for short (Scene 16). His reproductive strategy in the past had centred on periods, and they probably never really felt abandoned by him. If he guarding his partner from other men. Then he could use long-term, hadn't agreed to that night's events, he might have struggled to raise his routine sex to produce children at long but measured intervals when two children. And it is worth bearing in mind that, as we saw in Scenes times were good (Scene 16). Twice, he had needed eight months of 9, 11 and 16, such a struggle can sometimes have dire consequences.
unprotected sex to impregnate his partner. Even so, he would probably He might still eventually have been deserted by his partner, but in less have produced more children with his partner had he been more favourable circumstances. In particular, he might well have been less successful socially and financially. But in sperm warfare he was fortunate in the man who took his place in raising his children. Indeed, doomed to failure.
a key factor in the less extrovert man's success was that his friend did We discuss the existence of these two male types in Scene 35. We turn out to be a good stepfather. Of course, in part this may have been have already discussed why women sometimes respond to intercourse because he kept a close eye on the way his children were being treated by ovulating on cue (Scene 15) and why men respond to the sight of in their new situation. Mostly, however, it was because his ex-partner another couple having intercourse by becoming aroused and erect tolerated her new partner's infidelities. The latter was not by nature (Scene 9). These sexual responses were important factors in monogamous, but as long as he could be promiscuous he was happy to determining the outcome of the scene we have just witnessed. Perhaps help support her children. In effect, she traded his sexual freedom for a most important of all were the women's decisions to drop the usual guarantee that, no matter what happened, she and her three children coyness and secrecy that one, if not the other, would usually have would be financially protected.
retained, in favour of blatant and open infidelity. The unconscious All four gained from their night of sexual abandonment. But if motivation was the same for both of them. In their lifetime of things had turned out differently, and the previously childless man had shopping around for genes, they had each reached a stage when it was failed to win those two sperm battles, he would have lost out in a big worth trying someone new. As things turned out, theirs was a fair way. But, in fact, he was most unlikely to lose. He was a sperm wars exchange.
specialist, producing too many sperm. His friend was not, producing too few. Put the specialist in a monogamous situation and he was sub-fertile. After each insemination, huge numbers of his killers and egg-getters
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they could. And, as he drove, he had high hopes that today might mark the beginning of that affair.
Their business completed by mid-day, they decided to enjoy their freedom and the weather and to buy food and drink for a picnic. As SCENE 20
they drove into the country, passing field after field and wood after wood, she began to tease him. He was looking for somewhere Tasteful Display
secluded. She pretended not to realise and kept pointing out roadside verges or open fields near houses --- suitable for a picnic, but nothing By chance, their business trip coincided with the first hot day of else. Eventually, growing hungry, she decided she had teased him summer. The man had engineered the visit and they had been looking long enough. When he pointed out a small, secluded field, she forward to it for days. The weather was a real bonus.
accepted. Rows of freshly mown hay lay silver-green in the intense The woman had made a point of telling her partner where she was sunlight. He thought it looked perfect. She said it would do.
going and who she was going with. The last thing she wanted was to There was a large blanket in the car which they took and stretched make him suspicious. He was steady and reliable, both as a partner out in the corner of the field, part in dappled shade, at her request, and and as father to their two children, and she didn't want to lose him.
part in sun, at his. She was wearing a loose cotton dress and, knowing But, at the same time, she felt that she needed some excitement in her from the minute she got up in the morning she could engineer a life, and the man with her in the car could be it. He was a challenge, picnic, had brought a straw hat with her. He had started the day and he was attractive. She enjoyed teasing and flirting with him --- she wearing a suit and tie but within minutes of finishing their business even enjoyed arguing with him, which she did often.
meeting he had taken off his jacket and unbuttoned his collar. Even In contrast, the man had not bothered to tell his partner. It was not so, sitting there in the field in the heat he looked uncomfortable.
that unusual for him to go on such a journey or to take somebody with Knowing he was no stranger to nude sunbathing, she began to tease him. In fact, his partner no longer seemed to care what he did and him again, challenging herself to persuade him to take off his clothes.
appeared to welcome his days away. Secretly, he had decided she was The denouement came when she accused him of having something to having an affair. Not that it bothered him much --- in fact, he would hide.
almost have welcomed her infidelity, taking it as a licence to pursue Interpreting her teasing as a sexual overture, he was becoming infidelity himself.
aroused. Even so, he felt slightly silly as he removed his shoes and As they drove the two hours to their destination, he pondered their socks and even sillier when he stood up, took off his shirt, then in one budding relationship. After a year of platonic acquaintance, they knew movement pushed down his trousers and pants. Now naked, he stood a lot about each other. Enough, for example, to know that there was no there, penis half erect, wondering what he should do next. Avoiding way they could live together. Yet, somehow, even this incompatibility any reaction to his nakedness, she simply commented that he would was attractive. Recently, they had begun to touch each other as they be much more comfortable now and busied herself with the picnic.
spoke. On a few occasions, like today, they had even greeted each Still standing, he suggested that she, too, should take off her clothes.
other with a friendly kiss. He was sure they had an unspoken She shook her head, saying that she would burn, even in dappled understanding. One day they would have a proper affair, snatching and shade.
engineering sex when
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She took it in her hand, kissed its tip, and spoke to it softly, stroking it behaviour is simply the result of the generation of sexual excitement as if it were a cat. After a few moments, she took it into her mouth and and its gratification. As we have already discussed (Scene 10), slowly worked backwards and forwards. He tasted clean and waxy.
however, any behaviour that has evolved to be sexually exciting After twenty seconds or so, she took it out, formed a tunnel with her usually has repercussions in terms of reproductive success. This is as hand, and began very slowly to pump. Then she let go, saying she true for a man ejaculating in a woman's presence as it is for any other wanted to watch him finish himself off.
sexually exciting piece of behaviour.
Convinced by now that they weren't going to have intercourse, he In effect, a man seeks or allows oral sex as a display of health or needed little encouragement. If he didn't ejaculate soon, he would go fidelity. He ejaculates openly as a display of health and potency. From crazy. As she watched him pump, her gaze switched from his penis to time to time, the benefits of such display outweigh any cost. The man his face and back again. She watched intently, so as not to miss the in the scene, for example, gained from ejaculating in front of his moment. He came quickly, turning sideways so as not to spray her. The potential lover. Moreover, he gained more than he would have done first two spurts shot out so fast she couldn't see where they went. Then from saving those sperm for inseminating his partner later in the day she saw the final three spurts emerge more slowly and drip on to the (Scene 10).
grass in front of them. After he had worked out the last drop with his The sperm he ejaculated were shed, not wasted: the consequences hand, he too sank back on his haunches.
for his next ejaculate were the same as if he had simply masturbated Almost immediately it was over, he felt depressed and a little (Scene 12). Whether a man stimulates himself or whether he is cheated. He had wanted to come inside her, not in mid-air. For her part, stimulated by a woman, the number of sperm he sheds is the same.
she felt relieved that his urgency was now gone. She also felt a genuine Only when he has intercourse are the numbers different. Often, of tenderness for his body and, she had to admit it, some pleasure at the course, as in this scene, a man does not know until the last minute way she had made him dance when she pulled his strings.
whether he is going to have intercourse or ejaculate in mid-air. That the two ejaculates are different shows how quickly a man can adjust his ejaculate (Scene 4).
umans are not the only mammals of which the female smells, After shedding sperm, the man in Scene 20 had an even younger H licks or sucks the male's penis as part of courtship. Monkeys and more killer-rich ejaculate waiting in his tubes than he had before.
and apes do so often. So do rats, dogs and many others. Usually, such If the woman did now change her mind and allow him to inseminate intimate activity follows through to intercourse, but not always.
her later anyway, his new sperm army would be as good as, if not Sometimes (as in this scene --- which involves the same couple as in better than, the one he would have introduced earlier. The problem Scenes 10 and 26) the male responds by ejaculating in mid-air, rather comes when he returns home to his partner. His waiting ejaculate is than in the female. Is this a mistake --- some error in male or female now right for inseminating a mistress (Scene 13), not for routine sex programming? Or is it possible that when a male ejaculates without with a partner (Scene 12) --- or at least, not a faithful partner. The intercourse in the presence of a female they both increase their point is, however, that if his partner really is faithful, he can afford to reproductive success? Of course, most people would probably argue introduce into her body the occasional sub-optimal ejaculate. If she is that such
not, he cannot.
Men's bodies seem to work to the following rule: 'If I have 160
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had the opportunity to be unfaithful, then while I was away so too has equation. Subconsciously, she was not after sperm, but information.
my partner.' In the case of the man in the scene, this possibility was in First, there was his body. She had never seen him naked but, when fact a reality --- his partner had been unfaithful in his absence (Scene she did, she found his body as good as she had expected. Like most 10). So, when he inseminated her later that day, he had the inseminate men, of course, he assumed her main interest would be in the size of he needed. It was the young, aggressive and fertile inseminate his penis and muscles. What in fact interested her most in his appropriate to immediate sperm warfare, not the defensive, low-nakedness were his buttocks. The best indication of a man's health and fertility sort appropriate to routine sex. Once a man enters a phase of hormones is the ratio between his waist and buttocks. Ideally, a tape infidelity, therefore, similar ejaculates become appropriate for both his round his waist should measure nearly the same (about 90 per cent or partner and his lover. Having sex with two women does not prevent so) as a tape around his hips and buttocks. Firm, tight buttocks are a him from producing an ejaculate suitable for both --- no matter how good, though of course not perfect, indication of his health and often he has sex with either.
fertility.
So the man lost little, if anything, by ejaculating on to the grass ---
Next, there was his ability to gain an erection and ejaculate. Not except, of course, that ejaculating on to grass does not fertilise eggs.
until he began to kiss her after the incident with the car was her body He might have missed the chance of making his companion pregnant.
finally reassured that he was not impotent.
But even that may not be as lost an opportunity as it might at first Finally, there was his sexual health. The best way to check for seem. If the woman didn't want him to inseminate her, there was a infection was to examine his penis closely. She looked closely, then good chance that she was not in her fertile phase anyway. Since, as we licked and tasted him. Absence of rashes and sores and a reasonably saw in Scene 6, women are most likely to have sex with a lover during pleasant taste are a good sign of health, and her body knew this. The their fertile phase, a man has little to lose reproductively by leaving his ejaculate also gives away a great deal. A liquid, whitish ejaculate with mistress to decide when they should have sex.
a normal smell is a sign of health, whereas discoloration, particularly The man's strategy was to be patient now in the hope of future bright yellow or orange, or a bad smell, are often signs of infection.
rewards. In order for this strategy to pay off, his behaviour in the field So, too, are traces of blood.
today needed to increase his chances of gaining those future rewards.
In those few minutes the woman collected an abundance of He didn't know it, but as the pair of them prepared for their picnic, his information about the man, much of which would have been hidden prospects were on a knife's edge.
from her if she had simply had sex with him. As it happened, he The woman's body did not want his partnership, only his genes. In passed all of the tests.
this new man her body saw qualities that would suit her next child, if It is not only during her first encounter with a potential lover that a she were to have one. She would commit herself to having his child woman might gain from tasting a man's penis. From time to time, she only if these qualities outweighed the potential costs of infidelity. The may also gain from doing so during routine sex. Partners who were equation was finely balanced, not least because her potential lover had once healthy may become diseased. A woman benefits from being so far given no evidence of sexual potency. From her body's point of alerted to this change by seeing, smelling or tasting an unsavoury view, this afternoon was to be a test of his potential --- the final penis. She can also use oral sex to taste or smell infidelity (as can a collection of facts, the final balancing of the man --- Scene 10). Traces of a lover can remain on a man's penis for hours. Not only a man's
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partner but also his mistress can gain from oral sex. The latter will placing his penis in his partner's mouth or displaying his ejaculate too expect to find traces of her lover's partner on his penis; if she can also soon after being unfaithful. It follows that a woman's best strategy is taste her vagina, she can either be reassured that the other woman is occasionally to pick her own moment to give oral sex, or to stimulate healthy or be alerted that she is not.
open ejaculation. The more unexpected she can make those moments, There are a number of other ways in which a woman might gain the more information she is likely to collect.
from making a man display his ejaculate --- again, not only on her first encounter with a potential lover, but also from time to time as part of routine sex. As well as seeing and smelling his ejaculate, she can be alerted to possible disease by its taste. She should also scrutinise more SCENE 21
closely a partner who unexpectedly cannot ejaculate or who produces a An Abandoned Selection?
small ejaculate. Of course, if it is several days since they last had routine intercourse, the explanation may simply be that he has masturbated recently. Even discovering this is useful to her (Scene 13), The girl was wearing only a bikini and a thin see-through wrap-but, much more importantly, the explanation may be that he has around, but she was still hot. She fanned her face with her hand. The recently been unfaithful. The time scale for scrutiny is rather short, but young man next to her in the back seat of the car saw her action.
not so short that a woman cannot sometimes catch her partner out. For Nodding and smiling, he mimicked her hand movement in unspoken example, many men would have difficulty ejaculating in front of their agreement. She smiled back, wishing he could speak her language partner in the first hour after inseminating a mistress. Moreover, the better.
volume of their ejaculate will not return to normal for twelve hours Under a clear blue sky, the road ahead of them snaked up and round after infidelity.
the side of a hill. The sea was to their left, mountains to their right. She Despite this scrutiny, a man can still gain from deliberately shouted her intentions to the driver and his male companion in front, ejaculating in front of his partner from time to time. Choosing each then stood up, poking her head and shoulders through the sun roof.
occasion carefully so as to display a good ejaculate can be a powerful Despite its heat, the air cooled her as it rushed past. A short distance way to advertise his continuing good health. He can also reassure, or ahead, just disappearing around the first corner, was a similar car mislead, his partner over whether he has recently been unfaithful. It is containing the other three members of their group. The only other testimony to the success of this male strategy that most women female, a woman a few years older than herself, was also standing.
probably would not notice a smaller ejaculate than usual. This is The girl tried to attract her attention, but the sound of the wind precisely because most men do not display their ejaculate very often drowned her shouts.
--- and when they do, they pick their moment. So most women never Soon, both cars pulled up in a lay-by under overhanging trees. As get a chance to learn the subtleties of how their partner's ejaculate the noise of the engines died, it was replaced by the cicadas' loud normally varies. Consequently, they never get a chance to learn how to singing. The seven people gathered together their bags, parasols, recognise a departure from normality. Any man who does display his beach mats and towels, then set off along a tree-lined path, easy and ejaculate too often may find it more difficult to hide ill-health or relaxed in each other's company. Six of them had been travelling infidelity if he ever needs to. In particular, he should avoid together for weeks, seeing as much of the 164
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continent as they could, as cheaply as they could. Since arriving at the outcrop into a small sandy cove. Ensconced under a parasol, stretched coast a week earlier, their days had been spent on secluded beaches.
out in the shade were two naked women. Nearby, their naked children Their nights had been spent at beach bars, intoxicated by cheap were playing with a beach ball. A short distance out to sea a small alcohol, cheap drugs and good company. It was on such an evening, boat-load of tourists travelled slowly past. At the top of the beach, two nights ago, that they had met the young stranger who was now almost hidden in the entrance to a small cave, was an old man.
with them.
Wearing nothing except a straw hat, he was perched on a folding chair.
After a few minutes' walk, they arrived at the top of a high cliff One hand held a walking stick, the other rested on his genitals. He was overlooking sand and sea. Pausing, they took in the view, each watching the naked women closely.
casually putting an arm round the person next to them. The girl had The group clambered over more rocks and crossed two more coves, one arm round the woman's waist, her other round the stranger's. In both deserted, before entering a third, more secluded, one. An sudden exhilaration, she kissed first the woman then the man, then ran overhanging cliff face shielded the beach from above, and a curve in forward urging the others to follow. Once over the brow of the cliff, the seaward rocks hid it from boat-bound voyeurs. The group threw they had to make their way down a long, zigzag path, steep and down their towels and bags and immediately removed their scanty obscure enough to deter the casual holidaymaker. They were lucky.
clothes. The local man was no stranger to nudity and had welcomed They had inside information --- the young stranger had been born in this chance to take his new friends to the nudist beach. They seemed the area. Although he had travelled the world, every summer he came to share his relaxed attitude to nakedness and were obviously quite back to his beloved coast.
used to each other's bodies. What he did not know was that at one The path was very narrow. The girl, in front, did not notice the four time or another since coming on holiday, both women had had sex young men walking up the path until she turned the corner and nearly with each of the men, as well as with each other.
bumped into them. They exchanged greetings, but she was Almost within seconds of removing their clothes they were all concentrating so hard on not falling off the cliff that she failed to cooling off in the sea. The younger girl began some horseplay with notice the close interest they took in her and the rest of her group.
two of the men, splashing them, jumping on their backs, and grabbing They were to change her life in a way she could never have guessed ---
at their genitals. They responded by pushing her under the water, then but even had she known, she might not have cared. Elated by her swimming strongly out to sea. She began to follow, but soon turned surroundings and excited at the afternoon's prospects, she was feeling and swam back to the beach.
particularly frisky.
One by one, they came out of the water. Soon, they were all First to arrive on the beach, the girl took off her sandals and ran stretched out naked in the sun, passing around a bottle of wine and the across the sand to the water's edge, soon to be joined by the others.
first of that afternoon's joints. There was little real conversation, just a After allowing the water to lap around their feet for a few moments relaxed, drug-induced sense of well-being. The girl was lying with the the group moved on, following their local friend. They walked other woman, resting her head on the other's stomach. As they talked, purposefully along the deserted beach towards tall rocks, jutting out drank and smoked, they occasionally touched and stroked those bits of into the sea. As they drew nearer, they could see that the rocks had each other's bodies that they could reach without effort.
'nudista solo' crudely aerosolled in white paint, high up on their The women stayed like this for nearly an hour, sometimes surface.
The six friends and their guide clambered over the first 166
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talking, sometimes drifting in and out of sleep. After a while, the girl was disappointed when, just as she was building to a climax, the began to feel restless. As she looked around, she could see that some stranger ejaculated inside her too soon and began to fade.
of the men were also asleep. Sitting up and stretching, she nudged the Having been left high on a plateau of sexual excitement, she other woman and pointed to the young stranger next to them. Fast moved off him and in one continuous movement sat astride the man asleep, his arms and legs were gently twitching. So too was his very lying next to her. Hardly had he penetrated her than she climaxed. He erect penis. The girl whispered in her friend's ear. They smiled in carried on thrusting, but once she stopped cooperating after her anticipation, then went across on hands and knees to the man's side.
orgasm his movements became awkward. Thrusting as best he could, There, the girl watched and waited while the woman knelt by his he was finding it difficult to build up to ejaculation. He was not head and bent forward to kiss him on the lips. He jumped, then helped by the man next to them who, waiting for his turn, complained jumped again when the girl kissed his genitals. As the two women he was taking too long. He was helped even less when the man put kissed and stroked his body, every part of him relaxed --- except one.
his hands round the girl's waist and tickled her ribs, making her And that grew even harder. After a few minutes, the girl sat astride laugh. Concentrating hard, his thrusting eventually brought him to the his groin, massaging his body with her hands and gently massaging brink of ejaculation. Then, at the very last moment, he felt the girl his penis with her vaginal lips.
being pushed to one side and his penis slipping out of her vagina. Still By this time, the other four men were awake. At first, they feigned laughing, she fell on to her back on the sand and the other man an air of casual disinterest. Watching the women's antics only collapsed on top of her.
intermittently, they resumed their smoking and drinking, passing an The prostrate man was more than a little irritated. After all his hard occasional good-humoured comment on the stranger's progress.
work, all he had managed was to ejaculate on to his stomach. His Eventually, however, their erections betrayed their true feelings.
annoyance grew when, with the girl still laughing, the man who had The girl, still sitting astride her prey, finally initiated intercourse spoiled his fun entered her and began a long but gentle intercourse.
with him. No stranger to this position, she slowly but expertly rose He did his best to interfere in return, but the missionary position and fell as if impaled on his erect penis. As she did so, her friend bent adopted by his usurper allowed him to resist being pushed off, further forward to lick his nipples, resting one of her breasts on his especially once the girl wrapped her legs around him.
face in the process. Her movement lifted her bottom in the air as if in While the girl's third lover in ten minutes was slowly building to display to the man sitting behind her. Throwing down his cigarette, he his climax, the events around her became a blur, even after she had proclaimed he could stand it no longer. He moved quickly across to stopped laughing. She dimly registered the previous man's attempts to the woman and, with the minimum of foreplay, entered her from interfere --- and the fact that the other woman was still on all fours behind. For a while, the remaining three men watched, then moved having sex with the same man. The one man who had not yet had closer to await their turn.
intercourse seemed to be urging him to get off. He was refusing, Because of their positions, the two women were facing each other.
saying he hadn't finished. Briefly, voices became raised. When her If they had bent forward, they could have kissed. But they didn't.
most recent lover had eventually inseminated her and removed Instead, as intercourse proceeded, they looked into each other's eyes, himself, the last, frustrated, man left the other couple and moved over sharing each other's mounting sensations. The girl to her. She protested a little as he lay down on top of her and opened her
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legs, but he took no notice. Once inside her he was vigorous to the As she and the woman conversed, the girl's hands idly played with point of aggressive. Resigned to her situation, the girl at first didn't the young man's penis. When eventually it hardened she impaled mind his thrusting, for she was very wet with the previous men's herself. It was a sense of completeness, not excitement, that she felt semen. But intercourse seemed to last an eternity and, bit by bit, she when he was inside her. They stayed like that for about ten minutes felt her vagina becoming drier. It was a relief when he ejaculated and
--- she conversing with the woman, he lying on his back and removed himself.
smoking. All the time, despite their other activities, their bodies were Orgy temporarily over, the group relaxed and returned to their making subliminal movements, producing a tiny, gentle, but drinking and smoking. One after another, they went in and out of the continuous thrusting of his penis inside her. This sensation was just sea, alternating short spells of swimming with longer spells of what she wanted. Then, suddenly and unexpectedly, her feelings sunbathing, drinking and smoking. At one point, the older woman changed --- she noticed the tingle of a potential orgasm. She invited the local man to have sex with her, which he did. But the responded first by rocking on his penis more vigorously, then by group's orgiastic activity did not really resume for another hour ---
reaching down to massage her clitoris. He, in his turn, gradually when the girl announced she wanted the man who had not yet had sex increased his thrusting. At first, as sensations mounted, she closed with her. This triggered the rest to claim the same favour from the her eyes. Then, for the second time that afternoon she stared into the other woman.
eyes of the woman in front of her. The woman urged her on, then at This time round, however, the frenetic atmosphere had gone. Over just the right moment bent forward and began kissing her thigh. The the next three hours or so, all five men entered both women and all girl climaxed, and within seconds so did the man.
eventually inseminated them. But no intercourse was rushed; An hour later, when the sun disappeared behind the cliff, the group thrusting, when it occurred, was long and slow; on occasion, a man began the long haul back up. They were all tired, both from their and a woman would stay just coupled together, without thrusting, sexual exertions and from their various drugs. But adrenaline fired while they talked, smoked or drank. Often, the men removed them into activity when they arrived back at the lay-by to find that themselves without ejaculating, only to resume some time later with their cars had gone. What they didn't know was that they had been whichever female next became free and willing. There was almost stolen by the lads who had watched them arrive at the beach, hours continuous sexual activity, but the urgency had evaporated.
earlier.
Gradually, the intervals between coupling grew longer as, one by one, The loss of their transport in such a backwater was devastating.
the men ejaculated their last and lost interest in further penetration.
The cars had been their travelling homes and had contained all their The last to inseminate the girl was the local man. Thirty minutes luggage, as well as their passports and money. It took an hour to walk previously, one of the others had faded inside her without ejaculating.
to the nearest village, and then another hour of phone calls by their She had gone for a swim, then returned to the beach to enjoy the last local friend to alert the police and arrange a lift back to the next of the day's sun. It was still hot. Despite all of the afternoon's activity, town.
her vagina was still hungry. Without a penis, it felt empty. She Without their passports they had immediate trouble with the local walked over to the prostrate local and sat astride his stomach, facing bureaucracy, not least when they tried to obtain money. In the end away from him so that she could talk to her female friend. Drink and they had to borrow some cash from their local friend, just enough to joints were still being passed around, but less enthusiastically than spend the next two days hitch-hiking to the nearest city where they before.
could get new passports. They
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snatched sleep when and where they could. It was while they were adolescents, in addition to those that may occur spontaneously.
all cramped in the back of a lorry that the woman first noticed how Taken as a whole, extreme orgiastic behaviour is relatively unusually withdrawn the girl had become. When pressed, she uncommon, but in a less extreme form equivalent behaviour is not explained that her contraceptive pills had been in the luggage but so unusual.
that everybody had been so preoccupied with passports that she At one extreme is an orgy in which a woman, as in Scene 21, hadn't liked to mention it. The woman had no such problem herself: allows several men to inseminate her not only within a short length as they all knew, she had been having unprotected sex with many of time but also in each other's presence. At the other extreme is different men for ten years now and was totally convinced of her conventional infidelity in which a woman allows two men to infertility. But she immediately worried for her friend. They planned inseminate her over a slightly longer time span and not in each to do something about it in the city, but the time taken to get their other's presence. At both extremes, what the woman is doing is passports and deal with the bureaucracy, the language problems and essentially the same. Having selected two or more men (by the their tiredness made them decide to wait until they were back on the criteria we discussed in Scene 18) as suitable genetic fathers for her coast.
next child, she calls their sperm to battle. This ensures that her child As soon as they returned, the girl recruited the help of the local will inherit not only all the other qualities she has selected, but also man, the first and last to inseminate her on the beach four days the genes for the production of a competitive ejaculate. As long as earlier. It was a further day before she managed to get hold of a new this latter benefit outweighs any associated costs, such as a greater packet of pills. By then, the two cars but not the luggage had been risk of disease from having sex with two men instead of one, she recovered by the police --- and the girl was pregnant. The sperm war will gain from her behaviour.
between five different armies that had taken place inside her had At first sight it might seem that such a strategy only works if the produced a winner.
woman conceives a son. After all, a daughter will not produce an ejaculate, competitive or not. And to some extent this is correct ---
the sex of the child does make some difference to the woman's gain.
n Scenes 18 to 20 we discussed the problems women face in But not much, because both sons and daughters will inherit genes, to selecting a mate. But in the scene we have just witnessed the two be passed on to their grandsons, great-grandsons and so on, for all I women seem to give up all attempt at mate choice in favour of the qualities the woman has selected in the man who wins the war ---
wanton promiscuity. What circumstances could favour such including his genes for a competitive ejaculate. The only bonus from abandoned behaviour from the point of view of a woman's having a son is that the woman will have produced a male reproductive success, and what are the repercussions likely to be?
descendant with a competitive ejaculate in the very next generation.
In most societies, relatively few people take part in an orgy in In pursuing this strategy, a woman encounters a major problem their lifetime, perhaps no more than 1 per cent according to a recent
--- the men she selects to compete will rarely be given an equal British survey of nearly four thousand women. Occasionally, chance to demonstrate their prowess at sperm warfare, because however, such behaviour is more common. The classic examples, of when the time interval between inseminations is relatively long, the course, are historical --- for instance, the well documented orgies of outcome of that warfare is determined more by when she ovulates ancient Rome. Anthropologically, there are some societies that have than by the competitiveness of the two armies. In Scene 6 we saw ritualised orgies, particularly for
that if the woman's partner had
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inseminated her just a few hours earlier, he would have won rather occasion women do give priority to ejaculate competitiveness.
than lost the war. Not because his army would have been any more or In Scene 21 the two women allowed, even encouraged, two or less competitive, but simply because his sudden flood of new sperm three different men to inseminate them within minutes. They also would have reached the egg just in time, rather than just too late.
allowed five different men to inseminate them within a few hours.
The closer together in time a woman can procure ejaculates from These women had selected five potential fathers for their children.
different men, the better she tests their ejaculates' competitiveness.
Now, by having sex with all five in such a short space of time, they The ultimate would be if two inseminates could be mixed together in were giving as much priority as they could to the competitiveness of the seminal pool before any sperm were allowed to leave. Then the the men's ejaculates.
ejaculates would have exactly equal opportunities, and victory would At first glance it might seem strange, from the viewpoint of go to the more competitive. But this could only happen if a woman reproductive success, that the woman in the scene who suspected she had two men's penises in her vagina at the same time and both was infertile nevertheless pursued a sperm warfare strategy just as ejaculated simultaneously. Maybe this does sometimes happen --- but enthusiastically as the younger girl. We might have expected that she not often enough to be discussed seriously.
had little to gain from putting ejaculates in competition. We might Interestingly, this problem of timing can be turned to a woman's also have expected that, knowing her suspicions, the men would be advantage. By adjusting the interval between inseminations by less interested in inseminating her than the girl. There was some different men, she can bias the competition to favour either ejaculate indication of the latter, but not much. And what difference there was competitiveness or the men's other qualities. Essentially, the closer could have been due simply to the girl being the younger of the two together she allows different men to inseminate her, the more weight (Scene 18). But the fact remains that on the whole everybody behaved she gives to the competitiveness of their ejaculates; the further apart, as if the woman was fertile, including the woman herself. Why?
the more weight she gives to their other qualities (especially if her The explanation is that nobody really knew whether the woman body times ovulation to favour the man whose qualities she prefers).
was infertile or not. She may have been, of course -one of the costs of Always, no matter how much she biases the competition in favour of having many sexual partners is a greater risk of contracting a sexually one male, another male can still win if his ejaculate is sufficiently transmitted disease, and one of the costs of a sexually transmitted competitive.
disease can be infertility (over 50 per cent of infertility cases are a Most often, when a woman pursues a sperm warfare strategy there result of such disease). Even so, despite her suspicions she may still are hours or even days between inseminations by different men. A have been fertile. Natural contraception (Scene 16) can make a British survey in the late 1980s showed that, in a lifetime (by the time woman appear to be infertile, maybe for years. But then, with the right they have had three thousand inseminations), about 80 per cent of man in the right circumstances, she may conceive.
women have had sex with two different men within five days; 69 per Whether the woman in the scene was infertile or not, her behaviour cent within one day; 13 per cent within an hour; and 1 per cent within will have been unaffected. All her body can do in its pursuit of thirty minutes. This suggests that, most often, women have clear reproductive success is assume that it really is just a question of being preferences based on the qualities discussed in Scene 18.
inseminated by the right man at the right time, and motivate her Nevertheless, the survey also suggests that on accordingly. Failure to conceive may even make 174
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a woman more likely to behave like the woman in the scene. Not changes her position after insemination, gravity will ensure that even many seemingly infertile women take this promiscuous route to a coagulated pool of semen will slide into a new position. Gravity conception, but some do. The woman's behaviour was just as much a will also ensure that her cervix continues to dangle into the pool, reflection of her body's pursuit of reproductive success as was that of maintaining contact between mucus and semen.
the fertile younger girl. So too was their bisexuality (Scene 31).
The main differences between coupling positions concern not their By taking part in an orgy, the two women were testing the men as influence on sperm retention but their influence on a couple's much as possible for differences in prowess at sperm warfare.
vigilance and vulnerability during intercourse. As one of the men in Although in large part this prowess will depend on the Scene 21 discovered, it is much easier to defend some positions than competitiveness of their ejaculates, a number of other factors will others. Moreover, the rear-entry position allows at least the man to be inevitably have influenced it --- some more than others.
more vigilant (Scene 34).
At first sight, for example, some intercourse positions might seem As far as sperm warfare is concerned, much more important than to be better for sperm retention than others --- in which case, males the position a man adopts for intercourse is the size of the sperm who manage to engineer the best position will have most sperm army he introduces into the woman. All of the men should have retained and thus most chance of winning the war. As it happens, introduced as many sperm as possible, as it should have been clear coupling position probably makes little difference to the eventual that warfare was imminent. Failure to inject large numbers would outcome. The seminal pool is deposited at the top of the vagina no have guaranteed a very poor performance.
matter which position is adopted. As we saw earlier, the pool stays However, the men did have a problem of strategy because there there as the penis is withdrawn, partly because it quickly coagulates were two women to inseminate. Whereas they should have put a around the cervix and partly because the vagina closes behind the larger army into their first woman because a chance to inseminate withdrawing penis, holding the pool in place. Only in the woman-on-their second woman could not be guaranteed, they should have top position is there a danger that part of the pool may be lost before avoided putting all of their sperm into the first because an opportunity sperm have had time to escape into the cervix. Even then, this is only to inseminate the second did seem likely. Precisely how many sperm a danger if the man withdraws too quickly after insemination.
they deployed will have depended in part on how long it was since Not only does coupling position have little influence on the they last had sex with each woman. Suppose it was forty-eight hours.
retention of the seminal pool, it also has little if any influence on the In such a circumstance, we should expect the average man to inject ability of sperm to leave the pool and proceed to the cervix. This is about 450 million sperm into the first woman and about 350 million because of the cervix's neat design. In the missionary position, for into the second. Not all men, however, are average.
example, the pool is deposited on the floor of the vagina with the If any of them had been a sperm war specialist, such as we met in cervix dipping into it (Scene 3). In the rear entry position, the cervix Scene 19, he would have had an immediate advantage. His large is either underneath the seminal pool, like a plughole in a sink, or it testes and huge sperm armies could have won the day. But there sticks up and hangs back down, like a coiled spring 'walking'
could have been another anatomical feature separating the men ---
downstairs. In the woman-on-top position, the cervix sticks out penis size, as well as testis size, could have made a difference.
sideways and hangs down into the pool. Moreover, no matter how a Most people see the human penis as functional rather than woman
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aesthetic. What most people don't realise is that there is more to its the girl first. It was because of this urgency that he ejaculated before function than simply delivering sperm to the top of the vagina. The the girl climaxed.
human penis is a very effective suction piston. Its shape is no Having succeeded in being first to inseminate the girl, what the accident, nor is the backward and forward thrusting that accompanies stranger should then have done, but didn't, was try to delay the next penetration. The penis has evolved its size and shape to remove any man as long as possible. That way, he would have given his army material that is already present in the woman's vagina. In humans, it is maximum time to leave the seminal pool and deploy itself. (The man particularly effective at removing any seminal pool or any as yet who was first to inseminate the older woman succeeded in doing just unejected flowback that may still be present. As the penis pushes that, despite triggering aggression.) The girl the stranger had forward, with any foreskin now pulled back off the glans on to the inseminated, having failed to climax while he was inside her, had shaft, the smooth, blunt tip of the glans pushes through any semen or other plans. She moved immediately from the stranger to the next mucus in the vagina. As it then begins to pull back, two things man.
happen: any material behind the vertical flanges at the back of the This man needed to get his penis inside the girl as quickly as glans gets dragged back down the vagina; and any material ahead of possible after the stranger had finished --- the sooner he could do this, the penis gets sucked further down the vagina, ready to be pushed the sooner he could pursue his own best strategy. He would, of through at the next forward thrust. Rapid backward and forward course, have been helped in his urgency by having watched the girl's thrusting during intercourse thus sucks out any seminal material from previous intercourse. Like most men, he would have found the sight a recent insemination. It may even help to remove some mucus and of a copulating couple sexually arousing (Scene 9). While he was blocker sperm out of the cervix. The longer and more rapid the waiting his turn his penis would have been erect and ready for action.
thrusting, the more the vagina is sucked clean of any previous Once inside her, in fact, he had a choice of strategy. He could have insemination. The larger the penis, the more effective the removal.
ejaculated really quickly, reducing as much as possible the stranger's As each man in Scene 21 tried to claim the prizes in front of him, head start, but the disadvantage of this option was that he would have success or failure depended in part on how he adjusted his behaviour shot his sperm straight into the stranger's seminal pool. So instead, he according to his position in the queue for each woman's body.
tried thrusting long and vigorously to remove that seminal pool first The stranger, the first to inseminate the younger girl, was in pole
--- and paid the price. Because of his delay, he was displaced and position --- the man with maximum opportunity to deploy his army relegated from the possibility of being second to not inseminating her and make life difficult for all who followed him. Even if he had a at all --- at least, not in the first round.
chance to inseminate the other woman later, his situation would be Just as it is better to be first to inseminate a woman than second, so less favourable. More than any of the other men, he had most to gain it is better to be second than third. Rather than wait his turn, from injecting more of his sperm now (say six hundred million), and therefore, the third man successfully engineered events to inseminate saving fewer (say two hundred million) for later. Because he was in the girl second, not third. At the risk of aggression from the man he pole position, he also needed to ejaculate quickly. Any delay might displaced, he moved in at just the right moment.
have given another male the chance to physically oust him and The fourth man then had no real alternative. Having been thwarted deposit his own sperm inside
in his attempt to be the second to inseminate the other woman, he had to settle with being the third to inseminate 178
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the girl. Her vagina already contained a seminal pool from two strategy. A man adds new, young killers and egg-getters to the back different men. His only option was to try to remove as much of that of his sperm queue at the rate of about twelve million per hour. In the pool as possible by long, vigorous thrusting. In this he succeeded, for five hours or so from first insemination to last on that abandoned the girl eventually felt her vagina becoming dry. So when he afternoon, each man will have mobilised a further sixty million ejaculated, his pool had the girl's vagina to itself. But the cost of young sperm. The longer each waited to make his final insemination removing the pool was that he lost time, and sperm from the first two of each woman, the more young sperm he would have available.
men had precious extra seconds to swim into her cervix and prepare In the second phase of activity, the men were trying to do two an ambush for the fourth man's army.
things. First, they were trying to remove as much of previous seminal It was because the best strategy for all the men was to try to pools as they could. They were going to inseminate few sperm inseminate each woman as soon as possible that the first round of anyway and so needed as easy an escape route into the cervix as sexual activity was frenetic and mildly aggressive. The second round, possible. Secondly, they were trying to be the last to inseminate each though, was quite different. As the afternoon wore on, both pace and female with as many young sperm as they could manage. Their tactics changed. Why?
problem was that if they inseminated either woman too soon, they It is important to realise that winning the first sperm battle inside would have fewer sperm and might in any case not be the last the girl did not necessarily guarantee claiming the prize of inseminator. If they waited too long, and the woman lost interest, fertilisation. It would do so only if she ovulated some time within the they might miss their chance altogether. Each man, once coupled to a following two days, during which her tract would be monopolised by woman, stayed in position as long as he could, thrusting as slowly those first few armies. If she ovulated not two but four or five days and for as long as possible, his body trying to judge the best time to after the orgy, the situation could be very different. So having done deposit his ejaculate. If he decided it was too soon, he would the best they could to win the first skirmishes, there was some value withdraw without ejaculating and wait until later. One by one, each to the men in a longer-term back-up strategy.
man made his decision and ejaculated his last.
By four or five days after the orgy, most of the sperm from the Consciously, of course, none of the men knew anything of what first skirmishes would be dead or dying. As time passed and their bodies were trying to do. As far as they were concerned, they ovulation still hadn't happened, the chances of fertilisation being simply felt different levels of excitement as one by one their achieved by a sperm introduced into the girl relatively late in the orgy opportunities came to enter and inseminate one or other woman.
improved considerably --- especially as these later sperm would also When their bodies judged rapid insemination to be best, they have been very young. They would be the last to lose their fertility experienced intense excitement and virtually spontaneous ejaculation inside the girl, which meant that if ovulation was delayed they would as soon as they were inside. When their bodies wanted to remove as have a good chance of claiming the egg. Of course, such late sperm many traces of the previous ejaculates as possible, they experienced would have to run the gauntlet of the earlier blockers and killers, but only just enough excitement for erection. They had to work very hard nevertheless they might just succeed.
at thrusting before their bodies finally gave them the tingle of loading The fact that each man divided more or less all of his initial store and the climax of ejaculation. During spells when it was best to wait of sperm between the two women during his first two inseminations a while, they temporarily lost interest and their would not prevent him from pursuing a back-up 180
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erections dwindled. Finally, when their bodies judged there was she was impaled on the stranger. These two climaxes actually meant nothing to be gained from introducing further sperm into either that, despite everything, she was still not giving all the men an equal woman, they lost interest totally.
chance at winning the sperm war inside her. She was still showing In this complex interplay of reactions and interactions, the man favouritism --- and the person she favoured was the stranger. How she with the best chance of victory would be the one whose body best implemented this favouritism won't be clear until Scene 25. For the timed his own inseminations, most interfered with other men's moment, the question of interest is why she preferred the stranger.
inseminations, and best judged when and when not to couple and to Xenophilia, a preference for strangers, is a powerful factor in a thrust. It would be this man that the women's bodies were seeking to woman's choice of mate, particularly as a target for infidelity. In this, father their child. The women's role, in trying to further their own women are typical primates. A female red monkey, for instance, was reproductive success, was to give each man maximum opportunity to observed allowing nearly every new male she met to inseminate her, prove himself --- and maximum chance to make mistakes. In the first while avoiding those she knew. Similarly, female macaques are round of activity, the women benefited most by allowing the men known to go out of their way to allow male newcomers to their troop their urgency and their thrusting. In the second round, they benefited to have sex with them. They do this even though such newcomers most by allowing the men to play musical chairs with their vaginas.
occupy a very low rank and are often victimised by the resident males.
In the second round, giving each man maximum opportunity to Of course, a female primate does not allow every male stranger to couple for long periods and to choose his moment, right or wrong, to inseminate her. The males still have to satisfy her other criteria for ejaculate for the last time was a shrewd method of selection. By mate choice. The point is that, if two males satisfy her criteria equally, allowing such lengthy coupling without any other overt sexual she is more likely to prefer the stranger. It is generally thought that activity, each woman was testing each man's ability to guard her what the female is doing here is taking precautions for the future. If vagina from other men, maintain an erection, and judge the best the new male eventually achieves a powerful position in the troop's moment to ejaculate --- all qualities she would like in sons and hierarchy, he is more likely to behave favourably towards her and her grandsons.
offspring if there is some chance he is the father.
During this long, slow, relaxed second phase, the women's bodies We cannot tell whether the girl in Scene 21 preferred the stranger will have experienced satisfaction simply at the feel of an erect penis simply because he was a stranger, or because he satisfied her criteria inside them. Not until each body decided it had given the men better than the men she already knew. Whatever the reason, she did maximum opportunity to show their prowess at sperm warfare would favour his sperm. First, she solicited sex from him both before and it have lost interest in simply coupling. During the short, frenetic first after any of the others. Secondly, she climaxed with him, and only phase, though, and once or twice during the second, their bodies will him, during the second phase of sexual activity. It might seem have looked for a different satisfaction. Instead of the quiet, gentle contradictory, therefore, that she climaxed not with him, but with the feel of a penis in their vaginas, they will have looked for the right man following him, during the first frenetic phase. But this is not in moment to begin a headlong rush into orgasm.
fact a contradiction --- as will become clear in Scene 25.
We do not know whether the older woman in the scene climaxed or not. The girl climaxed twice, once immediately she was entered by the second man and once right at the end, while 183
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coffee. On her way upstairs she took the phone off the hook. Quietly, she walked past her daughter's bedroom to her own, and bolted the CHAPTER EIGHT
door.
For a moment, she toyed with the idea of doing something different this time. Maybe she would look at the pictures she had secreted away, but The Climax
she couldn't quite remember where they were. Maybe she would put something in her vagina, but she couldn't think of anything quickly to of Influence
hand. Two or three years ago, she had used the handle of her partner's table tennis bat, but then had spent days imagining splinters and germs.
One day, she would buy herself a vibrator, if she could only think of somewhere to hide it. In the end she decided not to bother with anything and simply to follow her usual routine. Lying down on the SCENE 12
bed, she untied the belt of her dressing-gown so that it fell open. Her Finger on the Button
left hand went across to her right nipple. Her right hand went first to her mouth to collect saliva on her fingers, then down between her legs to her clitoris. She began to masturbate.
The woman said goodnight and closed the door to her young daughter's At first, she had difficulty focusing on her sensations. Other, random, bedroom. Going into her own room, she undressed, put on her non-sexual thoughts kept intruding. She tried several fantasies. Old dressing-gown and went downstairs to pour herself a coffee. Her favourites like being undressed, licked and caressed by another woman partner was out, the house was quiet, and she had at least two or being worked on by two men got her started, but didn't take her very wonderful, peaceful hours entirely to herself. She switched on the far. Then, after about five minutes of stimulation, a fantasy scene with television, picked up a magazine, and began idly flicking through the a friend and her partner finally started her sensations buzzing.
pages. Bliss.
Lubricant was spreading over her genitals and her fingers. Her Fifteen minutes passed, the television just a quiet noise in the breathing grew heavier and her heart began to race. The images had background. For all the attention she gave it, the magazine, too, might now gone and her focus was entirely on the sensation between her as well have been in the background. The occasional image or headline legs, under her moving fingers. As she massaged her clitoris more and caught her eye as she mechanically turned the pages, but essentially she more vigorously, first this way, then that, first with this rhythm, then was lost in her own thoughts --- like butterflies, dancing around in her with that, she felt the flush spreading over her chest, throat and face.
head, chasing each other in and out of her mind.
Her body tensed, poised on the brink. Just one more touch of her She wasn't sure which came first, the thought that she could, or the moist, swollen clitoris, and she was there. In silent climax, her thighs tingle between her legs that told her she should. But suddenly the idea and genitals spasmed, quickly at first, then at increasingly long was there. It would be nice, but could she be bothered? A few more intervals. Finally, she relaxed. It was done. Not bad, she thought.
minutes went by. She put down the magazine and stared at the fire.
Maybe 7 out of 10. After lying on the bed in post-climactic torpor for a Maybe she would. Even having decided, she waited until she had few
drunk the last of her now cool
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minutes, she stood up and re-belted her dressing-gown. Downstairs, When her partner returned from his night out, she was curled up on she put the phone back on the hook, poured herself a glass of milk and the settee, watching television. They exchanged pleasantries and after returned to the warmth of the sitting-room and the drone of the a while began to prepare for bed. As they lay down, she felt like television. Warming herself in front of the fire, she tried to remember intercourse. The thought of a penis inside her was mildly appealing.
the last time she had masturbated. It didn't happen that often, perhaps She tried a half-hearted flirtation but her partner responded with that only three or four times a month. Maybe the last time was about ten edge of irritability which by now she knew meant 'no chance'. Mentally days ago. When she did masturbate, the orgasm was usually fairly shrugging, she turned away from him and within minutes was asleep.
good. Certainly better than any her partner gave her. Occasionally, he could give her a 5 out of 10 with his hands, but with his penis it was usually about 2 out of 10. Actually, it was usually 0 out of 10 because she rarely climaxed during intercourse.
Masturbation had first added sexual colour to her life in her late f all aspects of human sexuality, the female orgasm has O
teens. At first, her orgasms were pathetic, the merest tingles. She probably been the most enigmatic. Women differ considerably scarcely knew when she had climaxed --- 1 out of 10 at the most. By in their experiences (Scene 36). Some never have an orgasm. Others the time she was twenty, however, she was often hitting 7.
have orgasms but never during intercourse. Yet others have an orgasm Her partner didn't know she masturbated. In fact, the only person nearly every time they have intercourse. Although clearly a sexual who did know was the woman who, with her partner, had just starred phenomenon, the female orgasm (unlike male ejaculation) is not in her fantasy. They had been friends for years, having met long necessary for conception. Women who never orgasm readily before they had each met their respective partners. In one drunken conceive.
conversation when they were twenty they had talked about Variability is one of the major problems in discussing the female masturbation. She had felt quite daring when she admitted that yes, orgasm. Every orgasm is a bit like every other orgasm, a bit like most she did 'sometimes', but was then totally deflated when her friend other orgasms, and a bit like no other orgasm. Moreover, no two announced that recently she had been masturbating virtually every women have precisely the same range, frequency and pattern of night. If she didn't, she claimed, it was difficult to sleep. This had orgasm. Women differ far more than men over when, how and how seemed particularly surprising because at the time her friend had been often they climax.
suffering from a prolonged bout of cystitis. The disease had invaded The five scenes in this chapter explore the ways in which orgasm her left kidney and was proving difficult to shift.
and --- equally importantly --- the avoidance of orgasm can enhance a woman's reproductive success. Each scene illustrates a situation which For a week after that conversation, she had attempted to emulate her friend and masturbated every night. However, two nights in a row will be very familiar to some women, and totally beyond the seemed to be her limit. Even then, the second night was hard work.
experience of others. In each situation, the function of orgasm will be Quickly, she had reverted to the once a week or so that came the same for all women who orgasm in that particular situation. But naturally.
when and how often they make use of that function will differ from woman to woman --- for very good reason. These differences between women are extremely interesting and in Scene 36 we shall discuss them in their own right. In these five scenes, though, we are concerned primarily with the way that orgasm has a different influence
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on a woman's reproductive success depending on the situation in the female orgasm, similar confusion has surrounded the role of the which it occurs.
clitoris. This organ develops in the female foetus from the same cells In some ways, it is difficult to see any function in a piece of as does the penis in the male foetus. All female mammals have a behaviour that is so variable and unpredictable --- which is why many clitoris, the tip (or 'bulb') of which contains many nerve endings and people have concluded that there is no function to orgasm other than is very sensitive --- more sensitive, in fact, than the tip of the penis.
that of giving pleasure. But as we have already seen, pleasure is not in In some monkeys, mainly those from South America, the clitoris is itself a function (Scene 10), but a by-product of function. Basically, as large if not larger than the penis. Often, it is also grooved and whenever the body is intent upon a particular course of action, it carries urine away from the female's body during urination, much as generates an urge to perform that action. As that urge is gratified, the the penis does in males. Such large clitorises could play an active role sensation generated is pleasure. The female orgasm is pleasurable in intercourse. They are not stimulated directly as a male thrusts, because it has a function. A woman feels like an orgasm whenever because the rear-entry position usual for primates means that the her body judges it will enhance her reproductive success. When her clitoris is forward of the point where the penis enters the vagina.
body judges it will reduce her reproductive success, she feels no such Nevertheless, because of its size, the clitoris is relatively easy for both urge. We begin, perhaps surprisingly, not with orgasms associated the male and the female to find and handle during intercourse. This is with intercourse (Scenes 24 to 26) but with orgasms generated by very different from the situation in most other monkeys, as well as in masturbation.
apes and humans, in which the clitoris is much smaller than the penis Nearly 80 per cent of women masturbate to orgasm at some stage and is often concealed in folds of skin.
in their lives and for most, like the woman in the scene, it is a routine Inevitably, a small clitoris is even less likely to be stimulated but not very frequent activity. The average rate of masturbation is during rear-entry intercourse. Even species which sometimes couple just under once per week --- slightly higher in the week or so before frontally (some monkeys, orang-utans, chimpanzees, gorillas and of ovulation, slightly lower at other times. A woman is also more likely course humans) do not necessarily stimulate the clitoris during to masturbate, and to masturbate more often, as she gets older, at intercourse. In fact, in such species the clitoris is so cunningly least up to the age of forty.
positioned that it actually seems designed not to be automatically The commonest method of female masturbation is to stimulate the stimulated by intercourse. Moreover, small, semi-or totally concealed clitoris, usually with just the fingers. Sometimes fingers are pushed clitorises are difficult for a male to find. The overriding impression, into the vagina but this is most often a complement to clitoral therefore, is that a small, concealed clitoris like that of a woman is stimulation, not a replacement. On occasion, a penis substitute may primarily a push-button for self-masturbation --- not an organ for be inserted in the vagina-again, as a complement to clitoral massage.
automatic involvement in intercourse (Scene 25).
In different cultures, objects as diverse as reindeer muscle, fruit, Women are not the only female mammals to masturbate. Many vegetables and commercial vibrators may be used as masturbation other primates have been seen stimulating their clitorises, either with aids. Women have even been known to recruit a cat or dog to lick their hands or by rubbing their vulvas on the ground or on branches.
their genitals during masturbation. Even more rarely, a woman may Chimpanzees have been seen inserting leafy twigs in their vaginas, allow a dog or some other animal to have intercourse, again as a form then brushing them against vertical
of masturbation.
Because of the confusion that has surrounded the function of 188
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objects, causing vibration. Nor is female masturbation only found in shedding of mucus, however, does more than simply enhance vaginal primates. Female porcupines have been seen to stand astride a stick lubrication. Because it is the oldest section of mucus that is ejected, it then run, causing the stick to vibrate and so stimulate the clitoris.
carries with it much of the cervical debris, including old blocker Anecdotes apart, we know relatively little about female sperm and disease organisms. This is an effective way of fighting masturbation and orgasm in species other than humans, though we do infection. In Scene 22 the woman's friend was driven to masturbate know that a female chimp will climax if someone massages her nightly during an episode of urinogenital infection.
clitoris. Moreover, once the chimp has discovered this substitute for Secondly, masturbation increases the acidity of the cervical mucus.
masturbation, she will periodically solicit clitoral massage by When a woman's cervix tents, the mucus inside stretches sideways.
presenting her rear-end to the person's hand. A cow also will climax New channels form through the mucus and at the same time material if someone massages her clitoris. A few minutes after massage from the top of the vagina is effectively 'sucked' into the tip of the begins, the cow's cervix is seen to gape open and move.
'elephant's trunk' of the cervix (Scene 3). The fluids at the top of the The same cervical movements are seen following clitoral vagina are very acidic, and as the cervix tents several times during the stimulation in humans. Film taken by a tiny camera placed inside the course of the climax, acid spreads through the mucus channels vagina of a masturbating woman shows that when she climaxes, her making the older portion of the cervical glacier more acidic than it cervix also gapes, dipping into the vagina at the same time. This was before. When the climax ends, part of this acidic mucus (plus any gaping and dipping is sometimes called 'tenting' and may happen disease organisms it contains) will be ejected back into the vagina as several times during the course of a single climax. Orgasmic tenting described above, but some will remain in the cervix. Neither sperm of the cervix, combined with climactic events inside the cervix itself, nor bacteria function properly in acidic mucus. For a while after are the key to the function of masturbation, for they have three main masturbation, therefore, and maybe even for days, sperm are less able consequences.
to swim through the mucus channels and disease organisms are less First, masturbation (via orgasmic tenting and so on) temporarily able to invade and multiply.
increases the flow of mucus from the cervix into the vagina. Mucus Thirdly, masturbation changes the strength of a woman's cervical flows slowly from the cervix all the time, but orgasm speeds it up ---
filter --- most often strengthening it. This is due not only to the almost equivalent to the difference between a 'runny' nose and increase in acidity we have just discussed but also to orgasm sneezing. When a woman becomes sexually aroused during triggering about half of the cervical crypts (Scene 4) to void their load masturbation, glands at the top of her cervix increase their rate of of sperm from the last insemination. This strengthens the filter mucus production, particularly if she climaxes. This quickly increases because these sperm, on re-entering the mucus, block new mucus the size of the mucus 'glacier' flowing through her cervix (Scene 3).
channels. Moreover, because many of these new blockers are high up At first, this is accommodated by the tenting cervix. Then, when in the cervix, their influence may last for days --- persisting until the tenting ceases, a part of the older section of the enlarged glacier is cervical glacier carries them down into the vagina. Sometimes, squeezed into the vagina, like toothpaste out of a tube. This flood of masturbation does not increase the strength of the filter. The critical mucus lines her vaginal walls, laying down a thick film of lubricant factor seems to be how many of her cervical crypts still contain ready for her next intercourse (Scene 3). This sperm.
The more crypts that contain sperm when a woman climaxes, 190
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the more are injected into the mucus channels and the stronger her resulting filter. Consequently, masturbation twenty-four hours after intercourse, when many crypts contain sperm, strengthens the filter more than masturbation forty-eight hours after intercourse, when fewer crypts contain sperm, and so on. As long as enough crypts still SCENE 23
contain sperm, a second masturbation a day or so after the first Dark Secret
strengthens the filter still further, but a third or fourth usually has no additional effect. Presumably, after the second masturbation, few if any crypts contain sperm. Similarly, if the crypts are empty of sperm The purple haze hanging in the air seemed quite natural, as the for other reasons (because, for example, it is more than eight days woman walked around the supermarket. She was alone. Ahead of her, since last intercourse or the couple used a cap or condom at the stretching for miles into the distance, the meat aisle was completely previous intercourse), masturbation again does not strengthen the empty of people. She went slowly past the beef, then even more slowly cervical filter.
past the chicken, idly wondering what to cook that evening. Just We have already noted the tendency for a woman to feel like beyond the bacon she stopped by a big display of grinning pigs' heads.
masturbating more often during the fertile phase of her cycle than at This section was refrigerated and should be ice cold. So why was she other times. This now makes sense --- this is precisely the time when so hot?
she has most to gain from preparing her vaginal lubricant and cervical For a while she stood with her legs apart, trying to let cool air filter for intercourse. All the same, she may still feel the urge to reach her hot, tingling groin. No sooner had she thought of taking off masturbate at other times. Of course, even during infertile phases she her knickers than it was done, and they were hanging over the front of still needs to combat disease, prepare her vagina for intercourse and her trolley. An attractive woman in shop assistant's uniform suddenly adjust her cervical filter. She also still needs to confuse her partner appeared in front of her. Picking the underwear off the trolley, the (Scenes 23 and 26).
assistant held them in the air.
Masturbation is not the only way a woman can combat disease and
'Why did you take these out of their pack?' she asked.
prepare for her next insemination via orgasm. There is another way,
'I didn't, they're mine. I was hot, so I took them off.'
not as common as masturbation, but experienced by a number of The assistant looked at the knickers, then pressed them to her face.
women. This source of orgasms is the subject of Scene 23.
'Mmm, I like the smell,' she said, her beautiful eyes peering at the woman over the flimsy garment which she still held over her nose and mouth.
'If they're yours, you won't be wearing anything under that skirt, will you?' she said. She breathed deeply through the woman's knickers a few more times, then continued, 'And you will smell just like this.' She dropped the knickers. Let me see if they're yours. Lift your dress and let me smell you.'
The woman refused and backed away. As if from nowhere, a crowd gathered. Standing in a semicircle with the assistant at 192
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the front, they began to hem her in. She tried to back away still then turned over. As her body made its descent back to normal, she further, but found herself against a wall. A man in the crowd came drifted back into sleep.
forward, pushed himself behind her and pinned her arms so that she couldn't move. Her heart was beginning to race and she was having difficulty breathing. She tried to speak, but the man put his hand on e have already discussed the ways in which 'wet dreams' are her throat.
Wimportant in a man's battle for reproductive success (Scene The assistant began to undress, handing first her uniform then, one 14). Here, we consider whether nocturnal orgasms are equally by one, her other garments to someone in the crowd. Her still important for women.
beautiful but now demonic gaze never strayed from the woman's eyes Although all women have sex dreams, not all women have as she gradually revealed more and more of her body. The woman nocturnal orgasms. By the age of twenty, only about 10 per cent have startled and the crowd gasped as she took off the last of her clothes.
ever experienced a 'nocturnal'. Some may have their first as late as the Her top half was that of a beautiful woman, with perfect breasts. But age of forty. The majority of women, however, never experience (or her bottom half was that of a man --- a very excited man.
at least remember) such an orgasm. Over a lifetime, only about 40 per The naked hermaphrodite stepped towards her. As it did so, the cent will ever share the experience of the woman in the scene, but for crowd began to chant, 'Rape her!' The woman tried to struggle but those who do, nocturnal orgasms will be an important part of their the man still held her tightly. In one movement, the hermaphrodite sexuality. In fact, for the women who have them, nocturnals usually tore off the woman's dress and pressed itself against her --- breasts produce the strongest climaxes of all. Sometimes, though, the against breasts, penis against groin. The beautiful female face began momentary waking up just at climax can prevent them from being as to kiss her passionately as the crowd's chants grew louder. The satisfying as a masturbatory orgasm can be.
woman tried to struggle, rocking from side to side. Every so often a Nocturnal orgasms are nearly always associated with dreams, tiny noise escaped her throat as she tried to scream. She was going to although these dreams are not always sexual. Even when they are, the be raped.
sexual element sometimes makes only a last-minute entrance into the After kissing her hard on the lips, the face moved down and began dream. Often it seems that the impending orgasm triggers the sex to bite her nipples. More sounds escaped as the woman struggled still dream, rather than the other way round. In the dream just recounted, harder. Her heart felt as though it was going to jump out of her body.
the woman was sexually aroused even before she met the shop The face left her nipples and began to lick its way over her belly assistant. The climax was already on its way and the dream was towards her groin. Then, just as it was about to give her oral sex, she manufactured by her brain simply to accompany her body's build-up.
climaxed. In the middle of her contractions, she woke up.
It is unusual to dream of hermaphrodites. Most often, people dream of As she surfaced from her sleep, the woman briefly registered what situations that reflect their own usual sexual activity, though lesbian had happened. It was a month since she had last climaxed at night. In scenes for women who have never had a lesbian relationship are fact, it was probably a month since she had last climaxed on her own relatively common --- more common than homosexual scenes for at all. This had been a good one --- 9 out of 10, she thought. She heterosexual men.
looked sideways at her snoring partner, Women are not the only female mammals that climax spontaneously in their sleep, though information for other species 194
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is scarce. The clearest observations are of female dogs. When April/May and again in November. And as in the menstrual cycle, bitches on heat are asleep, they occasionally become very agitated, the peaks are more pronounced for nocturnals than for masturbation.
presumably dreaming. On some of these occasions, mucus wets their Although there are no major physiological differences in the vaginas and they have rhythmic contractions of their genitals, just function of nocturnal and masturbatory orgasms, there are some like women.
minor strategic differences. Most of these derive from the relative The functions of nocturnal orgasms seem to be identical to those ease with which a woman can keep the two types of orgasm a secret of masturbatory ones. Both types help a woman's body in its battle from her partner.
against infection. Both prepare her vagina for its next intercourse by In Scene 14 we concluded that the number of wet dreams depositing lubricant. And both strengthen her cervical filter, as long decreases as a male ages and obtains a partner, because wet dreams as there are sperm in her cervical crypts. In fact, no physiological are more difficult to hide from a partner than masturbation. The differences can be detected between the two types of orgasm. Not opposite is probably true for women --- nocturnals are less difficult to surprisingly, therefore, nocturnals show a link with the menstrual hide from a partner than masturbation. In Scene 23, the woman's cycle similar to that shown by masturbatory orgasms.
partner was asleep when she climaxed. But even if he had been In the same way that female dogs are more likely to have awake, he still could not have been certain that she was having an nocturnals when on heat, women are more likely to have nocturnals orgasm rather than simply dreaming. In contrast, he could scarcely during, or at least at the beginning of, their fertile phase. The most have misinterpreted her intentions had he caught her with her hand likely time is about a week before ovulation --- precisely when all of between her legs and a banana in her vagina!
the benefits of nocturnal and masturbatory orgasms are greatest. This It is probably because nocturnals are more cryptic than mas-peak more or less coincides with the timing of the peak urge to turbation that they are also more closely linked to the menstrual masturbate, but is more clear-cut for nocturnals. Women who use the cycle. Given that both types of orgasm are advantageous if they occur contraceptive pill show no such peak in the menstrual cycle for at the beginning of the fertile phase, nocturnals are probably the either type of orgasm. This indicates that nocturnals and the urge to better option --- being less likely to betray the woman's fertile phase masturbate are largely under hormonal control.
to her partner. It is probably also because nocturnals are cryptic that A consequence of this link between ovulation and the timing of women, unlike men, are more likely to have them as they age and nocturnals and masturbation is that these two types of orgasm have a obtain a partner, not less.
seasonal peak. As we have already seen, because women are more Many women have both types of orgasm, but differ in whether likely to ovulate in some months of the year than others, humans are they have more masturbatory orgasms than nocturnals or vice versa.
more likely to be born in some months than others (Scene 15). As Although the triggers and urges for both types are to a large extent nocturnals and masturbation are more likely to occur in the week or under hormonal control, they are also influenced by external so before a woman ovulates, they also are both more likely to occur situations --- one of which is potential infidelity (Scenes 6 and 17), as in some months than others. For example, in Britain there are peaks we shall soon discuss (Scene 26). Together, the two types of orgasm of birth in February/March and September, peaks of ovulation in help a woman's body to give an advantage to the man it would most May/June and December, and peaks of nocturnals and masturbation like to win sperm warfare. Her body's in
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potential to influence that warfare, however, does not end with that she was becoming bored and impatient rather than excited. In masturbation and nocturnals.
the end, he had given up and just concentrated on making himself When she is next inseminated, a woman still has a variety of ejaculate. It was wishful thinking rather than a lack of awareness that options. Everything now depends on whether she has an orgasm during had made him suggest she had come just before he ejaculated. Or intercourse (Scenes 24 and 25).
had he been giving her an opportunity to lie?
As far as he could see, it had to be his partner who had the problem. A year or so ago he had had a brief affair with a younger girl. She had come nearly every time. As long as he had given her a SCENE 14
bit of foreplay and as long as he didn't ejaculate too quickly, she Another Successful Failure
would come. It was as easy as that. His partner, however, rarely came while he was inside her. Once or twice a month, perhaps --- if he was lucky. But, try as he might, he had totally failed to find any
'Did you come?' the man asked, panting, as, propped on his arms, he magic formula. Last time they had had sex, a week ago, just before held himself above her body.
her period, she had come. And he had done exactly what he had done
'Nearly,' she replied, kindly. 'I thought I was going to, but then it tonight. He had got her excited during foreplay, almost to the point just went and I couldn't get it back.'
of coming, entered her quickly, thrust a few times, and she had The man slowly withdrew, then more or less collapsed by her side.
come. Tonight, it had failed. Yet, sometimes, he could virtually miss
'I thought you did, just before / came,' he panted, his intonation a out foreplay altogether, and she would come. At other times, if he mixture of disappointment and irritation.
tried to bypass foreplay, she would complain.
'No, not really. But I did enjoy it. It was nice to feel so close.'
The woman lay on her side with her back to her partner, feeling The couple relaxed in their usual post-coital embrace and sank disappointed. She hadn't really expected him to want sex tonight and back into their own thoughts. He couldn't see what the problem was.
now she wished he hadn't. As much as anything, she felt let down by This time, he had really gone for it. He had taken his time over the way, having made the overtures, he had misjudged what she foreplay and there was no doubt that she had become excited. Maybe wanted. There were times when she really wanted a penis inside her she wasn't as wet as she could have been, but she was flushed. A few and wasn't particularly bothered about having an orgasm. And there more seconds playing with her clitoris and she would have come, he were times when she really wanted both. Tonight, what she had knew she would. It had been putting in his penis that had stopped her.
really wanted was an orgasm. Surely he could have sensed that? She As he had climbed on top and pushed himself in, she had visibly lost would have been quite happy to have intercourse as well, but what interest --- her excitement level had immediately dropped about she really wanted was climax and relief --- and she had been so twenty notches. Even then, he had done his best to get her back. He nearly there. A few more seconds of foreplay and she would have had thrust as long and as considerately as he could --- not too hard, come. Why couldn't he have waited just that bit longer before not too slow. He had delayed as long as he could. Really, though, he entering her? If he had just
had known they weren't getting anywhere. He could sense 198
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been considerate enough to concentrate on her until she had come, she would have been quite happy to have him inside her. But no, all he had wanted was to feel himself inside her, with no thought for her at all. She knew the second he stopped stimulating her and began to omen differ considerably in their response to intercourse.
move into position that she would lose it. And by the time his penis WSom
e nearly always climax during intercourse; some never had started to go in, she had. That fragile focus on her own do. These differences are an important part of the overall picture of sensations, which she needed if she was to climax, had simply human sexuality, and we shall explore them in Scene 36. Taking evaporated. All excitement had gone and his interminable thrusting women as a whole, it is more common to fail to climax with a penis in had killed it stone-dead.
the vagina than to succeed. On average, only just over 60 per cent of She envied the women, and she was sure there were many, who routine sex episodes (from the beginning of foreplay to ejection of the needed only a few thrusts of a penis inside them to send them into flowback) involve the woman having an orgasm. Even when they do, multiple screaming, clawing climaxes. Sometimes she found herself she usually climaxes during foreplay (35 per cent) or post-play (15
looking at women in supermarkets, wondering what their climaxes per cent), not during intercourse itself. In fact, only 10-20 per cent of were like. This morning there had been a short, dark-haired, wild-routine sex episodes involve the average woman climaxing while the eyed woman in front of her at the check-out. As she had waited penis is in her vagina.
patiently for her own turn to pay she had had this image of the There are several elements of interest in the scene we have just woman, naked on a bed, hair streaming about her shoulders, having witnessed. The man's confusion is one, particularly his confusion over energetic intercourse and screaming in ecstasy. For her, though, inter-why an approach that stimulates his partner to orgasm on one course was almost always a disappointment. If she did climax during occasion fails miserably on the next. Another is his observation that intercourse itself, which happened once a month if she was lucky, it during his affair, his lover climaxed during intercourse much more was always a fairly tame affair; nowhere near as powerful as those easily than his partner. Yet another is why the man would have during foreplay or those she gave herself.
preferred his partner to climax during intercourse, not during The truth was, she wasn't particularly bothered about trying to foreplay. But these elements are the subjects of later scenes; for the come during intercourse. If it happened, it was a mildly pleasant moment, the main issue is the common lack of female climax during bonus, but not really worth agonising and making a big effort over.
intercourse. Does it reflect some sort of failure? Or is it instead a Especially as most attempts were doomed to failure and mild successful part of a woman's subconscious strategy --- yet another recrimination. She would much prefer her partner to give her an aspect of sexuality that actually increases her reproductive success?
orgasm when she felt like it, then satisfy himself inside her. What she When foreplay first begins, a woman's body will have carried out needed was a partner who was sensitive enough to her needs to be at least some advance preparation. The nature of this preparation has able to judge what she wanted and when she wanted it. Should she just been discussed (Scenes 22 and 23) in connection with nocturnal really have to tell him every time? The man next to her really wasn't measuring up too well at the moment.
and masturbatory orgasms. Having these orgasms prepares her cervical filter in one way; not having them prepares it another way.
Whichever option her body has taken, we know that she will settle down to intercourse with a certain level of protection against disease, a certain level of vaginal lubricant, 200
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a certain strength of cervical filter, and a certain population from filter would be ideal for her next anticipated insemination, she would nought to millions of sperm in her oviducts, womb and cervical have all the raw materials necessary. (Without sperm in her cervical crypts. If she has anticipated her situation correctly, these different crypts, her options would be much more limited (Scene 22).) levels will mean the state of her cervical filter is as ideal as possible, Moreover, the younger the sperm she could collect now, the longer and she will get maximum benefit from the intercourse that is about her flexibility of choice would last. Of course, at the same time as to begin. Precisely what state of cervical filter is ideal varies collecting the sperm which would give her this flexibility, she needed according to her circumstances.
as always to minimise the risk of disease.
For example, the ideal filter will vary according to the stage of her Before intercourse, her cervical filter was strong because of the menstrual cycle (Scenes 22 and 23). It will also vary according to presence of menstrual debris (Scene 3). Most of the sperm from her whether or not she is contemplating infidelity (Scene 26). The ideal last intercourse, a week earlier, had been carried from her body by her filter is different yet again if she is about to be inseminated by a man menstrual flow. A few infertile sperm might still have been in her who is not her regular partner. In particular, it differs according to oviducts and a few of her cervical crypts might still have contained a whether she wants the inseminator to have an advantage or number of, albeit fairly geriatric, sperm. Although this set-up disadvantage in any sperm war that might be about to take place constituted an adequate filter, it would benefit from some 'tidying-up'.
(Scene 26). No matter what the ideal cervical filter may be for any It is at this stage of the menstrual cycle that many women would given woman in any given circumstance, though, the general either masturbate or have a nocturnal orgasm (Scenes 22 and 23), principle we are about to discuss remains the same. So in order to thereby helping to rid their cervical mucus of the last of the menstrual illustrate this principle, let's concentrate on the woman in Scene 24.
debris, top up their vaginal lubricant, and empty their cervical crypts This woman had just finished menstruating. Ovulation (if it was of geriatric sperm. Such an orgasm would facilitate lubrication at their going to occur this cycle --- Scene 15) was therefore between seven next intercourse. It would also, on balance, slightly strengthen their and twenty days away, and the intercourse that had just finished cervical filter --- in particular, it would give them extra protection would not make her pregnant. Nevertheless, the sperm from this against invasion by any disease organisms carried in the next intercourse could influence sperm retention at her next intercourse, inseminate. But it would also minimise their retention of sperm, which in its turn could make her pregnant (Scene 7). As far as we particularly old, less motile ones.
know, infidelity during her next fertile phase was unlikely --- but, as The woman in Scene 24 might have been due for a nocturnal, always, was not impossible. So even though this current intercourse perhaps even later on in the night in question. If she had had one, it was during her infertile phase, it was important to her to retain an would have produced the ideal cervical filter for her circumstances.
optimum number of sperm --- for all she knew these sperm might But an unexpected intercourse intervened before this could happen, suddenly, albeit indirectly, play a role in influencing the paternity of and when her partner initiated foreplay, her cervical filter was not her next child.
ideal for the inseminate she was about to receive. She could, of Given her situation, all the woman needed from her intercourse course, have resisted his sexual overtures and waited until her body was a small number of young sperm to store in her cervical crypts had prepared her cervical filter properly. However, she did have (Scene 4). Having such a reservoir would give her maximum another option, and this was the one she pursued. Having failed to flexibility over the next few days. When, sometime during those next prepare for this
few days, her body decided what cervical 202
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unexpected intercourse by having a nocturnal or masturbatory success. (Precisely why will be made clear in the next scene.) We are orgasm, her body instead tried to engineer an orgasm during foreplay.
about to watch the couple for just a little longer.
A 'foreplay orgasm' performs all of the functions of a nocturnal or masturbatory orgasm, and for the woman in Scene 24 would have been a perfectly adequate last-minute substitute. The problem she faced in pursuing this option was that her strategy required SCENE 15
cooperation from her partner. In part she needed him to provide Correcting Mistakes
stimulation. More importantly, she also needed him to give her time to climax. But he did not.
We shall discuss why he did not in Scene 25. The simple answer, is They both found it difficult to relax. Their post-coital sleep was fitful, that he would benefit most from his partner climaxing during and after thirty minutes or so both were wide awake again. Suddenly, intercourse, not during foreplay. On this occasion, male and female for no obvious reason, the man's penis began to stir and within interests were not mutual. This is often the case, which means that a minutes it was hard against his partner's back. There was no woman cannot always rely on a man's cooperation when her body opts mistaking this feeling in his loins. He wanted sex again.
to have an orgasm during foreplay. The woman in Scene 24 nearly The woman had felt his penis rise and then harden, and wondered managed to engineer the foreplay orgasm her body needed to create whether he would make any overtures. She found herself hoping he the ideal scenario for insemination, but just failed. Having failed, her would, assuming her interest was because she had failed to climax next best response was not to climax at all. And that is what happened.
during their recent foreplay. To her surprise, however, she realised When a woman has no orgasm during intercourse, then the number that what she really felt like was having his penis inside her again. So and types of sperm she retains are dictated by the cervical filter in clear were her feelings that when her partner hesitantly put his hand place before the intercourse began (as is her resistance to invasion by between her buttocks to stroke her genitals, she forestalled him by disease organisms). If her body has anticipated events correctly, this turning over to face him. After they had kissed a few times, she gently filter will be just right to retain the best number and types of sperm for took hold of his penis and guided it into position so that he would be the next few days of her reproductive life. By not having an orgasm in no doubt as to what she wanted him to do.
during intercourse, therefore, a woman's body is in effect saying: As he slipped in, she was so wet from their previous intercourse he
'Don't change a thing. The situation in your cervix is as good as it can felt almost as if he wasn't touching the sides. When he first began his be. Just let him inseminate you and your cervical filter will do the slow thrusting, it got worse. There was hardly any sensation on his rest.'
penis except wetness. He was a long way from ejaculation.
In the scene, the situation in the woman's cervix was not ideal when She on the other hand, almost as soon as he entered her, felt the her partner ejaculated. When her best strategy was thwarted, her body, first sensation that told her she might come. As he worked backwards by avoiding an orgasm during intercourse, did the next best thing. Her and forwards, backwards and forwards, she began to focus on her failure to climax represented a
genitals, and it was working. Then came the fantasy. It was the dark-haired, wild-eyed woman from the supermarket queue. She was lying naked on top of her,
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black hair flying everywhere as she contorted her body, now to rub intercourse for sperm to enter her cervix. Even without a climax, the their genitals together, now to kiss her all over. With the inseminate collects at the top of her vagina to form a pool, her cervix combination of the sensations from her partner and her fantasy, the hangs into the pool, and sperm leave to escape into her cervical woman's body wound itself up towards a climax. The noises in her mucus (Scene 3). Nevertheless, a climax does make a difference to throat were becoming more urgent, more rhythmic. Just a little more how many sperm enter her cervix. Usually, a climax during focus, just a little longer . . .
intercourse weakens her cervical filter greatly, allowing many more By now, the man realised his partner was heading towards an sperm to leave the seminal pool, penetrate the cervical mucus, and orgasm. Her sounds were becoming more intense. He responded hence be retained. Such a climax therefore means fewer sperm are with his own sounds. The overwhelming wetness of her vagina had ejected in the flowback. A multiple orgasm (in which a woman has now gone, and he was beginning to get the sensations on his penis two --- or even more --- climaxes without 'coming down' in between) that he needed. But he still wasn't certain he was going to ejaculate.
has an even greater effect on sperm retention. Essentially, this He worked on a fantasy. It wasn't his partner underneath him but the influence of the orgasm, whether single or multiple, is achieved in flirtatious seventeen-year-old from work. She was staring into his four ways.
eyes and massaging her breasts with her hands. Between the guttural First, when a woman climaxes during intercourse, her cervix and rhythmic sounds from her throat she was telling him how gapes in just the same way as it does during masturbation (Scene 22).
wonderful he felt and how he mustn't stop. That did it, and only just As we saw then, this gaping stretches the cervical mucus sideways, in time --- his partner was climaxing. As she did so, he briefly lost his widening existing mucus channels and creating new ones by splitting focus, but still managed to ejaculate in the next half-minute.
the mucus, and thereby opening up many more pathways for many For her, the climax was satisfying and just what she wanted. For more sperm. Any blocked channels in her cervix are effectively him, their combined climax had given a sense of achievement and bypassed and rendered ineffectual.
satisfaction. She didn't often come with him inside her and he wanted Secondly, as she climaxes during intercourse her cervix dips up to make the most of the occasion. But he didn't. Almost within and down as well as gapes --- again, just as it does during seconds of their expressing surprise and pleasure at the episode, they masturbation. Now, however, it is dipping up and down in seminal were both asleep.
fluid, thereby mixing the pool. This mixing helps more sperm, particularly older, less mobile ones, to contact and penetrate the cervical mucus.
t first glance, the couple in this scene have behaved very Thirdly, the climactic contraction and rippling of muscles in the Astrangely. Why did they both feel like intercourse again so womb and vagina during orgasm generate pressure changes in the soon? Why did the woman now feel like intercourse and not womb and cervix. These changes effectively 'suck' the usual fingers foreplay? Why did she feel like an orgasm during intercourse now, of semen (Scene 3) much further into the channels of cervical mucus.
when only half an hour earlier she had felt no such inclination?
This stronger upsuck of semen into channels that are already Could each person's behaviour really have been part of a strategy increased in number and enlarged by the orgasm does two things. It that over enough occasions would enhance their reproductive helps to neutralise any acidity of the lower part of the mucus glacier, success? As we know, a woman does not need to climax during making it easier for sperm to escape the seminal pool into the cervix; and it increases the volume
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of semen in contact with the mucus, again allowing many more be her climax is only the beginning of a series of events in her sperm to escape.
womb and cervix which she cannot feel but which may continue for Fourthly, a woman's climax during intercourse voids many of several minutes. The peak of the cervical activity that affects sperm her cervical crypts of old sperm. Although these ejected sperm may retention actually occurs one to two minutes after her subjective eventually block some of the newly formed channels in the same climax. By the time her cervix reaches this peak, she is already way as they do after a masturbatory orgasm, sperm newly arrived beginning to relax. As long as the seminal pool is in place before her from the seminal pool still find that they have many more crypts all cervical activity peaks, her filter will be bypassed. In fact, as long as to themselves. Effectively, therefore, an intercourse orgasm creates it is still in place, a climax even as long as an hour after ejaculation more storage space for sperm to occupy.
will allow her filter to be bypassed. There is no need for the man's This combined gaping, dipping and sucking of a woman's cervix penis to be in her vagina, and it makes no difference whether it is he during an intercourse orgasm permits her to retain far more sperm who stimulates her to orgasm during this post-coital phase or than if she had no orgasm during intercourse. As a rough guide, she whether she stimulates herself via masturbation. So even if a woman retains 50-90 per cent of sperm if she has a climax during avoids climax while the penis is in her vagina, her body still has up intercourse compared with 0-50 per cent if she does not. Indeed, so to an hour to change its mind.
effective is a climax during intercourse at helping sperm out of the We can now discuss why, in Scenes 24 to 25, as the night seminal pool that, no matter how strong the filter a woman prepares progressed the woman's needs changed as far as orgasms were in advance, such a climax negates it. In effect, then, when she feels concerned. The word 'episode' will be used here to mean the whole like climaxing during intercourse, her body is saying to her: 'We time from the beginning of foreplay to the ejection of the flowback.
have made a mistake in our preparation for this intercourse.
On the night in question we followed the woman and her partner Circumstances have changed, and our cervical filter is too strong.
through two sexual episodes. At the beginning of the first (Scene We need many more of the sperm that are on their way than we 24), her body's main requirement from intercourse at that stage of shall get if we don't do something. Bypass the filter. That way we her menstrual cycle was to retain small numbers of sperm that were shall let in more sperm and eject fewer in the flowback.'
as young as possible. She also needed to minimise the risk of Of course, for an orgasm during intercourse to have the infection. To fulfil this requirement she needed to strengthen her consequences just described, there needs to be a seminal pool in the cervical filter before her partner had any chance to inseminate. This vagina. We should expect, therefore, that an orgasm during would both improve her resistance to infection and make life intercourse will be effective at bypassing the filter only if it occurs difficult for the older, least motile sperm in his ejaculate. The right after the man has ejaculated. This turns out to be true, but the filter for her needs could have been produced a day or so in advance situation is not quite as simple as we might expect --- because a via a nocturnal or masturbatory orgasm, but her body had failed in woman's subjective climax during orgasm is not actually the critical this.
event as far as sperm retention is concerned.
Even so, it was not too late. Her motivation and behaviour during Even if she climaxes about a minute (two minutes at the most) the first episode were just what they needed to be, because although before the man ejaculates, the orgasm will still permit large she failed to engineer an orgasm during numbers of sperm to bypass her cervical filter. How can this be? It is because the moment she subjectively identifies to 208
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foreplay, she did the next best thing and avoided climaxing during pool had been removed and her partner was nearly ready to intercourse.
ejaculate.
At the beginning of the second sexual episode (Scene 25), the In this discussion we have, inevitably, considered only one woman's needs were still the same --- small numbers of young specific sequence of events --- the sequence relating to the woman sperm at minimum risk of disease --- but the circumstances had in Scenes 24 and 25. And although we cannot, obviously, discuss changed. Most importantly, her partner was now offering to give every combination of circumstances and responses, there are some her a small inseminate rich in v ery young sperm --- younger than general principles worth noting.
any in his previous inseminate. This was just what she had wanted First, a woman prepares for her next anticipated intercourse by all along, and it was this offer that made her body interested in a having a nocturnal or masturbatory orgasm --- or by not having a second insemination. However, the first insemination had left her nocturnal or masturbatory orgasm --- whichever is appropriate, as with two problems.
explained above. Secondly, if she has anticipated correctly, she First, her cervical filter was now stronger than before because of should let the entire sexual episode proceed without orgasm and the influx of blockers from the first insemination. If she delegated leave her filter to do its job. On the other hand, if she has not sperm retention to her now over-strong cervical filter, she would anticipated correctly, she should aim to correct her mistake by lose more of the young sperm in the second inseminate than she having an orgasm at some time during the episode.
would like. Secondly, she still had the seminal pool from the first In the latter situation she has two options, depending on what type insemination at the top of her vagina. If she had an orgasm during of mistake she has made. The fact that orgasms during foreplay are foreplay now, she would bypass her filter with large numbers of more frequent than orgasms during intercourse suggests that a older sperm from the first inseminate --- just what she had gone out woman is more likely to err on the side of having too weak a filter of her way to avoid during the first episode.
than too strong. This could be strategic. It is easier to encourage a Her solution to these two problems was straightforward. What man to help her climax during foreplay (strengthening her filter) she needed was to get rid of the first seminal pool, then to use an than to help her climax during intercourse (weakening her filter).
intercourse orgasm to bypass her cervical filter. That way she Once she allows him to insert his penis into her vagina, she loses would retain a large proportion of the very young and desirable much of her control over what he does and when he does it. Even sperm from the second seminal pool. So how could she get rid of then, however, she has a fall-back strategy: orgasms after the man the old pool, given that it probably hadn't yet decoagulated enough has withdrawn are a substitute for intercourse orgasms, permitting for her to eject it as a flowback? Her best option was to encourage her to bypass her filter whenever she needs or wants to (again, as the man to remove it with his thrusting penis (as described in other just described).
circumstances in Scene 21) before introducing his second ejaculate.
The best moment for a woman to climax (or not) during a sexual Her body generated the necessary urges. First, she no longer felt episode thus varies considerably from occasion to occasion. The like foreplay, but wanted a penis inside her as soon as possible.
best moment for her to climax as far as the man is concerned, Secondly, she felt like an orgasm during intercourse. Once though, varies much less. As we have already seen (Scenes 12 and intercourse had begun, her body then timed its build-up so that she 14), he also will have anticipated the intercourse and tailored his didn't climax until the old seminal
ejaculate accordingly. He will have masturbated or not, as appropriate, to suit his body's own best 210
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interests. Most often he will be best served by a woman climaxing doing something that is against their body's interests. Whether the during intercourse, because only by this means will his carefully man succeeds in what is his safest ploy --- to ejaculate a few prepared inseminate succeed in having as many of its sperm seconds after the woman has climaxed --- inevitably depends more retained as possible.
on the woman than on himself.
But there is a limit to how much time and effort it is worth him A woman may insist on a foreplay orgasm, then cooperate or putting into getting a woman to climax during intercourse. First, if hinder as the man tries to inseminate her within a minute or so her body is not interested in an intercourse orgasm, he cannot force afterwards. If she curtails foreplay, several strategies are possible her to climax, no matter how hard he tries. Secondly, the cervical during intercourse itself. She may cooperate by waiting until he is sperm filter which he can sometimes try so hard to bypass may on about to ejaculate, then climaxing with him. Or she may not some occasions not actually exist. If the woman has retained very cooperate. She may climax so quickly that he is unable to ejaculate few sperm from her previous insemination, if she has neither within the critical minute that follows. Or she may avoid climaxing masturbated nor had a nocturnal since that insemination, and if any and wait for him to give up and just go ahead and ejaculate --- in even older sperm or menstrual debris have been cleared, the filter in which case intercourse becomes a war of attrition, each waiting for her cervix will be as weak as it can be anyway. In this case, the man the other to climax. Once the man has ejaculated, the woman can gains little if anything from making a great effort to encourage her either avoid climaxing before ejecting the flowback, or she can to climax during intercourse.
cooperate by helping him to give her a post-coital climax. Or, All of this leaves him with a very difficult, if not impossible, almost the ultimate cooperation, she can 'finish herself off' by series of decisions to make during sex. First, he has to judge masturbating to orgasm before ejecting the flowback.
whether the woman has a filter that is worth bypassing. If not, he It might, at first, seem strange that, given the competitive nature has no need for her to climax during intercourse. If she has a of intercourse, men and women appear to make it easier for each significant filter, his best option is for her to have an orgasm during other to judge how near they each are to their climax. Even to the their sexual episode. Even an orgasm during foreplay will do, as objective observer, the sounds made by men and women during long as he manages to inseminate her within the minute or so intercourse give a clear indication of how their levels of sexual afterwards. If he opts instead to try to get her to climax during excitement are changing (which is why the more exaggerated of intercourse, he may have trouble succeeding, and if so he will have such sounds are dubbed on to pornographic films). When climax to decide how long it is worth carrying on thrusting. He could opt comes, it is clear from the sounds, which would seem to indicate a instead to ejaculate first and then see if he can stimulate her to cooperation between a man and woman that might belie our climax afterwards, before she ejects the flowback. Or he can just abandon all attempts to bypass her filter and hope that this is an interpretation of intercourse as a contest. The sounds, however, occasion when there is no real filter to bypass.
have become part of the contest.
Sometimes, of course, the sounds really do give an accurate Looked at in this way, a sexual episode is actually a contest indication of what is happening. On those occasions when a between the man and the woman. Except on those rare occasions virtually simultaneous climax is in both people's interests, they are when the same outcome, bypassing the filter, suits them both, each the method used to achieve this mutual aim. But it is precisely is forever trying to maneuver the other into because the sounds are sometimes honest that on occasion both men and women can use them to trick the partner. In surveys, over half of women admit to faking orgasms sometimes, and a 212
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quarter to doing so often. That they often succeed in fooling the was because she had given up the pill recently, having convinced her partner is evident from another survey --- which found that the man partner that she really wanted another child. However, she did not invariably reports a higher frequency of simultaneous orgasms than question her body too closely --- she was enjoying this atypical burst his partner. There are cases on record in which a man has reported of sexuality. She mused over the way that two nights ago, only a that his partner always climaxes during intercourse whereas she couple of hours after she had masturbated, she had then more or less herself has stated that she never does. The scene we have just insisted that her partner give her an orgasm during foreplay as well, witnessed was one of those relatively infrequent occasions when gently resisting his attempts to penetrate until he complied. Three both the man and the woman had the same requirements from their orgasms in a week. She was doing well.
intercourse, and cooperation was in their mutual interest. In the next Over the following weekend, she had routine sex with her partner scene, however, the needs of the woman we meet are very different only once, on Saturday, and again he obliged her with an orgasm from those of one of the men who inseminate her. The female during foreplay. Early Sunday morning, just before she woke, she orgasm is about to enter the arena of sperm warfare.
had a nocturnal, her fifth orgasm that week. However, it was the last exciting thing to happen that day. The remainder was spent travelling, on the long drive to and from her parents, who had volunteered to look after her two daughters while she was away. By Scene 26
the time she and her partner had returned home and she had packed, Putting It All Together
it was late. He still wanted to have sex. 'One for the road', as he put it. But she was tired and managed to put him off. On Monday, she left for the airport and her long-awaited three-day conference trip The woman lay back in her Friday-night bath and let the last waves abroad. Her companions were to be her boss and two other of her orgasm subside. She had finished her period only a week ago colleagues, one of whom was her new lover.
and this was the second time since then. Both times the thought and Actually, 'lover' was an exaggeration, or at least premature. They the action had come out of the blue. A minute earlier she had been had known each other for nearly a year, ever since she had joined the soaping and rinsing her breasts, with nothing more erotic on her mind company. It was her first job since the birth of her younger daughter.
than whether she should clean the bathroom this weekend or suggest Slowly, they had grown close. Neither had ever found it easy to her partner do it while she was away. Maybe it had been the touch of make friends with their own sex, but in each other they had found her soapy hand on her nipple, but the next second the thought was in the nearest they were likely to get to a 'best friend'. In their early her mind, the tingle was between her legs, and she knew she needed thirties, both had young children and both were now in long-standing relief. Now, after five minutes of successful cooperation between her but increasingly stale relationships. He was even convinced that his fantasies, her finger and her clitoris, her breathing was easing, her partner was having an affair. Within a few months of meeting, they heart was slowing down, and she was wallowing in the combined had freely acknowledged their physical attraction to each other. He warmth of bath water and post-climactic glow.
had tried somewhat half-heartedly to do something about it, but To masturbate twice in five days was unusual for her; once a week or once a fortnight was more like it. She wondered if it 214
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each time he suggested a plan, she had found some excuse. It hadn't late afternoon, they felt extremely close as they arrived back at the been difficult.
hotel. But still she resisted sex, saying she only just had time to get They had also acknowledged that they could never live together.
ready before they met up with their boss for the evening.
They were both opinionated and competitive, with strong likes and The meal and the socialising were a strain because they had to dislikes. Their relationship worked only as long as they talked about maintain a facade of distance. They had both agreed that nobody must their separate problems, their separate aims, and their separate suspect they were so close. It was midnight when they arrived back at wishes. Whenever they talked about principles, attitudes or just life in the hotel. She pointed out that the next day would be very busy. She general, they would argue. She could not imagine a home without at tried to persuade him that they needed a good night's sleep and that least three cats; he hated cats. She was pale and prone to sunburn; he maybe they should wait until tomorrow night. But this time, he would was swarthy and worshipped the sun, often spending hours naked in his secluded garden. She was aggressively vegetarian; he could not not be deterred.
imagine life without meat. She was obsessively tidy; he still had the She had seen him naked before, but it was the first time he had seen air of an adolescent, putting his feet on tables and dropping his or really touched any of the more exciting parts of her body. By the crushed beer cans on the floor. She was provocative and mischievous, time they were both naked, because still she teased and delayed, he a tease; he was gullible, but strong-willed, ambitious and obstinate.
was on the verge of ejaculation. With scarcely any foreplay, he tried They each found the other's traits to be irritating but attractive, each to enter her. She objected strongly to his urgency, but he was now so seeing in the other characteristics which moderated their own desperate that he virtually forced himself inside her. He ejaculated polarity.
immediately, with scarcely a thrust.
Their relationship had changed six weeks ago. On that day, in a Once he had withdrawn, she chastised him. He apologised and said field in searing sun, she had given him oral sex and promised that one that next time he would be more considerate. She said there wouldn't day she would have his baby. True, she had done so in part as a ploy be a next time if he behaved like that. But she didn't throw him out of to avoid having sex with him there and then, but she had meant it.
her bed and within fifteen minutes he had stroked, kissed, licked and She just hadn't expected the opportunity to arise quite so soon. Then, massaged her into a climax. Within the hour, his penis was back as early as two weeks after her promise, they had been asked by their inside her for the second time that night, and after a long and sensuous boss to accompany him on a business trip abroad. Her future lover intercourse they climaxed more or less together.
had then made her promise that if they had the chance, they would Half-way through the night, as a sperm war was being fought inside have sex while they were away.
her body, she told him to go back to his room. When he protested, she Even so, she still didn't give in easily. He visited her hotel room said she was worried about them being discovered together in the almost as soon as they arrived early on the Monday afternoon, but morning. Over the next two days, they maintained a professional she sidestepped his advances, pointing out that this was their only distance, both during the day and while socialising in the evenings.
chance to see the city during the day. Together, they mingled with But on both nights they spent a few hours in bed together before she summer tourists in the streets and on the canals and enjoyed each made him return to his room. By the time they left to fly home they other's company, watching the world parade past as they sat and had had
sipped at pavement bars. By
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intercourse six times, and on three of those occasions she had climaxed while he was inside her. Her body was full of her lover's sperm, from cervix to oviduct --- and she was only forty-eight hours from ovulation.
his, of course, is the third time we have met this woman and She arrived home late that Thursday night, feeling very tired, very Ther lover. We watched them in a hay-field on a sunny guilty and a little nervous. She bathed, avoided her partner's advances afternoon as she gave him oral sex and promised one day to have his by pleading tiredness and nausea, and slept. Sometime during the baby (Scene 20). We also followed them that same evening as they night, she had a nocturnal.
returned home to their respective partners and had oral sex (Scene At work, on Friday, she tried to avoid her lover as much as 10). Now, we have just watched the woman's body manipulate sperm possible. He sought her out at every opportunity and tested her warfare in a way that made sure she kept her promise. Her third child ingenuity to its limit. Eventually, when he tried to snatch a kiss, she would inherit her lover's looks, drive and ability in combination with rounded on him. Their trip had been fantastic, she told him, but now her own cunning and intelligence. Her body had decided that as the they were back things had to return to normal. She didn't want to hurt genetic father of her third child, her lover was the best compromise her partner and she didn't want to risk discovery. They had had a around (Scene 18).
good time and it seemed they had got away with it. She wanted it to In Scenes 22 to 25 we have unravelled, step by step, the function stay that way. If he wanted to remain close to her, he had to forget of the female orgasm. We have seen the effects of having a sex. A friend she needed, a lover she didn't. She felt guilty at the look masturbatory or nocturnal orgasm in the days before intercourse, and of hurt on his face as she spoke, but her tirade worked. After that, he of not having one; of climaxing, and of not climaxing, while a made no further sexual advances.
seminal pool is at the top of the vagina. In this most recent scene we That evening, the last she and her partner were to have on their witnessed a woman's body putting all of these orgasms together and own before collecting their daughters, she bathed, masturbated, and biasing sperm warfare in her own best interests. As a result, she then appeared naked in their lounge urging her partner to give her conceived a child who was fathered by her lover, not her partner.
another baby. They had intercourse on the floor, just the once, and This move will have enhanced her reproductive success --- as long as she pretended to climax with him. That pleased him because these her body was correct in judging that a child by her lover would be days she rarely climaxed with him inside her. They then sat and more successful reproductively than a further child by her partner.
relaxed in the warmth of the summer's evening, a cat on each lap. As Having reached its decision over the best father for its next child, she gave him the public version of her business trip, sperm warfare her body set about engineering paternity. It did so by generating and resumed inside her body and continued all night. But this war was orchestrating a sequence of urges to climax and not to climax. Her very one-sided.
body dictated the sequence and timing of these urges according to As they drove to her parents' the next day, a sperm entered the egg who was the next most likely inseminator. We can now discuss the which had just arrived in one of her oviducts. She had conceived, and details of this and other such sequences. Of all of the weapons used with her help her lover's sperm had won both battles, and the war.
by a woman in her pursuit of reproductive success, her orgasm She had kept her promise to him.
sequence may well be the most important, particularly when she promotes sperm warfare.
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This is the second scene in which a woman has increased her lover would be a better genetic father to her child than her current masturbation rate in the context of infidelity. In Scene 6, the woman partner, but a worse long-term partner. Her body's ploy, therefore, masturbated more often than usual in the week before infidelity with was to collect sperm for fertilisation from the lover, but not to do her ex-boyfriend. At first glance, such events seem simply to reflect anything else that might cause her to lose her current partner. This an increase in sexual excitement
meant she would have to have sex with her partner both before and
---
the anticipation of sex with someone other than a partner.
after her infidelity. Otherwise, his suspicions would be aroused.
Closer inspection, however, shows that this is too simple an Consequently, she could not avoid sperm warfare. In any case, her explanation. The women in the two scenes masturbated or had body would not want to miss out on the benefits of promoting such nocturnals only at times when, although infidelity was on the warfare (Scenes 17 and 21). Her best option, therefore, was to make horizon, the person most likely to inseminate them next was life as easy as possible for her lover's army while still giving it a their partner. On no occasion in these two scenes did they have contest to win. As events turned out, her body engineered the these orgasms when their very next intercourse was likely to be situation perfectly.
with their lover. In this, women differ from men (Scene 13).
The woman's body initiated its strategy a week before the anticipated Of course, women do have nocturnal and masturbatory orgasms infidelity. Its aim was to allow routine sex with her partner to just before having sex with a lover, but these are often 'mistakes'. In continue undisturbed, while ensuring that his army would be as small Scene 26, the woman had a nocturnal on the Saturday night, yet as it as possible when the troops were eventually called to battle. Her turned out her next insemination was by her lover on Monday night.
body's technique was first to make her feel like masturbating a day or At the time she had her nocturnal, though the next most likely so before each anticipated routine intercourse, and this strengthened intercourse was the 'one for the road' suggested by her partner on her cervical filter. Then, during each routine sexual episode, it made Sunday night. As it happened, this insemination never materialised.
her feel like an orgasm during foreplay. This orgasm strengthened Her nocturnal was a 'mistake', but one she could later correct, as we her filter still further. In the event, the woman and her partner had shall see.
two episodes of routine sex during the critical week before her So what is this link between infidelity and the frequency of infidelity. On neither occasion did she feel like an orgasm during nocturnal and masturbatory orgasms if it is not simply sexual intercourse itself. So the result of her body's preparations was that on excitement? And why, if they are a response to the anticipation of neither occasion did she retain many of her partner's sperm. Her infidelity, are these orgasms more likely to occur just before sex with nocturnal on the Saturday night was a continuation of her body's the partner rather than just before sex with the lover?
strategy. There was a strong possibility that her partner would want It is because whenever a woman anticipates sperm warfare, she sex on the Sunday night, just before she left on her trip. The more often than not has some preference over who should win.
nocturnal prepared a strong filter, ensuring that even if he had Usually, that preference is for the lover, not the partner --- otherwise, insisted, she would still have managed to keep down the number of she would not risk all the potential costs of his sperm in her tract --- especially if she also had yet another infidelity (Scenes 8 to 11). In this scene, just as in Scene foreplay orgasm during the episode. As it was, she managed to avoid 6, we have watched a woman who, in anticipation of sperm insemination by her partner on the Sunday night altogether.
warfare, subconsciously prepared the battlefield to favour her When the woman was eventually inseminated by her lover lover's army.
In the current scene, the woman's body had decided that the 220
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on the Monday night, she contained only a small army of her his first relatively huge army and his second small, young army had partner's sperm, just as her body had planned. However, she still had an easy victory while she later slept.
a reasonably powerful cervical filter, not least because of the Over the next two days, he kept her topped up with young sperm unnecessary nocturnal on the Saturday night. She tried to delay the
--- and on half of the occasions she bypassed her filter with an first intercourse with her lover for another day to give her partner's intercourse orgasm. On her return home, she contained a large and army time to decrease in size still further, but her lover would not be powerful army from her lover. Her body's aim was now to engineer a delayed any longer.
strengthening of her filter before allowing her partner to inseminate Because of the strength of her filter, when she did have sex with her. She succeeded. First, she avoided sex with him any sooner than her lover for the first time, her body felt like an orgasm during she had to without arousing his suspicions. Secondly, she had a intercourse. That way, she could correct the 'mistake' of her earlier nocturnal. Thirdly, unable to rely on his cooperation over a foreplay nocturnal preparation and bypass her filter. Her lover, though, was orgasm after such an absence, she took the safer option the next pursuing a strategy of his own. Having been thwarted in his attempts evening and masturbated --- then immediately solicited sex.
to have sex with her on so many previous occasions, his absolute This was to be the insemination that deceived her partner into priority was to ejaculate inside her. When at last she allowed thinking he could be the father of any child conceived that month.
penetration, he ejaculated as quickly as he possibly could, before she She felt no urge to climax during intercourse, only an urge to pretend changed her mind yet again and made him withdraw.
that she did. As a result, few of her partner's sperm made it through His urgency prevented her body from bypassing her strong filter her cervix into the battlefield. And those that did would be out-during intercourse, and at first few of his sperm managed to escape competed by the numerical superiority of her lover's killers and egg-from the seminal pool into the cervix. But, with his cooperation, she getters. There was never any doubt that this particular war would be climaxed from his caresses fifteen minutes later. With the seminal won by the woman's lover.
pool still in position, his huge army now bypassed her filter and Her strategy worked very successfully, but of course none of it flooded her cervix and womb. The lover had got the best of both was achieved at a conscious level. Her body achieved its aims by worlds --- rapid insemination before she changed her mind, and a subconsciously orchestrating the sequence of moods, motivations high level of sperm retention. And she had satisfied her body's urge and responses that would best serve her reproductive interests.
to collect as many sperm from this man as possible. As long as his Consciously, she will simply have relished her sexual pleasures, her army was reasonably competent, he should now easily defeat the excitements and her fears as she cleverly negotiated the slalom of remnants of her partner's small and ageing army.
infidelity and deception.
An hour later, when the woman's lover offered to top her up with The behaviour and responses of this woman during her infidelity a small army of young sperm --- his second inseminate --- she were fairly typical. In Britain, the average frequency of nocturnal and accepted and they cooperated to produce an intercourse orgasm.
masturbatory orgasms for women during phases of fidelity is just This bypassed the filter in her cervix --- although that filter was now under one per week (Scenes 22 and 23). During phases of infidelity, substantial, containing blockers from both men --- with the result the rate increases to about every other day. These orgasms occur that a high proportion of the lover's young small army reached her most often when women anticipate that their next intercourse will be cervix and womb. The combination of
with their partner. When they anticipate it will be with their lover, they occur less often.
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Women also change their likelihood of having an intercourse more intently, and generally make it more difficult for her to collect orgasm during infidelity. On average, they are more likely to climax anybody else's sperm. Her strategy for influencing the outcome of during or after intercourse with a lover (33 per cent of occasions) sperm warfare, therefore, just like a man's, depends on being able to than they are during or after routine intercourse with their partner (22
change her masturbation and nocturnal patterns without being per cent of occasions). Thus a lover's army receives assistance in detected. Female masturbation and nocturnals have therefore been entering the battlefield more often than does a partner's.
shaped to be secretive just as rigorously as male masturbation and These differences mean that on the whole not only does a partner wet dreams. And again, just as for men, it is the involvement of encounter a stronger filter than a lover, he is also less likely to masturbation and nocturnals in infidelity and sperm warfare that has receive help in bypassing that filter. On average, the advantage generated in women the subconscious urge for secrecy and privacy.
enjoyed by a lover in sperm warfare is relatively large. When a The fact that, by and large, people do not know each other's woman is not being unfaithful, she helps her partner to place a large masturbation patterns is a testament to the success of that urge. For sperm army inside her on 55 per cent of occasions. When she is being all the same reasons that we discussed for men (Scenes 12 to 14), the unfaithful, she helps him on only 38 per cent of occasions, but helps urge for privacy and secrecy over masturbation shown by most her lover on 65 per cent of occasions --- nearly twice as often.
women is often matched by their curiosity, suspicion, distaste, and The really impressive part of a woman's strategy, however, is the even prejudice regarding the practice in general.
way she manages to engineer a strong bias over sperm retention in Of course, women do not always climax in secret. Just like a man, favour of her lover without betraying any hint of infidelity to her a woman will sometimes do so in full view of her partner without partner. First, she keeps the frequency with which she climaxes them then carrying on to have intercourse (Scene 20). Sometimes she during or after intercourse with her partner the same (22 per cent of does so by an open display of masturbation, but most often she does intercourses), whether she is being unfaithful or not. Secondly, her so with his help. We have already discussed facets of this situation main weapon against her partner is to increase her frequency of with respect to oral sex (Scene 10), but often a man stimulates the masturbation and nocturnals, but because these orgasms are secret, woman with only his fingers. Here it is the orgasm itself that is the change passes undetected by him. Thirdly, her main weapon to strategically important to both the man and the woman --- not any favour her lover is to have fewer nocturnal and masturbatory orgasms information the woman wishes to give or the man wishes to collect before, and more bypass orgasms during, sex with her lover than with by his smelling and licking of her genitals.
her partner. Yet again, her favouritism cannot be detected by her Such open orgasms, without intercourse immediately following, partner.
have exactly the same consequences for sperm retention as a We can now see why it is as important for a woman to hide her woman's private masturbation and nocturnals. Studies show that all masturbations and nocturnals from her partner as it is for a man three have an equally strengthening effect on her cervical filter, (Scenes 12 to 14). If a man knew exactly when and how often his particularly if at orgasm she still has a large population of sperm in partner masturbated or had nocturnals during their routine sexual her cervical crypts. The result is that all three reduce sperm retention activity, any change in pattern could alert him to the fact that her at her next insemination, even if this does not happen until days body might be anticipating infidelity. With this warning, he could later.
then be more vigilant, guard her
For the man, there is an element of reassurance in seeing 224
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THE CLIMAX OF INFLUENCE
or helping his partner have such an orgasm. His subconscious mind to climax during foreplay, however, a man often shows great registers that, if she does have sex with another man over the next urgency in his attempts to penetrate and inseminate --- because if he day or so (for example, through infidelity or rape), at least she starts succeeds within one to two minutes of the woman's climax he can that intercourse with a strong filter, and any army placed in her tract still bypass her cervical filter (Scene 25).
will be reduced. Of course, the man's ploy is not infallible, and his As we have seen time and time again, most of the strategies partner can render his preparation ineffectual by having a bypass shown by men and women in relation to ejaculation and orgasm are orgasm with the other man. Moreover, if, as is most likely, her next subconscious --- orchestrated by the body via sequences of mood, intercourse is with her partner, his preparation will have been libido and sensitivity to stimulation. Indeed, most of the behaviour counter-productive --- he will have strengthened her filter against described in this book is similarly subconscious, the product of himself.
genetic programming rather than cerebral rationalisation. But the As we have noted, helping a woman to climax during foreplay is, conscious element features none the less, as men and women learn on the whole, disadvantageous to the man. Unlike the climaxes by trial and error how best to satisfy their feelings. Men have to between sexual episodes that we have just discussed it is always learn many things, from the basics of penetration to the subtleties of him, never another male, who is going to suffer lower sperm the female orgasm. Women have to learn how to climax, how to retention. The other disadvantage here is that the longer he waits to encourage men to help them to do so --- and when and how to fake penetrate the greater the chance he will lose the opportunity ---
it. Both sexes also have to learn the strategic subtleties of infidelity either the couple could be disturbed, or she might change her mind and the prevention of infidelity; and how to select a mate, how to about allowing intercourse.
court and seduce the selected mate, as well as how to avoid It is probably for these reasons that, as in many scenes in this unwanted attention.
book, most men would prefer to enter a woman and begin The ability to learn all of these things both well and quickly, intercourse without trying to help her climax during foreplay. But making as few mistakes en route as possible, will have a big because women often have much to gain from a foreplay orgasm influence on a person's reproductive success. Scenes 27 to 29 are (Scenes 24 to 25) and frequently seek a man's cooperation in concerned with how men and women learn these necessary sexual achieving one, the level and length of stimulation during foreplay is subtleties.
one of the major areas of conflict between men and women during their sexual encounters.
A man is most prepared to cooperate over foreplay orgasms when he has least to lose, that is, when the woman either has no sperm in her cervical crypts or when the inseminate he is about to produce has little chance of becoming involved in sperm warfare; and when he has least choice, that is, when the woman refuses to allow penetration until she has had an orgasm during foreplay. So it is not surprising that men are most likely to cooperate over a foreplay orgasm when they have spent most time with their partner (so infidelity is unlikely), and when the woman is most insistent. Even having helped the woman
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he had thought he was inside her and had begun thrusting. But when she had taken hold of his penis and guided him in, the sensation was CHAPTER NINE
so different that he realised he must have been somewhere else ---
again, probably between her buttocks. He had nearly ejaculated prematurely, but had hung on just long enough to push himself right Learning the
in. As he lay in the dark by her side, his sense of achievement and satisfaction knew no bounds. He told her how fantastic it had been and Gropes
asked how it had been for her.
She said, 'Great' with a sarcasm that would have deflated anybody but a first-timer. When she had first seen him at the party, she had dismissed him as a prospect, thinking how young and inexperienced he seemed. But when he homed in on her, she had changed her SCENE 27
mind. He was quite good-looking and his clothes were expensive.
Practice Makes Quite Good
His conversation had been a little immature and naive, but his witty stories of achievement and failure had impressed her. When he had brazenly asked her if she felt like having sex with him, she had been As the young man rolled off the girl beneath him on the bed, a pile just drunk and randy enough to think it might be a good idea. As of coats and sweaters collapsed on top of him in the dark. He pushed soon as they were in the dark room, he had more or less ripped off them away, on to the floor. He had done it. At long last, he had done her underwear. Then, he had missed out all foreplay, lain on her like it. Without a shadow of a doubt, he had finally ejaculated inside a a dead weight, and prodded between her buttocks and the bed. Even woman.
when she helped him inside her, he had ejaculated as soon as he was He had come close twice before. The first time, when he was in. Now he wanted praise. She felt embarrassed, annoyed and sixteen, was during a heavy petting session with a girl two years sexually frustrated; she vowed that, next time, she would take more younger than himself. On that occasion, he had been content just to notice of her first impressions.
ejaculate, and hadn't really tried to enter her. Then, last year, at a Someone knocked on the bedroom door and, getting no response, party just like this one, he had tried again but failed. Convinced that tried to push it open. When the bolt on the inside held, the he was inside the girl, he had happily thrust away until he ejaculated.
prospective intruder urged whoever was inside to hurry up, It wasn't until afterwards that she had told him that all he had done reminding them that they weren't the only ones who needed the was thrust down between her buttocks and ejaculate on to the bed, or room. When the girl began to shuffle around on the bed, the young maybe somebody's coat. This time, however, he had definitely man asked her what she was doing, saying they needn't give up the succeeded. Nineteen years old, and he had lost his virginity.
room just yet. It was so dark that neither could really see the other.
Admittedly it had been quick; at the most a few seconds, once he The girl said she was looking for her knickers, and could he was inside her. Admittedly, also, he had needed help. As on the remember what he had done with them? He had put them on the previous occasion, the prods of his penis had failed to find the girl's floor somewhere, he said, and would look for them in a minute; vagina --- though he wouldn't have known. Once again, there was no rush he repeated. Embarrassed 228
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that she had really allowed such a nonentity to have sex with her and kissed in his car and his hand discovered she wasn't wearing any eager to put the experience out of her mind, the girl lied that she underwear, that he should let her share his bed for the night, he needed to go to the toilet, and would he please help her to look?
accepted. She spent the rest of the night, all the next morning and Reluctantly, he pulled his pants and trousers up from around his part of the afternoon being kissed and stroked, pampered and knees, fastened his zip, and got off the bed to help her.
stimulated. Three times he brought her to orgasm and four times he In truth, he couldn't remember what he had done with her inseminated her. In between their love-makings she slept and knickers. He had been astounded that this girl, whoever she was, had dreamed of a long relationship with him.
agreed to come into the bedroom in the first place. He had only For a while after that weekend, she managed to live out her talked and danced with her for about an hour. Even once he had got dream. She remained the man's lover until she discovered that, as her into the bedroom, he was so certain that she would change her well as his partner, he was having sex with at least one other girl mind any second that he had taken off her tights and knickers with the besides herself. Then she stopped meeting him.
speed of light, while she was still compliant. In his hurry, he could At about the same time, her flatmate started seeing the young man have thrown her underwear anywhere.
to whom she had lost her knickers on the night of the party. After the He asked what colour her knickers were. When she said they were pair had been an item for a few weeks, the girl's curiosity got the black, it seemed clear that there was no chance of finding them better of her and she asked her flat mate what he was like in bed.
amongst all the coats and sweaters littering the room. He suggested She could believe her friend when she said that at first he had known they switch on the light, but she told him to forget it, she would go nothing. Evidently, however, he was learning fast, and a few days without. The next second she was at the door, fumbling with the bolt.
earlier he had actually found her clitoris. All he had to do now was As the young man stumbled over the clothes towards her, the door learn what to do with it --- then, she thought, he might become quite opened and she was gone. No sooner had she left than the next good. She had high hopes.
couple were on their way in and he had to push past them. By the time he was out of the door, the girl had escaped down the stairs and immersed herself into a conversation.
exual technique does not come instinctively to a man. It has to S
Partly at first to avoid any further attention from the youth she had be learned. In this respect he is no different from all male birds just escaped, she attached herself to the oldest man at the party. He and mammals. Arousal, erection and ejaculation are pre-was nearly thirty, ten years older than her. She knew who he was and programmed and automatic, but the niceties of sex have to be knew also his reputation as a womaniser. Good-looking and acquired. If a male is ever to persuade a female to allow reasonably successful, he told her he had managed to come to the insemination, he has to pick up the subtleties of courtship and party only because his partner had gone to visit her mother for the stimulation. He then has to learn how to copulate quickly and weekend. She stayed with him for the rest of the evening and became efficiently so as not to miss the opportunities his courtship technique totally captivated by his charm and gentleness, by his humour and has provided.
sensuality. When he suggested, as people began to leave, that she Male birds, for example, first have to learn how to stand on a should let him drive her home, she accepted. When she suggested, as female's back, then how to bend their tails to press against her they
genitalia before transferring sperm. Male mammals have to learn what to do with their erections --- where to put their 230
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penises. Even as intelligent an animal as an adult male chimpanzee long enough to get the opportunity for intercourse, and where to put is totally inept if denied sexual opportunity during adolescence. His his penis when LEARNING T
the moment H
fi E GROPES
nally arrives . A man who can also learn sexual development depends first on watching others having sex, how to influence a woman's orgasm pattern has much more chance and secondly on practising intercourse himself. In the company of a of influencing her pattern of sperm retention (Scenes 24 to 26). But a female, an inexperienced adult male such as this becomes aroused woman's body does little to make it easy for males to learn the and erect but has no idea what else to do. He even has trouble necessary techniques. In fact, it does the converse. Why? The answer knowing which end of the female to approach with his penis, and lies in mate selection, and the way in which women collect rarely succeeds in copulating on his first encounter or even on the information about men.
next few. Thus, if any male mammal is not to miss the first of his We have already discussed at some length the criteria by which a lifetime opportunities to inseminate a female, he needs to practise woman selects a man (or men) to be her short-or long-term partner during adolescence --- and human males are no exception. As the (Scenes 18 to 21). There we considered the importance of a man's youth in the scene discovered to his cost, failure to learn sexual status, behaviour, looks, fertility and sexual health. We also technique quickly during adolescence can soon result in missed discussed how most mate selection is a process of compromise; how opportunities for insemination. And it can have an important influence on a man's level of reproductive success. In all human a man who can seem the best bet at one stage in a relationship may cultures, young males first hear and see the basics of sexual not seem so later; and how a woman sometimes needs to balance a technique from those with experience, either precocious peers or man's visible qualities, such as his status and looks, against his less older educators. In many cultures, sexual experimentation by visible qualities, such as his prowess in sperm warfare.
young, even pre-pubertal, boys and girls is openly encouraged or at In order to collect information about a man, a woman in effect least condoned. A boy who learns early how to persuade a girl to needs to set him a series of tests. Depending on how many tests he have sex with him, how to prepare her genitalia for penetration, passes compared with other available candidates, she will then either how to stimulate her to lubricate, and how to find and enter her accept or reject him. She needs to set tests that are challenging but vagina with his erect penis will be less likely to miss his first not impossible. They are of no value to her if they are too easy, or if opportunities to reproduce. The youth in Scene 27 had his first they are so difficult that no man can pass them. A woman's body and chance to learn sexual technique at sixteen years of age. This single behaviour have been shaped to present such a test. And as often as occasion was not enough. Two years later he missed his first not the male quality being tested is his ability to learn how to use her opportunity to inseminate a girl because he had not yet learned body and cope with her behaviour.
either how to find her vagina with his penis or what it felt like once Learning is always more difficult when a given behaviour does he was inside. At nineteen, albeit with help, he managed to find a not always elicit the same response. The female response to any girl's vagina and inseminate her, but even then his inexperience cost particular male stimulus is notoriously unpredictable. This is true him a full relationship with his conquest and, therefore, any further from the earliest moments of courtship to the occurrence of orgasm sexual opportunities with her.
during intercourse. Not only do women differ (for good reason ---
Of course, a man has to learn much more than simply how to Scene 36), but individuals differ from occasion to occasion (again for gain a woman's sexual interest, how to retain that interest good reason --- Scenes 24 and 25).
This variability allows the female to set challenging, but 232
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LEARNING THE GROPES
passable, tests for those males who satisfy their other mate-selection is despite the apparent disadvantage that, the more influence a man criteria. Inevitably, these tests are most difficult for inexperienced has over her orgasm pattern, the less control she herself has. Yet we males. As an example, let us consider the position of the clitoris. As have argued (Scenes 22 to 26) that a woman's control in this respect we have already noted in humans, apes and many monkeys this is a major weapon in influencing her reproductive success. Is it organ is small, difficult to find, and removed from direct stimulation possible that this loss of control is more apparent than real ?
by the penis during intercourse (Scene 22). It can be stimulated by No man can force a woman to climax if her body does not want to.
some part of the male's anatomy during intercourse --- usually the A competent man simply helps her to climax when she does want an penis --- but unless the male knows exactly what to do it does not orgasm. A less competent man forces her to do much more for herself have to be.
via masturbation and nocturnals. An experienced and competent man More than anything, stimulation of the clitoris during intercourse is therefore a help, not a threat. But there is another aspect to the depends on the stance or movement of the female, and so is much female preference for more experienced males.
more under female control than male. This is as true for humans as Basically, a woman uses a man's approach to foreplay and for any other mammal, and it is not surprising in view of our intercourse to gain information about him. A man who is able to conclusions concerning the function of intercourse orgasm (Scene arouse a woman and stimulate her to orgasm signals that he does 25). This fact makes life extremely difficult for an inexperienced have past experience of other females. This tells her that other male, as he struggles to learn the techniques of intercourse. If his own women have also found him attractive enough to allow intercourse.
behaviour sometimes does and sometimes does not stimulate the The more effectively he stimulates her the more experienced he woman, a man can only learn how to exploit this most powerful should be --- and hence the greater the number of women who have source of sexual stimulation either from a great deal of trial and error so far found him to be attractive. Mixing her genes with his, or from direct education by a woman. Even then a clitoral technique therefore, may produce sons or grandsons who are also attractive to that works with one woman does not necessarily work with another women, hence increasing her reproductive success.
(Scene 36).
Interestingly, the females of some species of birds are also known On the night of Scene 27, the girl was looking for a long-term to use this yardstick during mate selection. If a female sees one or partner (Scene 18), and as part of her selection procedure her body more other females mating with a particular male, she also is more was eager to test her chosen male's competence at intercourse.
likely to mate with him. So being seen to be attractive to other Because he had at least learned something of courtship, the young females is an attractive male trait in its own right man passed her early tests and had a chance of passing her Despite the difficulties, virtually all men eventually learn the intercourse test. He failed dismally. The more experienced man, basics of intercourse, and most learn even the subtleties. But the however, passed her tests at all levels. The girl probably preferred the faster they are able to learn, the fewer opportunities for insemination older man for many reasons, but one was undoubtedly his superior they will miss in their lifetime, and the more children they are likely sexual technique.
to father, with more women, than their slower-learning When asked why they like men who can stimulate them to contemporaries. Studies have shown that orgasm, women naturally reply in terms of the pleasure they gain from orgasm. But the advantages a woman gains from selecting the more competent men are biological as well as sensual. This 234
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LEARNING THE GROPES
boys and girls who experiment most before puberty, particularly if Her urges to do all of these things will be orchestrated that experimentation involves genital contact, have more sexual subconsciously by her body, but the expertise she develops in partners in their lifetime. Making the most of early opportunities for satisfying these urges will depend on her ability to learn --- and to sexual practice gives a young boy the edge over his contemporaries, learn quickly. Failure to learn sexual technique quickly is unlikely to and ensures that in generations to come he will have more make a woman miss opportunities for insemination as clearly as descendants in the population.
inexperience may do for a man. Nevertheless, it will influence the Obviously, failure to practise when younger does not totally extent to which she makes the most of the opportunities that present condemn a young man to a life without successful intercourse. If a themselves. Not least, the efficiency with which she learns will girl or woman finds a man sufficiently desirable as a short-or long-influence her ability to make the most of sperm warfare.
term partner in other respects, she may tolerate inexperience, a lack We discuss this learning process for women in Scene 31. First, we of consideration, and other sexual shortcomings. Mate selection is, look at the dangers and repercussions of the way in which women test after all, a process of compromise (Scene 18). In Scene 27, the male sexual prowess in the early stages of courtship.
flatmate undertook to educate the young man in the niceties of intercourse. Her aim was to create a partner who, in addition to qualities that she obviously quite liked, would be moderately competent at helping her to climax when it suited her. While SCENE 18
educating him, she was also testing his ability to learn sexual techniques. He was becoming 'quite good', suggesting that any sons Rough and Tumble
and grandsons he might give her would also be at least 'quite good'.
Importantly, in educating him to help her to climax, she was not The four teenagers walked noisily through the summer wood, educating him to help other women to climax --- or, at least, not to the same extent (Scene 36). He would learn something from her, but sheltered at last from the scorching early afternoon sun by the heavily not as much as it might seem.
leafed trees. Ahead of them, squirrels skittered off the path and birds flew into the bushes, sounding their alarm calls. Nobody had trodden In this discussion, we have concentrated on the sexual this path for a while.
development of young males as they struggle to pass the tests created One of the two boys had recently passed his driving test and had by women in the name of mate selection. Although young women borrowed his mother's car for the day. They had parked by the side of have far less to learn about the basics of intercourse than young men, the road, and for the past fifteen minutes had been walking through they do need to learn how to recognise and act upon the urges generated by their bodies. For example, a girl has much to learn the wood on their way to a place known to one of the girls. At first, about how to masturbate and when to do so --- or not. She also has to they had made their way along the narrow path in pairs, the dark-learn how and when to seek a man's cooperation in stimulating haired couple at the front, the second boy and his girlfriend behind.
orgasm during foreplay, intercourse and post-play. Finally, she has a Each couple walked hand in hand. But when the path widened out, great deal to learn about the techniques of deception and reassurance they broke up. The boys had taken off their shirts and, on some within relationships.
pretext, had started to flail each other with them. Then they had run off, chasing
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each other among the trees. The two girls linked arms and, bending He secretly envied the dark-haired boy; envied his muscular bulk, towards each other as they went, whispered comments about the his athleticism --- and his ability to swim. He was like a magnet to boys' bodies and behaviour, laughing loudly each time one of them girls. At parties they would cluster around him, hanging on his every said something particularly wicked.
word, laughing loudly at his jokes, each trying to make him notice Leaving the two boys to their games, the girls continued round a her. According to rumour he had had sex with almost every attractive bend in the path. Ahead of them in a small, sunlit clearing, a narrow, girl in their circle, even with the second boy's own current girlfriend.
grass-covered wooden bridge carried the path across a river. Had the He, on the other hand, was still a virgin. He hadn't even been able to girls known what was to happen over the next few hours, they might persuade his girlfriend, no stranger to sex, to let him enter her. She have thought that the dark pine plantation into which the river flowed didn't mind his fingers inside her and she happily played with him until looked menacing. As it was, they found the place cool and beautiful.
he ejaculated, but not once in three months had she let him have The river was shallow, and the pebbles on its bed made the water intercourse.
babble soothingly as it flowed along.
One of the few from their group who had not so far had sex with This sound of running water was the perfect antidote to the heat of the dark-haired boy was the dark-haired girl who was with him today.
the day. Even better, just before the river bent under the bridge and She was in many ways the most attractive girl in their year at school.
into the plantation, the water formed a large shallow pool just over a Until today, though, she had tended to distance herself socially, and metre deep.
was usually to be seen being driven around by older men. None of As the girls approached the pool, they were overtaken by their two these escorts had ever lasted long, and rumour had it that she was still companions, now breathless from their exertions. The dark-haired a virgin and something of a tease. She had always refused to go out one stopped at the edge, quickly stripped to his swimming shorts and with anyone her own age, even the dark-haired boy. Today, however, jumped in, immediately at ease in the cold water. The girls were his persistence had been rewarded when at last she had accepted his much slower stripping down to their bikinis and he grew impatient, invitation. As the second boy watched her white bikini go virtually splashing and throwing water in their direction, provoking shrieks of transparent as it became wet, he had to accept that really she was
'No', 'Stop it!' and 'Don't do that!' There was much running much more attractive than his own girlfriend. As he watched the two backwards and forwards as, each time they approached, he splashed girls playing with and making up to the lad in the water, he grew them. Profanities flew amidst the shrieks of shock and laughter. In more and more jealous.
the end, the two girls jumped in and began to exact wet and cold The other three knew that he couldn't swim, but underestimated his revenge on their antagonist.
fear of water. They urged him to join them, pointing out that it wasn't The second boy watched from the river bank and slowly stripped really very deep. As he continued to decline, they grew irritated and down to his shorts. He had been dreading this moment. He couldn't impatient. Even his girlfriend, embarrassed by how badly he was swim and in truth had a phobia about water. He would have been measuring up to the other boy, became annoyed. Although she able to cope on his own, but with all the horseplay going on he was genuinely enjoyed her boyfriend's company, she was much more secretly terrified. There was no way he could go into the water with attracted to the dark-haired one. A few months ago she had had sex the others. He sat and watched their fun and waited nervously for the with him, but he had dropped her almost immediately. For a while inevitable.
she
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had been inconsolable, and she still hadn't really given up hope that one's girlfriend collapsed in a heap into the water. Meanwhile, the one day she would get him back. At this moment she was much more dark-haired girl climbed out of the pool, picked up her boyfriend's concerned about flirting with him than with her boyfriend. When the other clothes, and disappeared with them into the woods. The naked other two decided it was time to force her boyfriend into the water, boy was so busy playfully wrestling with the other boy's girlfriend she actually joined them. They scrambled out, grabbed hold of his and getting aroused that he didn't notice what was happening on the feet and hands and, despite his obvious fear and genuine pleadings, bank --- until his own girlfriend reappeared. When he realised what threw him into the pool. Trying hard not to show his panic, he had happened he sank back into the water to hide his erection, while quickly climbed back out of the water, swore at his companions, then he worked out what to do next.
settled back on the river bank.
After listening to the jokes and the accusations of cowardice for Eventually, his girlfriend came and sat with him and soon not standing up, he turned to his girlfriend, urging her to get his everybody was out, warming up in the sun. After a short, quiet spell clothes for him. However, despite good-humoured banter and he started to throw grass stalks at the other boy. There was another threats, she refused to cooperate. False irritation crept into his voice chase, and an uneven wrestling match which he easily lost. When and, eventually, he announced that he didn't care who saw him 'with they returned, it was the girls' turn to throw vegetation at the dark-a hard-on' and that his girlfriend was going to pay. With that, he haired boy. He threatened recrimination, went down to the river, swam towards the bank and clambered out of the water. His cupped his hands to get a handful of water, and threw it at the two girlfriend stood for a second, frozen with excitement and indecision.
girls amidst shrieks of laughter. They retaliated by joining forces and Then, as he stood facing her on the bank, she began to run up the pushing him into the water. Then they jumped in after him and the path towards the bridge. The boy gave chase. The pair were only just fray continued.
in view of the others when he caught her, wrestled her to the ground The other boy sat, watched and envied. Amidst all the splashing and sat astride her, pinning her arms to the ground. They were both and shouting, he heard his girlfriend say she was going to pull down breathless. She was laughing, but he was not. Still visibly excited, he the dark-haired boy's shorts. Soon both of the girls were wrestling was on the verge of losing control.
with him. As soon as he realised what was happening, he grabbed his He asked where she had hidden his clothes. She said he had to shorts, shouting, 'No . . . stop it!' and swearing loudly. The other boy find them. He put his hand on her bikini top and said that if she watched, a jealous half-smile on his face, wishing something like this didn't show him where they were, he would take it off. She would happen to him once in a while.
pretended to give in, saying she would show him where they were, The dark-haired boy was excited. The idea of losing his shorts to but as soon as he let her stand up she went to run off again, the two girls appealed to him, but he still fought and protested. He laughing. He grabbed her, put one hand on the back of her neck, yelled, 'No!' a few more times, swore, insisted his shorts would tear, twisted an arm behind her back, and asked her again to show him.
and then when he felt he had protested long enough stopped She protested that he was hurting her. He wouldn't let go until she struggling and let them have their way. It was the other boy's showed him his clothes, he said, and began to frog-march her into girlfriend who completed the job, waving her trophy excitedly in the the wood, heading back to the place where he thought she had taken air. When he grabbed at his shorts, she threw them to the other girl.
them. They disappeared into the trees.
The dark-haired boy and the other
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The other boy's girlfriend had become aroused by her close contact what her preference was despite the fact that he had actually (forced with the dark-haired boy, memories returning of the occasion they her to have sex. The cocktail of emotions was tipping him over the had had sex. Disappointed at his departure, she redirected her arousal edge. He wanted sex with her, and he was going to have it. If his towards her boyfriend. She reached out her hand to pull him to his friend could force her, so could he. If she could still like his friend feet, and suggested that they too went for a walk. Once he was despite his forcing her, she would still like him. He moved his body standing up, he pulled her cold, wet body against him and kissed her.
down just the distance necessary to push himself in --- and missed.
When she felt him becoming aroused, she suggested again that they As soon as the girl realised what he was trying to do, she told him move on in case the others came back. They walked a short way until to stop and began to struggle. Briefly he pleaded with her to let him they found a secluded spot on the river bank and lay down hidden in, but when she still said no he used his weight and Strength to pin from the path by vegetation. When he complained that their wet her to the ground. They struggled as he tried both to hold her down clothes were uncomfortable and that they should take them off, she and to find her vagina. He stabbed and slabbed with his penis, but agreed. For the first time since they had met they could actually see kept missing. Slowly it dawned on the girl that, unlike his friend, he each other's nakedness, instead of fumbling with each other in the didn't know what he was doing. He had the strength, and the weight, dark of his mother's car. He knew she was on the pill, and assumed but not the experience. He was trying everywhere but the right place.
that at last they were going to go the whole way. She assumed that, as She carried on biting and scratching and angrily protesting, while he had always restrained himself in the past, he would do so again.
subtly changing her position to try to make penetration easier for him.
At first, their petting followed its usual course. He kissed and But it was too late. The feelings of frustration and inadequacy stroked her rapidly warming skin. She stroked his back. He fiddled merged into panic in the young boy's body. He still wasn't inside her, inexpertly with her genitals, she held his penis in her hand. He said and he couldn't hold off ejaculation any longer. As the spurts came, he didn't want to come yet, and moved to get on top of her. When she the semen running down between her buttocks on to the grass, he felt complained, he said he just wanted to rub himself against her. She totally pathetic. He had risked all, and failed.
said she didn't want him to. He urged her to let him, and eventually For a few brief moments, the girl went quiet. Then her emotions she relented. After a few seconds on top, he said he wanted to enter took over. The mixture of fear and sexual excitement she had her. She said no. He pleaded, she refused. He asked why she had let experienced as they struggled, the lack of release through either his dark-haired friend have sex with her but wouldn't let him. She penetration or orgasm, and the disdain for him that had been growing hadn't wanted to have sex with the other boy, she lied. Anyway ---
throughout the afternoon --- all erupted in anger. At every step and she said this with more honesty --- he hadn't given her much during the last few hours he had dwindled in stature in comparison choice.
with his friend. She called him a bastard, told him he was pathetic, It was the last straw. Lying naked in the sun, on top of a naked taunted him that he couldn't even manage to rape her, and said she girl, his penis no more than a thrust away from her vagina, he was was going to report him.
more aroused than he had ever thought possible. All afternoon, he As she pulled on her bikini and moved to stand up, he shrank still had felt inadequate and suspected, correctly, that his girlfriend still further in her eyes. Post-climactic release had removed all trace of preferred his friend to him. Now he learned aggression and pride, and there were tears in his eyes.
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He apologised, said it wouldn't happen again, and begged her not to body. More than anything, she relished her mounting tension as she tell anybody. As an afterthought he said he wasn't really trying to waited for the moment to deny penetration to a male who had enter her, that of course he would have succeeded if he had really aroused himself with her body. She knew this boy's reputation for meant to, and that it was just a game. He must think she was stupid if roughness and aggression during sex. He had, after all, had sex with he thought she or anybody else would believe that, she told him --- he nearly all of her friends over the past Bar. Nevertheless, she was was going to get what he deserved. With that, she threw his wet convinced she could handle him.
shorts at him, told him to cover his pathetic prick, and stalked off When she pretended just one time too many that she couldn't saying she was going to find the others and tell them what had remember where she had put his clothes, and then laughed at him, happened.
she gave him the excuse he was looking for. Again he twisted her Even if she had found them, the others wouldn't have been arm behind her back until it hurt, pulled her against him, and asked interested as they had just acted out a drama of their own. The naked where his clothes were. Still thinking he was joking, she repeated dark-haired boy, penis still erect, had frog-marched the girl through that she couldn't remember and complained that he was hurting. The the pine trees to the place where she said she had hidden his clothes.
next second she was on the ground, face down on the soft bed of pine She had taken him into the darkness of the plantation. There was a needles, and he was taking off her bikini, almost standing her on her soft bed of sweet-smelling pine needles beneath their feet, and they head in his urgency to pull off her bottom half. For a few moments were hidden from the sky and the path by a regiment of ten-year-old she was shocked, but still thought it was play. But when he sat trees. Both were high on the emotions of the past few minutes. The astride her buttocks, put both arms up her back so it hurt, and pressed wrestling in the water as they had struggled with his shorts; the her face into the pine needles so that she could hardly breathe, her chasing, the arm-twisting, their state of undress --- had all combined excitement rapidly began to fade. He was going too far and hurting to produce in each of them a high of sexual excitement. There was no her too much.
question in the boy's mind but that when she had shown him where He told her that if he got his clothes now, she might just get her his clothes were, they were going to have sex. For him, there could be clothes back before the afternoon was over. He grabbed hold of her no other outcome. Sexual excitement always aroused in him hair, raised her head off the ground, and asked again. She said OK, aggression and an urge to dominate, even hurt. This happened every but to stop hurting her. When he released an arm, she indicated a time he had sex, even without the rough-and-tumble foreplay and fallen branch ahead, about waist high. He dragged her to her feet, teasing he had experienced today. He wanted sex with this girl, but he once more pulling both of her arms behind her and pinning them also had a strong urge to humiliate her in the same way as she had painfully against her back. Then he marched her over to the fallen tried to humiliate him.
branch, pushed her stomach against it, forced her to bend forward, The girl continued to feed off his frustration, aggression and and asked where. She cried that he was hurting her, pleaded with him visible excitement. The rumours about her were true. She was still a to stop, and told him exactly where the clothes were. He saw them, virgin. Fingers, but not penises, had been in her vagina. In truth, she and then told her he would teach her not to mess him about again.
had a fear of real penetration, a fear that her vagina would split ---
She was hurting where the branch was grazing her stomach and the thought had kept her awake many nights. Yet, at the same time, from the way he was pushing her arms up her back with his left hand, she had a high level of sexual motivation. She masturbated often and but still she didn't realise what he was about to do. So enjoyed close contact with the male
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far, everything had been physical, not sexual, and although she was got dressed and made their way back to the river to join their in pain and surprised at how powerless she was to resist his strength, friends.
she was still exhilarated rather than afraid. It wasn't until he began to During the walk back to the car and on the drive home, the two push her legs apart with his feet that fear suddenly gripped her girls and the boy who was driving were very quiet and withdrawn.
stomach. Almost before she could find the words to ask him what he Only the dark-haired boy chattered as if nothing had happened. Later was doing, he was inside her. She told him she wasn't on the pill and that evening, with the boys gone, the two girls Confided in each begged him to stop. When she tried to cry out, the sound stuck in her other. The driver's girlfriend triggered their conversation by saying throat. The force with which he was pressing her down over the that she had been raped. She claimed it was the second time and told branch and the pain from her arms, stomach and virginal vagina took her friend about her previous experience with the dark-haired boy.
her breath away. Each thrust was agony. She began to cry, and again Her friend then described her afternoon.
and again begged him to stop. He didn't, but at least he ejaculated They compared notes on what the dark-haired boy had done to quickly.
them. Then they told each other the rumours they had heard about With ejaculation, his aggression faded. He told her how good it his treatment of some of their friends. They mused over why he had been and that she was the best yet. He said he was sorry if he had forced girls when most of them, given time, would happily have sex hurt her, lifted her gently off the branch, and tried to pull her towards with him anyway. Not very seriously, they considered reporting him him to hug her. She resisted. He was a bastard, she sobbed, and he to the police, to stop him raping others. Perhaps they should both go had hurt her. He stroked her head, kissed her tears, and told her that and report both of the boys for the afternoon's incidents. They talked he really hadn't meant to hurt her; that he thought she had wanted it through the possible scenario at the police station, but decided that to be like that. For a while, they sat with their backs against a tree, the experience might be worse than the actual rape. Besides which, it him with his arm round her shoulders. She stopped crying, went very would mean their parents would find out and they would probably quiet, and began sucking her thumb. She was in pain, both mentally never be allowed out again.
and physically, and at a complete loss as to what to do. Three The driver's girlfriend had no more to do with him, and within thoughts kept going through her head: she had been raped; she was days began going out with another boy who had his own car.
no longer a virgin; and her vagina could take a penis after all, even if Whenever she met him, she snubbed him or called him a rapist. She it hurt.
never missed an opportunity to tell her friends how pathetic he was He spoke intermittently, saying at least three times how good it and how she couldn't understand why she had gone out with him in had been and how much he liked her. Just once, she accused him of the first place. Once away at college, he rarely came home, anxious raping her. He laughed and said that he supposed it was a bit like a to avoid the people who thought so little of him.
rape. She said it wasn't a bit like rape, it was rape. A little later, she The day after the other girl lost her virginity, she went on the pill said he should have used a condom. He apologised, said he had and, after turning the dark-haired boy down twice, eventually agreed brought some and that they were in the pocket of the trousers she had to go out with him again. They carried on seeing each other for the hidden. Then he said she shouldn't have got him so excited, and in rest of the summer, the longest he had ever stayed with anybody. She the next breath tried to reassure her over pregnancy and AIDS.
gained the appropriate kudos and
Eventually, they
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aroused the jealousy of her friends for having landed the boy they all a man who is usually a complete stranger to his victim (Stone 33).
wanted. Despite occasional infidelities while at college, they In principle, it should be easy to draw an unambiguous line continued to see each other on and off for the next three years.
between rough-and-tumble intercourse and date rape. If a woman Eventually they began to live together.
says no, but the man forces intercourse anyway, then the intercourse Their first intercourse in the pine wood set the style for their was a rape. However, as all legal systems round the world sexual relationship. In the years that followed, they re-enacted that acknowledge, the situation is not that simple. One of the problems is and similar scenes with mutual consent. For them, intercourse was that, in many aspects of life, people often say no when what they almost always aggressive and often painful. They enjoyed devising really mean is 'See if you can persuade me.'
outrageous scenarios to generate fear and humiliation as a prelude to In Scene 28, we saw five incidents in which people said no. On it.
two of these occasions they appeared to mean it, and on three they Four years after beginning to live together, they had their first didn't. First, the girls told the dark-haired boy not to splash them, but child.
they didn't mean it and within a few minutes were enjoying their retaliation. Secondly, the other boy had a genuine fear of the water, said no when invited to join the Others, and pleaded not to be thrown ough-and-tumble sex play is a common element in the in. The other three underestimated his fear, ignored his pleas, and Rcou
rtship of humans and of many other animals, as they make threw him in. Thirdly, the dark-haired boy at first did not want to lose decisions about whether to have intercourse or not. Such behaviour his shorts, said no, and fought to keep them. He soon changed his has many facets, most of which are illustrated in the scene --- and all mind and decided that he would like to lose them. Nevertheless, he of them involve an interplay between mate selection by females and continued to say no and to struggle. Fourthly, the other boy's the display of quality by males. The females set tests of physical girlfriend resisted her boyfriend's attempts at intercourse. She \aid no strength and sexual competence (Scene 27), which the males then and struggled. But when she realised he wasn't capable of forcing either pass or fail. In their pursuit of reproductive success, the intercourse she changed her mind at the very last minute and tried to judicious use of rough and tumble can have important benefits for a help him penetrate. Yet she continued to struggle and say no. Finally, woman --- and a satisfactory performance can be equally beneficial the dark-haired girl had a genuine fear of penetration. Although she to a man.
had enjoyed the rough and tumble, she said no at the first indication On the vast majority of occasions, such rough-and-tumble games that the boy intended to force intercourse, and struggled and pleaded unfold without any harm being suffered by either the woman or the thereafter as best she could. Underestimating her fear and not man. In fact, they both gain. The woman gets the information she believing that she really meant no, he ignored her pleas and wants and the man, if he behaves satisfactorily, may be allowed to inseminated her.
have intercourse. Occasionally, however, such games can be At first sight, the second and fifth of these events fit into one dangerous. It is a short step from rough-and-tumble intercourse, category, and the remainder into another. Unfortunately, the situation across the boundary of mutual consent, to rape. This is date rape ---
is not that simple. As far as date rape is concerned, there is a further when intercourse is forced by a man on a woman who has at least complication --- the reaction of girls who have been date-raped in the found him attractive enough to 'date', and often attractive enough to weeks that follow their experience.
kiss and 'pet'. It is not the random, predatory rape by 248
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In a study of American students published in 1982, it was found Before we can answer this question, we have to be clear over that girls who were exposed to an attempt at date rape were three precisely how a man and woman's interests differ when they begin times more likely to resume their relationship with the man such behaviour. Many of the important factors are touched on concerned if his attempt succeeded than if it failed. Presumably, the elsewhere in this book, but in the discussion that follows they fact that all of these women had claimed the man had attempted rape become crucial --- and this is because here we are primarily means that at the time they said no and meant no. Yet, if the man concerned, as in the scene, with a couple's first Intercourse.
succeeded in forcing intercourse, nearly half (40 per cent) later Once a man and woman have established a long-term resumed their relationship with him, just like the dark-haired girl in relationship, the costs and benefits that they each experience from the scene. If he failed, then nearly nine out of every ten of the women intercourse become similar (Scene 16), even though the (unction (87 per cent) refused to have any more to do with him, just like the may differ (Scene 2). But with first-time intercourse the situation is girlfriend of the less popular boy in the scene.
very different. Apart from the chance of contracting disease, which This reaction of women makes it even more difficult to draw the is a risk they share, their potential costs and benefits are not at all line between date rape and rough-and-tumble intercourse. In the the same --- especially if there is a strong possibility that their first discussion that follows, we shall make no further attempt to intercourse together may also be their last. A man, like all male distinguish between the two --- that is a job for the legal profession, animals, has much less to lose and much more to gain from a one-not a biologist. The phenomenon under discussion is rough-and-off intercourse than a woman.
tumble intercourse, and the arguments that follow are concerned with From the viewpoint of reproductive success, and disregarding the influence this behaviour may have on male and female here any social pressures to which the man may be exposed, the reproductive success.
siring of a child with a woman other than a long-term partner need In Scene 27, we discussed how much men and women have to not be expensive for him (Scene 13). Having Inseminated her, he learn in order to get the most out of their earliest sexual can if he chooses attempt to avoid all further contact with both her opportunities. We also discussed the link between learning and mate and the resulting offspring. A single intercourse need have no selection, particularly the way that a female needs to set tests of greater cost than that involved in fending off future claims for help competence for males as part of her process of selecting.
and support if she does have a child. Against what could be, This testing is an important process --- a woman uses it to identify therefore, a relatively minor cost he can set the chance of producing which men will give her sexually competent sons and grandsons.
a child. If he does not take each opportunity to inseminate a new But when such testing involves rough-and-tumble sex play, as in woman as it arises, he may never get another chance. In which case, Scene 28, it can become a dangerous business. Nevertheless, even in whoever fathers her next child, it will not be him. A man's the scene, both girls survived relatively unscathed and both came to a reproductive success depends to a significant extent on his ability to decision about their respective partners. To judge from each girl's make the most Of one-off opportunities.
subsequent behaviour, one of the boys passed that afternoon's tests, The situation is very different for a woman. For her, conception the other failed. So what were these tests, and what insight do they is a major event. It may commit her at least to months of pregnancy give us into the function of rough-and-tumble sex play in humans and usually to years of dedicated effort. The man and other animals?
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concerned might desert her (Scenes 8 to 11, and 16). Moreover, We can see, then, that there is a big difference between men and conceiving via a man later proved to be genetically inferior could women in the potential costs and benefits of a one-off intercourse.
result in her raising a less successful child than if she had waited for This difference automatically means that the two sexes approach any a more suitable man (Scene 18). Together, these two dangers mean potentially sexual situation with a conflict of interests.
that an incautious, one-off intercourse can considerably reduce a A man can only satisfy his urgency if he can convince the woman's reproductive success. Her priorities need to be when woman concerned that she actually wants to be inseminated by him, (Scene 16) and with whom (Scene 18) she has one-off sex, rather now, rather than by him or somebody else, later. His than how often. Caution and selectivity are of maximum only alternative is to try to force insemination whether she wants it importance.
or not. At first glance, it might seem that both of the boys in Scene Of course, women are not always cautious. The primary situation 28 simply opted for the second course of action. Again, the situation in which a woman might abandon caution, though not usually is not that simple. The complicating factor is that male persistence selectivity, is when she has a one-off opportunity to collect sperm in the face of female resistance can be a normal, mutually from a particularly desirable man. Usually, this is a man who she has acceptable facet of courtship and foreplay. So, too, can aggression already judged from a distance would make a good genetic father for and a level of physical trauma. We are back to the way that women her next child (Scene 18). In this book, we have seen several women set men tests as an aid to mate selection --- which brings us to the behaving in this way (Scenes 6, 17, 19, 21 and 26). Most often, as in function of rough-and-tumble sex play.
those scenes, such behaviour is within the context of infidelity. Once This is an emotive issue --- so emotive that it is probably best a woman has a long-term partner, the costs of one-off intercourse are broached by first considering the courtship of animals Other than reduced as long as her infidelity remains undetected (Scenes 9 to humans. For example, if we watch the courtship of dogs, we often 11). Her long-term relationship provides a springboard from which see a clumsy male persisting and persisting with his advances to exploit the genetic benefits of one-off sex with selected men despite rejection after rejection by the female. II we watch domestic without risking too much. She does not have this freedom, however, cats we see females clawing, scratching and spitting at prospective if she does not have a partner.
suitors. If we watch mink, we see a male drawing blood as he tries The result of these pressures is that women, like all female birds to subdue the female's spirited resistance.
and mammals, are genetically programmed to be cautious and Witnessing such behaviour, it is difficult not to feel sorry for the selective. In past generations, women who were not so were less females. At best they are being pestered, and at worst they are being successful reproductively than those who were. All women alive physically damaged by males who refuse to take no for an answer.
today are the genetic descendants of the more cautious of female Yet, despite their resistance, female cats and dogs do eventually ancestors, not their more reckless contemporaries. Men, on the other allow one of their persistent and aggressive suitors to mate. As for hand, are genetically programmed to be urgent and single-minded female mink, if they do not experience physical trauma at the male's about one-off sex. In past generations, men who were not urgent and hands, they do not ovulate. Their bodies are on hold, waiting for the persuasive were less successful reproductively than those who were.
right male to inseminate them before they produce an egg (Scene All men alive today are the genetic descendants of the more urgent 15). In all of these
of male ancestors, not their more complacent contemporaries.
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animals, female resistance is actually a test of male competence.
people vary (Scenes 35 to 36). For some, rough-and-tumble sex play Rough-and-tumble sex play in humans is similar.
is indeed a minor and infrequent element in their relationship. For On average, men who are physically able to overcome the final others it is an essential element even up to the level of defences of a female and achieve insemination leave more offspring sadomasochism, if they are to accept the other person as a suitable than those who are not. So women whose sons and grandsons also partner. The dark-haired couple in our scene clearly leaned in this have this ability will enjoy greater reproductive success. One of the direction. Their intercourse on that first afternoon was rough, painful criteria (Scene 18) that a woman can add to her list when selecting a and humiliating for the girl, yet through the experience she mate, therefore, is his ability to overcome her physical resistance ---
recognised the boy as a compatible partner. In the years that but how does she test such an ability?
followed, their sex life was to continue in the same vein --- even Initially, she can simply watch him in competition with other once he was her long-term partner, she tested his ability to force her males. The young men in Scene 28 spent much of their time chasing on many occasions during routine sex.
and wrestling with each other, doing their best to display their We can now understand the decisions made by the two girls in the strengths and hide their weaknesses. But finally, the only real test a scene in the days and weeks that followed the writs by the river. The woman can set is whether a man can negotiate and overcome her boy who forced the dark-haired girl Into intercourse passed her tests.
own defences. To test this, she has to resist first verbally, then She was already attracted to him, as were most other women, and her physically. The stronger and more realistic her resistance, the better body perceived that his qualities made him seem a good candidate the test.
for giving her reproductively successful sons and grandsons. These This is, of course, a dangerous game. Resist too little, and the test qualities included physical power and sexual competence, qualities is meaningless. Resist too much, and the male may inadvertently that her own characteristics made her well suited to test.
cause real rather than superficial damage. The fact that courtship In contrast, the other boy lost stature in his girlfriend's eyes at all rough-and-tumble aggression rarely results in serious damage in levels as the afternoon wore on. In part, he suffered by comparison.
cats, mink or even humans shows the accuracy with which this Mainly, however, he failed in an absolute sense DO live up to his feature of sexual behaviour has been moulded by natural selection.
girlfriend's criteria for acceptability. There wore probably two ways Even in mink, the level of trauma that stimulates a female to ovulate he could have passed her tests, but he failed in both. The basic cause is set at a level just high enough to test the male's ability to of his double failure was inexperience. First, with more experience, overcome her defences, but not high enough for her to suffer long-he would probably have opted for restraint and might eventually term damage.
have gained long-term benefits (as, for example, did the experienced In species such as humans which form long-term relationships, man in Scene 20 who, when faced with a similar situation, opted for rough-and-tumble sexual behaviour is most important during the patience rather than force and six weeks later reaped the reproductive early stages of courtship. Once a woman has tested a man's ability to benefits (Scene 26)). Instead, however, he opted for force. Even then, force himself on her, she need not do it often thereafter. But as in all with greater experience at intercourse he might still have cemented a such tests of male health and ability (Scene 20), even within a longer-term relationship and hence won many future opportunities relationship a woman gains from occasional reappraisal of her for insemination.
partner.
Of course, in this as in most features of human sexuality, 254
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didn't have one, she pushed him away. He offered to drive off and buy some, but she too had lost interest and had wanted to go home.
With both girls, he had only the one opportunity for intercourse.
Neither had given him a second chance. He had vowed never to miss SCENE 29
another opportunity, and ever since his second experience had carried a condom with him. Now, two months on, with the foil How to Con
around the condom looking faded and worn, here at last was his chance to reap the benefits of his hard-earned lesson. If he failed this Outside the car, it was very dark and very cold. Inside, it was warm time, it wouldn't be because he wasn't prepared --- or so he thought.
and getting warmer. After pulling off the road among the trees, he The moment came, and without even being asked he fumbled for had left the engine running and the heater on while they climbed into the condom in his pocket. As he tore off the foil, the girl took off her the back seat. Now everything was warming up nicely. The girl's knickers and got herself into as comfortable a position as she could.
breasts were exposed, her knickers were around her knees and his He pulled the condom out of the foil, perched it on the tip of his hand was between her legs in the warmest place in the car. She was penis, and tried to roll it on. But it wouldn't go. The condom just struggling with the front of his trousers, and he was very excited. As wouldn't roll. He held it up in the blackness to try to work out which he kissed and nibbled the side of her neck, his ear rubbed against the way round it should go, but could see nothing. He turned it over and car window, cold and wet with condensation.
tried again. He began to panic as he felt movement deep in his penis.
Since acquiring his own car, six months ago, this was the third The girl asked if he was having trouble. It was fine now, he lied, time he had been in this position. But on the first two occasions, and with the unrolled condom still balanced precariously on the tip each with a different girl, he had missed his chance.
of his penis he moved into position and entered her without help.
The first time, he had naively assumed that any girl interested in He knew the condom had come off as soon as he started thrusting, sex would be on the pill. She wasn't --- and she wouldn't let him but he had been waiting for this moment too long to 'lop now. With have sex without a condom, which he didn't have anyway. He had supreme will-power he fought off the ejaculation that was so near as pleaded with her to let him in, promising he would withdraw before he entered and revelled in the excitement of an unprotected he came. She said she had been promised that once before, would intercourse. Not until he went to withdraw, several minutes after never trust a boy again, then immediately lost interest and asked him ejaculation, did he tell the girl the bad news, feigning surprise as he to drive her home.
pretended to search for the condom end with his fingers. The girl The second time, he had simply been taken by surprise. Offering a swore and, in panic, tried to find the condom inside her. In the end, lift to a girl he scarcely knew, he had been amazed to find that before with longer fingers and a better angle, it was he who found and they were even half-way home he was being seduced into finding a removed the still unrolled rubber. He apologised quiet spot for them to enjoy themselves. They had been on the verge of intercourse when she suddenly stopped and asked him to use a condom. When he said he
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profusely, admitted the possibility that he might not have put it on properly, but suggested that perhaps they had just been too vigorous in their love-making and she had pulled it off him.
As he drove her home, he tried to argue that there wasn't really any n Scenes 27 and 28 we have explored the way that young men I
danger. The condom would still have stopped him from shooting the and women have to learn various techniques in order to make the sperm into her womb and it did have a chemical on it that killed most of their sexual opportunities. In the modern world, they also sperm. Even if a condom came off, he argued, it still worked like a have to learn how to use contraception. The young man in the cap. Being relatively naive herself, the girl believed him. In the days current scene missed two opportunities for intercourse through his that followed, he bought a supply of condoms and practised. At great general lack of experience with girls. He nearly missed a third financial expense, he practised until he could don a condom in any through his lack of experience with condoms.
light, in any position, and with either hand.
When we discussed family planning in Scenes 16 and 17, we He never accidentally lost a condom during intercourse again, but concluded that modern contraceptives may have little impact on the did so deliberately on five further occasions, each time with a total number of children a woman has in her lifetime. Nevertheless, different girl and each time after they had once previously had they do supplement her natural methods of family planning, thereby intercourse with the condom properly in place. Each time, frustrated giving her even more control over when and with whom she by the reduced sensations of wearing the rubber, he rolled the conceives. For a woman today, modern contraceptives are an condom down such a short way that it came off almost immediately important aid in her pursuit of reproductive success. Not least, they he began to thrust.
are a useful weapon in her manipulation of sperm warfare. In this None of these deliberate deceptions produced a baby. Four of the section, we discuss the ways in which a man may also use modern girls did not ovulate after their 'accident'. The fifth did ovulate and methods of contraception to enhance his reproductive success.
her egg was fertilised. However, the 'accident' with the condom and The idea of hindering or killing sperm as they leave the penis is the prospect of pregnancy and motherhood just before the most not new. Over two thousand years ago, Pliny suggested rubbing important exams of her life stressed her so much that, when the sticky cedar gum over the penis before intercourse. The sheath has fertilised egg reached her womb, it passed straight through without been known since Roman times and was in use in many parts of implantation. When her period began, she went out to celebrate.
Europe by 1700. Fallopio designed the first medicated linen sheath in Nevertheless, the young man's misuse of condoms did make him a the 1500s, but the item took its name from the personal physician to father, but through accident, not design. The mother of his child was King Charles II, the Earl of Condom, who recommended its use to the girl with whom he had accidentally first discovered the condom's the king as an aid to prevent the contraction of syphilis. By the potential for gaining unprotected intercourse. Naively reassured by 1890s, all of the barrier methods of contraception in use today were his story of the condom working like a cap, she had patiently waited openly on sale in the United Kingdom. However, their use is unlikely for seven weeks for a period that never came.
to have been widespread until well into the twentieth century. In the 1980s, about 50 per cent of couples in countries such as 258
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Britain were relying on the man for their contraception. Only 30 per not take up residence in the female's tract, they provide him with no cent were using condoms; the remaining 20 per cent were simply defence against sperm warfare.
using withdrawal.
It is not surprising, then, that even during routine sex men are The perhaps surprisingly high incidence of withdrawal as a means consciously and subconsciously less enthusiastic about the use of of contraception during routine sex is in part a reflection of how men condoms than women (Scene 17). Not least, men are much more feel about using condoms. As most women can testify, if a man is likely to advocate taking the occasional risk.
expected to wear a condom during intercourse, he becomes much To understand why this difference in attitude is even more marked more cavalier in his attitude towards contraception. Of course, when during 'casual' sex, let us first consider the pressures on a woman asked why they don't like using condoms, men say that they simply during casual sex and how these are affected by the use of a condom.
don't enjoy sex so much with them on --- the 'Wellington boot'
As we have already discussed (Scene 28), a woman is normally more syndrome. Women, on the other hand, tend to be much more cautious and selective over casual sex than a man. All the same, favourably disposed towards them. This difference between the sexes having decided on a suitable time, place and partner, she can still in attitude towards condoms reflects a very important consequence of gain a number of advantages from casual intercourse --- as long as their use --- by preventing sperm from entering the vagina, condoms she doesn't conceive (see Scenes 18, 20, 27 and 28). For example, if negate a man's reproductive benefit from intercourse much more than she is without a long-term partner, intercourse can help her gain a they negate a woman's.
man's attention in her search for one. In addition, she can use the This difference is less marked during routine sex than during intercourse to gauge a man's sexual competence, potency, and to casual sex. When a man and a woman are in a long-term relationship, some extent health and fertility. Casual intercourse can thus be an the timing, spacing and number of children that are best for one avenue to protection and financial or other help from a man who she partner are usually also best for the other. Consequently, an untimely judges might be a suitable long-term partner. If she already has a conception would be equally disadvantageous for both of them long-term partner, casual sex with somebody else can provide a (Scene 16). Since the use of condoms is one way that both partners
'reserve' --- a man to move on to if her current relationship breaks up can avoid conception, we might expect both the man and the woman (Scenes 16 and 19). None of these benefits from casual sex require to be equally appreciative of their use. Even in a long-term her to conceive. In fact, she retains more options if she does not relationship, however, there is some difference between a man's and a conceive. Only when she is specifically after a particular man's genes woman's liking for condoms. Why?
(Scenes 6 and 26), or when she is trying to maneuver him into a long-The main reason is that, as we have already discussed (Scene 2), term partnership by becoming pregnant (Scene 18), does she benefit conception is not the main function of routine sex. Such sex is the from conceiving as a result of casual intercourse. Except on these means by which a woman hides her fertile phase (Scene 2) while her occasions, therefore, a woman gains from the use of a condom during partner tries to keep her topped up with his sperm as a defence casual sex. Condoms even help to reduce one of the potential costs of against sperm warfare (Scenes 2, 4 and 6). Condoms do not spoil a casual sex, the risk of infection.
woman's subconscious rationale for having routine sex, but they do Of course, a man also benefits in this last respect. Otherwise, spoil a man's. A woman can still hide her fertile phase via routine sex though, the pressures on a man are quite different from those on a whether a condom is used or not. Obviously, however, if the sperm a woman. We discussed these pressures in detail in Scene 28 in man ejaculates do
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explaining why men are much more urgent, single-minded and There is some evidence for this. Men still make all the same cavalier over casual sex than women. Briefly, intercourse with as topping-up (Scene 4) and warfare (Scene 6) adjustments to the many women as possible is one of the main ways whereby a man can number of sperm they ejaculate during intercourse whether they are enhance his reproductive success. Each child produced in this way is wearing a condom or not. They probably ejaculate about 10 per cent a bonus to be added to that mainstay of his success --- the children of fewer sperm if they are wearing a condom, but the adjustments are a long-term relationship. A man suffers very few costs from casual the same. This suggests that a man's body still 'thinks' his ejaculated sex that might erode this potential bonus. Harsh though it might sperm may have a job to do --- even if it is merely 'wishful thinking'
seem, all each conception needs to cost him is a few minutes of his that on this occasion the condom may have accidentally come off or time, an ejaculate, and a slight risk of contracting a disease. If a burst.
longer-term relationship with the mother is in his reproductive Even if this were an error in the programming of the male body, interests, he may decide to offer paternal care. But if it is not, he may it would not be so surprising. Relatively few generations of men simply leave her to raise the child (or not --- Scene 16) as best she have been exposed to the use of condoms. Consequently, the can, while he pursues other sexual opportunities and seeks a more generation game of natural selection (Scene 1) has had very little promising long-term relationship.
time to re-program the male body appropriately. But even if we The major problem a man encounters in trying to bolster his found that men actually reduced their reproductive success through reproductive success via casual sex is the difficulty of finding their use of condoms, we should expect things to change over the enough women to cooperate with him. Few, if any, men get as many generations to come. Eventually, the human population should opportunities for casual sex as they are programmed to seek-and become dominated by the descendants of men who used condoms hence would like. When such opportunities do arise, they are to enhance, not reduce, their reproductive success.
programmed to let as few pass by without insemination as possible At first, it seems counter-intuitive that condoms could ever (Scene 28). Using a condom to remove all chance of conception thus enhance a man's reproductive success. Nevertheless, there are at negates a man's fundamental reason for pursuing casual sex.
least three ways in which they might.
Subconsciously, his body realises the futility of casual sex with no One way would be if a man could use condoms to trade chance of conception --- just as, again subconsciously, a woman's opportunities with a woman. He could offer to prevent conception body realises the power of casual sex with no chance of conception.
when they first have sex in exchange for the opportunity of Yet, despite the apparent futility of their actions, men are sometimes unprotected sex in the future (similar to the situation portrayed In prepared to wear a condom on such occasions. Why?
Scene 20). He could then use the protected occasions to convince the One possibility is that a man's body is actually fooled by this woman that he really is a suitable mate. As a result, she might relatively recent invention into doing something that is against its consider risking unprotected sex with him at some time in the future.
reproductive interests. It is programmed to assume that when he Another way would be if the greater protection against infection ejaculates inside a woman the sperm will do their job. Perhaps, that condom use affords more than made up for any missed despite the evidence from his conscious brain, his body refuses to opportunities to inseminate. Since the advent of AIDS, the power of accept that a condom inevitably negates this assumption.
condoms to reduce the risk of disease has become widely known. It is possible that a man who uses
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a condom strategically throughout his sexual life will on average offer to use condoms, as a strategy to increase the number of stay healthier and thus enjoy a greater reproductive success than a opportunities for intercourse. Thirdly, while wearing a condom, man who does not.
continue to make all of the necessary topping-up (Scene 4) and The third way would be much more devious --- to (mis)use the warfare (Scene 6) adjustments just in case the Condom bursts or condom to con women into being inseminated in a way that allows comes off. Finally, on occasion, deliberately ml\use condoms to some chance of fertilisation. If a hundred couples used condoms achieve 'sneaky' inseminations. Perhaps, through this strategy, properly for a whole year, no more than three of the women should learned and instinctive dispositions have already combined to allow become pregnant. Yet, in practice up to twenty to thirty conceive.
the men who are prepared to use condoms to achieve a greater This is nearly half the number (seventy-five) who conceive if they reproductive success than men who are not.
use no modern form of contraception at all. The most likely Similar arguments can be advanced to explain withdrawal as a explanation for this relatively high failure rate is that condoms are male strategy. Of course, as far as casual sex is concerned the offer not used properly during routine sex. Whether the failures are true of withdrawal gives a man far fewer opportunities for insemination accidents or whether the men concerned, like the young man in than the offer of a condom. As in Scene 29, a woman is far less Scene 29, deliberately use condoms carelessly is not known.
likely to accept the offer of the former than she is the latter. There Whatever the explanation for failures during routine sex, the are two main reasons. First, withdrawal offers far less protection failure rate will almost certainly be higher during casual sex. There against getting pregnant than a condom. Secondly, it provides less is little doubt that many men use condoms during casual sex in all protection against infection. As far as fertilisation is concerned, three of these ways. On several occasions, the young man in the once a man has succeeded in penetrating through offering to scene misused them to give himself a chance of fertilisation during withdraw, it is far easier for him to inseminate and fertilise than if intercourse. On top of that, he used condoms to increase his number he uses a condom. This is illustrated by the fact that withdrawal as of casual encounters. Through not having had a condom to hand, he a means of contraception has an even higher failure rate than the had missed two opportunities at intercourse, and never had another condom. If our hundred couples used withdrawal for a year instead chance to inseminate either of the two girls concerned. With a of condoms, only seven would conceive if they used the method condom in his pocket, though, he was able to take full advantage of properly. In practice, however, up to forty women would conceive.
opportunities with six other girls. On one of these occasions, he In part, these failures happen because the few sperm that leak out of produced a child which the girl was probably going to be left to the penis before the man withdraws are particularly fertile. Mainly, raise as best she could. Quite possibly, he would not have had this they happen because men often fail to withdraw as promised.
child or any of his other opportunities had he not offered to wear a Offering to withdraw rather than to use a condom provides a man condom.
with fewer opportunities for intercourse, but a better chance of Maybe the young man in the scene is not so unusual. There is an fertilisation when those opportunities do arise. Quite possibly, the intriguing possibility that on average men are already using relative success of the two ploys depends primarily on how condoms to enhance rather than reduce their reproductive success. If experienced is the woman. As the young man in the scene so, their bodies' strategy is as follows. First, try to have unprotected discovered, once a woman has realised that she can be intercourse whenever possible. Secondly, 264
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deceived by the promise of withdrawal, she is far less gullible. In fact, most women are rarely deceived more than once, either by the false promise of withdrawal or by a carelessly positioned condom.
When she has been conned once, she is likely thereafter to keep a close eye on the whole operation.
Although, naturally, humans are the only animals to use condoms, One Way
they are not the only animals to use withdrawal. Many apes and monkeys are known to penetrate and thrust without ejaculation. To or Another
what extent this behaviour is simply the male using his penis to remove material from inside the female's vagina (Scene 21), and to what extent it indicates a tacit agreement between the male and the female not to inseminate --- as in humans --- is not known.
Whenever it is the latter, however, we can be certain that from time Scene 30
to time female apes and monkeys are also conned by males, just like their human counterparts.
Best of Both Worlds
The young teacher looked up from his marking as his two daughters, aged six and seven, skipped over to kiss him goodnight, herded from behind by his partner like two frisky lambs. One of the girls wished him goodnight in her mother's native language, one in his. Most of the time the household spoke his language but in moments of tenderness or anger any one of them might slip into the mother's tongue. When she returned from taking them to bed, he abandoned his marking, witched on the television and sat next to her on the settee. She put her legs over his knees and they sat, eyes on the screen, idly stroking each other's hands and legs. He looked sideways at her, stomach churning with a fear that had been with him all day.
How could he tell her that their whole world might be on the verge of collapse?
'I am Preggnent and its Yours,' the scribbled note had said, thrust into his hand during the morning break. 'My dad says you must giv us sum money or well tell on you.' The girl was fifteen and
only slightly more illiterate than most of her contemporaries at the school. Precocious and from a tough family background she nevertheless had the looks and bearing that would fire most 266
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men's fantasies --- until she spoke. She had asked him for a lift one never suggested he should not provide its mother with some support.
hot summer's night after school. Foreign languages were his main Though she didn't know the whole story, she knew he had not been subject but he doubled as a Physical Education teacher. It was hot totally faithful to her. A combination of bad luck and imprudence that night and he hadn't bothered to change out of his shorts before had led her to find out about the first of his three infidelities. But she getting in his car to set off home.
had forgiven him and within a month they were back to normality.
He should have said no when she asked for a lift. He should have He suspected the same would happen again over this schoolgirl, told her to stop when she began to stroke his thigh as he drove. And especially if he denied the whole thing completely.
he should have told her to get out when she took off her knickers. But No, his stomach was not churning from fear that his partner he didn't. Instead he drove to waste ground by a disused warehouse, got would discover his past indiscretions with women and girls. It was into the back seat, and allowed her to pull down his shorts and climb all churning from fear that she would discover his philanderings with over him. Looking back, he remembered how expertly she had handled men and boys. His panic was that in defending himself against the his clothes and his genitals and doubted that she was a stranger to sex.
girl's note, he might provoke people who knew the other half of his He also doubted that he was the father --- assuming she really was very active sex life into talking. Even apart from the legal dangers, pregnant, of course. Maybe she had set up other men, other teachers, which were serious, he doubted that his partner would stand by him then tried to blackmail them also. Maybe the threat was hollow and if she knew the whole story, despite her sexual awareness and nothing would happen if he ignored it. But maybe she and her father understanding.
were serious and he would have to either pay up or own up.
His homosexual activity went back as far as he could remember.
The fear gnawing at his stomach grew stronger. He wasn't yet He was about six years old the first time his uncle, his regular baby-thirty and his finances were in a terrible state --- still not recovered sitter, climbed naked into his bed to cuddle him. The games they from his years at college, his year abroad, and his year of teacher played were 'their secret' which his mother 'wouldn't understand' and training. He was still sending money abroad to support the child he which would make her 'very angry'. In any case, he enjoyed them.
had fathered during his exchange year, just before meeting his He liked the smell and feel of his uncle's body, the way their genitals present partner. Although she had managed to get a part-time job reacted to each other's touch, and the way he could help his uncle once their youngest daughter had started school, they were still in discharge. He was ten when he first experienced penetration and debt. He wouldn't be able to pay a blackmail demand. His only twelve when he first penetrated his uncle.
option, if the girl was serious, was to deny ever having had sex with His first homosexual experience with someone his own age was her and hope that nobody had seen them that evening.
with his cousin. They were both eleven when, playing in his bedroom In truth, it wasn't the note that really worried him. If it was merely one day while his parents were out shopping, he had persuaded his a case of his word against hers he would have little to worry about, playmate that they should take off their clothes and wrestle. Within financially or legally. Nor was he unduly worried about how his minutes they both had erections and within the hour he was partner would react. Theirs was a free-and-easy relationship and she educating his cousin in some of the techniques he had learned from had the sexually liberated attitude much more typical of her culture his uncle. By the time they were thirteen and both able to ejaculate than his. She knew of his child in her home country and, despite their they were meeting at least once a week for mutual masturbation and financial situation, had
anal sex.
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He was still thirteen when he first had sex with a girl. A young and being unfaithful with another, he still managed from time to neighbour, the same age as himself, whom he had played with time to slip away for casual homosexual sex without either woman throughout his childhood, had succumbed to his 'I'll show you what knowing. On balance, though, most of his sexual activity while I can do if you'll show me what you can do' routine. And he had a lot abroad was with women.
to show her. The years of practice with his uncle and cousin had When he returned to college to begin his final year of study, he given him a knowledge of the body and a sureness and confidence renewed his activities in the gay community. He kept in touch with of touch that most males do not acquire until twice his age. The both mothers of his children by letter, sending what little money he young girl came back, week after week, to have him stroke and could. After graduation, he moved to a new city to train as a stimulate her, each time allowing him to go just that little bit further.
teacher. No sooner had he arrived than the woman who was now In the end, he was touching and caressing her naked body, anus and his partner turned up on his doorstep with their five-month-old genitals with his hands, mouth and penis at such length and so daughter. She moved in with him and they had lived together ever exquisitely that her young body was having its first tingling since. Occasionally, he still picked up a casual lover at a gay bar, experiences of orgasm. Each week her climax was just that little bit but his partner had never found out and as far as he knew she had stronger, and each time they had the opportunity she wanted more of never suspected his bisexuality.
the same. After three months he convinced her that she couldn't Six years ago, he had landed his job as a teacher in a rough and have a baby from anal intercourse and that she would enjoy it, and depressed town with a high level of unemployment. He vowed to after several experiments, she did. Before the year was out, she had himself that he would never do anything sexually that might asked him for vaginal intercourse as well and by the time he was prejudice his career or make it more difficult for them to get out of fourteen his sexual education was complete.
debt. And for three years he had managed to restrain himself. But At college, four years later, he joined the gay scene, spending then, in successive years, he had succumbed to the charms of two many of his evenings in gay bars and clubs. For a year, he lived with student teachers. The first, a young girl, his partner had detected.
another man in a more or less monogamous relationship, though The second, a young man, she did not. Both affairs lasted only a both of them were occasionally unfaithful, mainly with other men month. Then, a year ago, he had responded to the tentative but from time to time with women also. There was never any advances of another male member of staff and had begun a long-shortage of women around him, many of whom told him how much term homosexual relationship, which was still continuing.
better a lover he was than his straight contemporaries.
Under cover of playing squash, the two men had sex at least For his exchange year, he went abroad to study the foreign weekly in the other man's flat. It was uncanny how similar his new language he intended to teach. The person in the flat next to his lover was in his moods, behaviour and responses to the girl he had happened to be a woman. They were lovers within days, even before impregnated within a few months of arriving abroad. In addition to he had found the local gay community. And within three months she sex with each other, the men would sometimes visit gay bars to had conceived --- but not before he had been unfaithful to her with pick up other men or explore the streets and toilets for young male the woman who was to become his long-term partner. Before the prostitutes. For these diversions, they drove to the anonymity of the end of the year, she too had conceived. Even while living with one nearest large city, about thirty minutes away.
woman
The problem that was now haunting him began six months 270
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ago. With his male lover, he had visited the city to look for child tried and found guilty of having sexual intercourse with minors, prostitutes. They had just picked up two boys when they chanced both male and female. He spent only a short time in jail, but II across two thirteen-year-olds from their school who were soliciting.
WHS long enough for him to contract HIV from homosexual It was difficult to know who was the most unnerved by the activity with other inmates. Unemployed and penniless, he died of encounter. His weekend was tense, as he worried about what might AIDS just before his thirty-seventh birthday.
happen. He relaxed a little when, back at school on the Monday, the two boys approached him and said that they wouldn't tell if the teachers didn't tell.
ost readers of this book will be exclusively heterosexual.
M
Such an alliance might have been stable if the other teacher After a period of sexual exploration and mate selection hadn't then begun inviting the boys to his flat and paying them for during late adolescence, they will reproduce within the context of sexual favours. One evening, when he called round on his lover, the one or two successive long-term relationships. The men will have two boys were still there. The temptation of such a foursome was sex over their lifetime with about a dozen women --- and the too great for him, and he allowed himself to be recruited into their women with about eight men. On average, they will produce two games of sexual musical chairs. From then on, the four had met for children and eventually four grandchildren.
group sex more or less weekly. Sensing their increasing A minority, though, will pursue their reproductive success in a ascendancy, the two boys had begun to ask for more and more quite different way. A few will be bisexual, spending phases of money. Just a week ago, they had asked an extortionate amount.
their life directing most if not all of their sexual attention towards When he had refused to pay so much, they had begun to make people of the same sex as themselves. Others will be very threats. Now, there was also the note from the girl and he was promiscuous, having hundreds if not thousands of sexual partners scared, really scared.
in their lifetime. Yet others, at the other end of the spectrum, will As it turned out, his fear was justified. The girl wasn't lying and, only ever have sex with one person. And there will be some men moreover, was determined to have the baby. When he refused to who will direct part of their sexual activity towards forcing women pay her blackmail demand, her father sued him for maintenance. He they have never met before to have sex with them. Some of these denied both paternity and ever having had sex with her, but was will band together in gangs before finding a woman to rape.
legally forced into a test of paternity. The publicity surrounding the The conventional majority often find it difficult to understand case encouraged the two boys, now aged fourteen, to decide there the minority who show these alternative strategies. Their Unusual was money to be made from selling their story. They accused the behaviour is often interpreted as an aberration. The sometimes teacher and his lover of forcing them to take part in homosexual unpalatable truth of the matter is, however, that such minorities are orgies against their will.
pursuing reproductive success just as vigorously and strategically The teacher had judged his partner correctly. She stood by him as the conventional majority. And we should not assume that just during the early stages of the paternity case but left him when the because these alternatives strategies are uncommon they are homosexual scandal broke, taking their two daughters back to her necessarily unsuccessful.
own country. He never saw them again. Within a week of her Each of the seven scenes in this chapter focuses on an area of departure, the paternity test confirmed him as the father of the human sexuality in which people pursue an uncommon but often schoolgirl's child. Following his arrest he was successful reproductive strategy. In this first scene, we explore 272
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the way that male homosexual behaviour can be a successful monkeys show the same range of homosexual behaviour as men, reproductive alternative to exclusive heterosexuality.
from mutual caressing and masturbation to anal intercourse. There Any discussion of homosexuality is bedevilled by the ambiguity are reports, for example, of a male monkey masturbating to of the words that are used. In the following pages, I shall use the ejaculation while being penetrated anally by another male.
following conventions. A heterosexual is a man who only ever has Secondly, as far as humans are concerned, homosexual behaviour sex with women. An exclusive homosexual is a man who is shown by only a minority of men --- at least in the largest and throughout his entire life only ever has sex with other men. A most industrial societies. In Europe and the United States, for bisexual is a man who has sex with both men and women.
example, only about 6 per cent of men experience any homosexual Homosexual behaviour, on the other hand, is the behaviour shown contact during their lifetime, most often during Adolescence. For towards other men --- whether the man concerned is an exclusive two-thirds of those men, that contact is intimate and genital, often homosexual or a bisexual.
involving anal intercourse.
At first sight, homosexual behaviour might seem a strange way Thirdly, in all birds and mammals, including men, the vast to pursue reproductive success. It would seem particularly strange majority of males who show homosexual behaviour are bisexual.
if, like most people, we made the mistake of assuming that just for example, male monkeys who have anal intercourse with oilier because a man is sexually attracted to other men, he is inevitably males do not reduce their rate of intercourse with females. The less likely to reproduce. The evidence, in fact, indicates the same is generally true for men. The vast majority (80 per cent) of contrary. Far from being a pathway to a lower level of reproductive those who have sex with men also have sex with women. Many, success, homosexual inclination is very much a successful like the man in Scene 30, may have phases that are exclusively or reproductive alternative to heterosexuality.
almost exclusively homosexual, but for fewer than 1 per cent of Men who are attracted to other men do still reproduce --- and on men does this 'phase' last an entire lifetime.
the whole they reproduce very successfully. On average, every Finally, there is now convincing evidence that homosexual person who reads this book will have had within the past five behaviour is inherited. Genetic inheritance is more often via the generations --- in other words, since about 1875 --- a male ancestor mother than the father: for example, men with homosexual who practised homosexuality. This does not mean that we have all inclinations are much more likely to have uncles and cousins with inherited a predisposition for homosexual behaviour. Some will similar inclinations on their mother's side than on their father's. In have done, as we shall see, but only a minority. Nevertheless, it the scene we have just witnessed, the man's uncle was more likely does mean that none of us would be the person we are today if one to have been his mother's brother than his father's; his cousin was of our ancestors had not shown homosexual behaviour --- and more likely to have been the son of one his mother's brothers or reproduced.
sisters than his father's.
Before we start to discuss just how homosexual behaviour can A genetic basis to homosexual behaviour does not mean that the aid a man in his pursuit of reproductive success, we must consider circumstances encountered by boys during their childhood do not four basic facts about male homosexuality that are not generally also influence their behaviour. Boys genetically inclined towards known and that provide a most important perspective.
homosexual behaviour may not show that inclination in some First, homosexual behaviour is not peculiar to humans. Ado-childhood situations but may do so in others. The man in the scene, lescent birds and mammals often show such behaviour. Male who almost certainly carried the genes 274
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reproductive disadvantage compared with both heterosexuals and for homosexual behaviour, might never have developed his bisexuals.
homosexual tendencies had it not been for his early relationship So, how big is the advantage of bisexuality compared with a with his uncle. The converse could also be true, though it should be lifetime of only ever having sex with women?
less common --- boys without the genetic inclination may As far as children within long-term partnerships are concerned, nevertheless be seduced or forced into homosexual behaviour bisexual men have fewer children over their lifetime, but probably during childhood. Modern evidence suggests that, more often than have them earlier in life. The man in Scene 30 had two children not, exclusive homosexuals and bisexuals are born and not made.
with his long-term partner, probably about average for the society in This discovery provides an important clue for biologists in their which he lived. But he had them before he was twenty-three, attempt to understand the evolution of homosexual behaviour. No several years earlier than the average heterosexual. Such early gene can persist in a population at the 6 per cent level unless on reproduction may not seem very advantageous, but it can be.
average it imparts some reproductive advantage to the individual Biologists measure reproductive success not simply in terms of concerned. Of course, a lifetime of exclusive homosexuality can number of children or grandchildren, but in terms of reproductive have no reproductive benefit --- but bisexuality can. It seems most rate. A person can have a higher reproductive rate than another likely that exclusive homosexuality is a genetic by-product of the either by producing more children over a lifetime or by producing reproductively advantageous characteristic of bisexuality. If so, the number of children but earlier. Although throughout most of this homosexual behaviour joins the ranks of a number of other human book it has been adequate to discuss simply the pursuit of characteristics that are advantageous when a person has inherited a reproductive success, it is crucial here to remember that when we few of the relevant genes, but disadvantageous if they have talk of reproductive success, we really mean productive rate.
inherited more.
It is difficult enough to compare the reproductive success of The classic example of such a characteristic is sickle-cell different categories of men, such as bisexuals and heterosexuals, anaemia. In the tropics, a single level of the sickle-cell gene is even if we limit our comparison to long-term partnerships. The risk advantageous, endowing its possessor with increased resistance to of including children raised within those partnerships but fathered malaria compared to people without the gene. A double level of the by other men will always render such comparisons fragile. And our sickle-cell gene, however, condemns the possessor to an early death attempt becomes impossible when we try to compare their further and/or a lifetime of pain and suffering.
success via short-term relationships with a number of women. Even Of course, this comparison between the genetics of homosexual the women who produce the children may not always know who the behaviour and the genetics of sickle-cell anaemia should not be fathers are --- so the men certainly won't. Yet it is precisely this misinterpreted: there is no implication here that the former, too, is a avenue to reproductive success that seems to be the most important disease. Rather, the anaemia is the best-studied example of a genetic to bisexuals. The expectation is that such reproduction allows principle that could also be applied to the inheritance of bisexuals to achieve a greater reproductive success than homosexual behaviour. We can think of bisexuals as having a small heterosexuals, but the evidence is Impossible to obtain.
number of the genes for homosexual behaviour, and exclusive Multiple partners, both male and female, are a feature of male
homosexuals as having a larger number --- bisexuals have a reproductive advantage relative to heterosexuals; exclusive 277
homosexuals never reproduce, and have a 276
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For example, the man in Scene 30 was aware of the similarity bisexuality. Nearly a quarter of men who show homosexual between his final male lover and one of the women with whom he behaviour have more than ten male partners in a lifetime. For some had produced a child. Experience with one gave him experience at the figure can be in the hundreds. More importantly, though, the handling a relationship with the other. In this case, he experienced more male partners a bisexual man has during his lifetime, the more the woman before the man. When the reverse is true, experience female partners he is also likely to have. Since, on average, a gained with a man of a particular character type can help the bisexual man will inseminate more females over his lifetime than bisexual to get the most out of a relationship with a woman of a will a heterosexual man, a bisexual man is more likely to have similar character type. The experience may help at all stages and children with different mothers.
levels of that relationship --- seduction, stimulation, social The important question, of course, is whether the average interaction and even deception.
bisexual's success at attracting and seducing many different women The final way in which homosexual activity can aid owes anything to his experiences with many different men. There heterosexual success is via infidelity from within a long-term are probably three main ways why it might.
heterosexual relationship. Practice at being unfaithful to his female The first is that early learning with other boys gives the bisexual partner with a man gives the bisexual experience at walking the a precocious sexual competence. Over 80 per cent of men who are tightrope of infidelity with a woman. Although bisexual men ever going to show homosexual behaviour have done so by the time decrease their homosexual activity markedly as they leave they are fifteen, and 98 per cent by the time they are twenty. Male adolescence and begin relationships with women, their homosexuality is an activity that occurs most often during homosexual inclination rarely disappears completely. A man with adolescence or even childhood, whether with contemporaries or a long-term female partner is as secretive about his homosexual with older men. To appreciate the difference in competence between infidelity as he is about his heterosexual infidelity.
boys with homosexual experience and their heterosexual There is some advantage in practising infidelity with a man. The contemporaries, compare, for example, the man in Scene 30 with long-term female partner of a bisexual is less successful at detecting the man in Scene 27. The latter could scarcely manage intercourse, his homosexual infidelities than his heterosexual Infidelities (often even at nineteen, let alone cope with the subtleties of the female because she does not know he is bisexual). A woman who does not orgasm. In contrast, even at thirteen the bisexual in Scene 30 could know her partner's true sexuality is likely to assume that he is seduce girls into intercourse. By nineteen, women were queuing for heterosexual --- because the majority of men are. Consequently, she his favours, and even in his mid-twenties his sexual aura made him will usually feel less threatened by his relationships with other men attractive to girls from the age of fifteen upwards. The result was than by his relationships with women --- the average man's that, before his thirtieth birthday, he had fathered four children with relationships with other men will be less likely to be sexual than his three different women --- more than most men in his society manage relationships with women. Even on those occasions when her from a lifetime of heterosexuality.
partner's relationships with men are sexual, a woman has less to The second way in which homosexual activity can aid lose, at least initially, than if he is unfaithful with a woman.
heterosexual success is by allowing practice with different per-Although some of the costs of infidelity (Scenes 9 and 11), such as sonalities. Experience with multiple male partners of different risk of infection, still apply, most do not. For example, he will never character types gives the bisexual an edge when interacting with need to reduce his support for her In order to help maintain his multiple female partners of different character types (Scene 36).
lover's child. He is probably
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also less likely to desert her to live with his lover if the latter is a public homophobia while secretly behaving bisexually. On the man.
whole, though, most homophobes are part of the heterosexual So homosexual behaviour during adolescence and beyond can majority.
give a man considerable reproductive advantages over his Whenever we encounter such common prejudice, it is usually heterosexual contemporaries. In which case, why is bisexuality not because the target is in some way a threat to the people showing the more common?
prejudice. It is quite possible that homophobes, like bisexuals, are The answer is relatively straightforward. There are costs to themselves born not made --- an inevitable evolutionary result of bisexuality which can negate the benefits. The most important cost the very success of bisexuality that we have just discussed. The of homosexual behaviour is a greater risk of disease. Even before reproductive advantages enjoyed by bisexuals mean that they the advent of AIDS, homosexual behaviour brought with it an should --- for that reason alone --- be regarded as a threat by the increased risk of early death from sexually transmitted diseases, surrounding heterosexuals. Unfortunately, the bisexual's role in the such as syphilis. In effect, bisexuals are programmed by their genes spread of disease adds to this threat. So, just as we discussed for to pursue a lifestyle that trades the benefit of an earlier and perhaps masturbation (Scene 13), one defence for the surrounding greater production of children (with more women) against the risk individuals is to try to reduce the bisexuals' reproductive advantages of an early death.
through threat and intimidation.
Another cost is genetic --- and here there is another parallel with The final picture, therefore, is that compared with their sickle-cell anaemia. Although people with a small number of the heterosexual contemporaries, bisexuals experience both advantages genes may gain an immediate apparent advantage, as we have seen, and disadvantages in their pursuit of reproductive success. In which that advantage may not be as great as it seems. This is because, case, the important question becomes whether the total costs are compared with people without the genes at all, those with a small greater than the total benefits, or vice versa. Are bisexuals more number will produce descendants with a higher proportion of successful reproductively than heterosexuals --- or are they less individuals with a larger number. In other words, although successful? The answer is that it depends on how common bisexuals bisexuals produce more children and grandchildren at a faster rate are in the population. When they are rare, they are more successful than heterosexuals, among those descendants there will be a few than heterosexuals. When they are common, they are less exclusive homosexuals who in turn fail to reproduce at all.
successful. The reasons are as follows.
Yet another cost arises because a proportion of the heterosexual The advantage of bisexuality lies in its exponents potentially majority display homophobia --- a prejudice against people who having a higher rate of reproduction than the average for the society show homosexual behaviour. Such prejudice is occasionally so in which they live. As we have noted, earlier and better learning of extreme and violent that any man suspected of homosexual sexual technique gives bisexuals a competitive advantage over other behaviour faces an increased risk of injury or even death. We men in gaining sexual access to women. The more bisexuals there encountered a similar if less extreme prejudice in Scenes 12 and 13
are in the population, however, the greater the chance that their in relation to masturbation. With masturbation, of course, such competitors are also bisexual --- and the more common bisexuals prejudice is all bluff and hypocrisy --- the intimidators being as become, the less the advantage enjoyed by any one individual as a likely to masturbate as the intimidated. Inevitably, some result of his bisexuality. As the proportion of bisexuals in the homophobes are also hypocrites, displaying population increases,
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not only does the advantage of bisexuality decrease, but the costs killed by homophobes and contracting HIV, they also have the increase. Of the three costs discussed above, two --- genetics and potential to be very successful. On average, the greater risks and disease --- clearly increase as bisexuality becomes more common.
the greater potential just balance each other.
As far as the genetic risk is concerned, the more common the The conclusion, therefore, is that in the larger, more industrial genes for homosexual behaviour the greater the chance that any societies the genes for bisexuality have stabilised at around 6 per two people will carry those genes, and thus the greater the chance cent of the population because this is the level at which bisexual that a man and his partner will produce sons and grandsons who and heterosexual men, on average, do equally well.
are exclusively homosexual and will therefore fail to reproduce at The situation would be very different, of course, if the costs of all. When it comes to the risk of disease, the greater the level of bisexuality were never as great as the benefits, no matter how homosexual activity in the population, the faster the spread of common the bisexual genes became in the population. Suppose, disease. More people, both heterosexuals and bisexuals, will for example, there were some societies in which there was very become infected. But because bisexuals are always at greater risk little risk of sexually transmitted disease. In such societies, the of contracting disease, they will suffer most. Thus, the chances that benefits of bisexuality could always outweigh the costs, no matter any given bisexual will have an early death are greater.
how many people used the strategy. We should expect the genes We have seen that, in a population in which bisexuals are rare, for bisexuality to sweep through the whole population. Is it those who are bisexual enjoy considerable advantages over conceivable that there have ever been societies in which there heterosexuals. The result is that the genes for bisexuality increase were sufficiently few costs to bisexuality? The answer is yes.
in proportion in the population. Conversely, as bisexual behaviour So far in this discussion, we have concentrated on large becomes more common, the advantage enjoyed by bisexual industrialised societies --- which are uniquely unfavourable for the individuals decreases and the costs increase. If the behaviour wholesale spread and persistence of bisexuality. In particular, they becomes too common, the reproductive rate of bisexuals falls harbour and facilitate the spread of those sexually transmitted below that of heterosexuals, and the proportion of bisexuals in the diseases which generate the main costs of the strategy. The recent population begins to decrease once more.
emergence and spread of HIV and AIDS are merely the most The inevitable result of this interplay of costs and benefits as the recent examples of a sequence of events that will have occurred proportion of bisexuals rises and falls is that eventually the many times throughout human history. For example, from the proportion of bisexuals stabilises. Moreover, it stabilises at Middle Ages until the twentieth century syphilis was the major precisely the level at which the average success of bisexual sexually transmitted killer in the larger societies.
behaviour in each generation is just the same as the average Historically, small, more isolated communities have harboured success of heterosexual behaviour. Therefore, the answer to our relatively few diseases. Since the members of such communities question --- who does better reproductively, bisexuals or were the offspring of the survivors of past epidemics, they heterosexuals? --- is 'neither'. The only difference between the two inherited their ancestors' natural, perhaps genetic, Immunity. New is that the reproductive success of bisexuals is more precarious ---
diseases rarely appeared because the people had little contact with they have a much greater chance of not reproducing at all.
the outside world. When they did have such contact, few escaped However, if they successfully avoid being exposure to disease no matter what
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their behaviour. The survivors were again those with some form of immunity --- which they passed on to their offspring. Consequently, before they encountered the outside world and were exposed to measles, smallpox, syphilis and now AIDS, such small isolated societies enjoyed long periods with little danger from disease. In SCENE 31
such circumstances, bisexuality would have carried nowhere near The Coming of Women
the risks that it now does in larger societies, with the result that the genes for bisexuality should have spread unchecked by disease. No matter how common bisexuality became, its exponents would still The girl rubbed the steam off the bathroom mirror so that she could have reproduced faster than heterosexuals. It should be no surprise, examine her face yet again. Reassuring herself for the fourth time therefore, to find that many such communities when first that evening that the spot on her chin had almost gone, she carried encountered and studied contained a far higher proportion of on towelling herself dry. Twenty years old and she was still getting bisexuals than the industrialised world. And it should be no spots --- surely she must grow out of them soon? As she hung the surprise, either, to find that, when the majority of people are towel over the radiator, she noticed the nearly empty packet of bisexual, homophobia either becomes much less common or tampons on the shelf and smiled. Which one of them would make disappears completely.
the supreme effort and put it back in the cabinet this month? It was As far as the level and tolerance of bisexuality are concerned, it a week since their periods had finished --- strange how they tended is the major industrialised societies that are the exception, not the to coincide --- and neither of them had yet managed to put the rule. Anthropologically, in 60 per cent of human societies packet away. Powdering herself, she felt her throat tightening.
bisexuality is both common and socially accepted. Some societies, Even after a year together she still got excited at the prospect of sex such as certain small island communities in Melanesia, accept as with her partner. She had been looking forward to this all day and normal that all adolescent males will at some point engage in there was a tingle between her legs already.
homosexual anal intercourse. The women also accept that their As she walked naked from the steamy bathroom to the dry heat long-term partner will from time to time have sex with other men, of the bedroom, her partner was already lying on the bed. Ten years and they tolerate their partner's homosexual infidelity more than his older than herself and the mother of a young child, she still had a heterosexual infidelity. The usual attitude is that their partners can wonderful body. How much better it was to lie down next to a soft, continue with their homosexual activity as long as it does not smooth, yielding and compliant woman than a muscular, urgent interfere with their heterosexual relationship. But even in these and selfish man.
societies, where all male adolescents have phases of homosexuality, Immediately she was on the bed, they embraced and kissed. As sometimes within short-term 'monogamous' relationships, exclusive they did so, their hands slid expertly over each other's bodies, homosexuality over an entire lifetime is very rare. Homosexual lightly stroking here, lightly caressing there. From time to time one behaviour is very clearly part of a bisexual reproductive strategy.
would massage the other's breasts, play with a nipple, or gently Moreover, it is so successful a strategy that it has completely stroke pubic hair. Taking it in turns, they moved down each other's displaced the heterosexuality that is the norm in larger, more bodies, kissing and licking as they went, each doing to the other disease-prone societies.
what she most wanted to be done to herself.
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After a while, the girl sat astride her partner, facing away from she could stay but really did not want to be late for the third week her, then bent forward to lick her thighs and genitals. As she did in a row.
so, she raised her bottom in the air, presenting herself to her As she went into the bathroom, her partner shouted after her, partner's tongue. This was the bit she liked best. Whenever she felt complaining that she always seemed to be out in the evenings these like an orgasm, this never failed to take her to the brink. As the days. She reminded her that in the beginning they were never out warm, wet tongue licked and probed her vaginal lips, then so of each other's company. That had been a year ago, the girl shouted gently massaged her clitoris, she felt the sensations she had been in reply. Coming back into the room, she reassured her companion anticipating all day. They kept each other on a high for minutes as that once her exams were over, they could return to how they had they neared the edge but never crossed. Exquisite though they been. In the meantime, she couldn't afford to miss anything.
both found oral sex, they rarely climaxed from that alone.
Before she left, her lover made her promise she wouldn't be Finally, unable to wait for release any longer, she lay back late.. Saying that she would do her best, but warning that she alongside her partner. Her momentary loss of focus soon passed as would probably be dragged off for a drink once the meeting was they kissed deeply, each briefly tasting their own juices on the over, the girl left.
other's tongue. As they kissed, their fingers stroked and probed Once alone, the woman got up, still naked, and switched on ionic each other's wet vaginal lips, then massaged each other's clitoris.
music. Idly, she walked round the room. A moment of fear struck Each knew exactly what to do. As the girl felt the flush spread her when she saw the letter on the shelf, reminding her to have a over her chest, throat and face she saw the same happening to her repeat cervical smear tomorrow --- abnormal cells, was that lover. Their breathing became a gasping, their pulses raced, and serious? In an attempt at self-distraction, she picked up the framed the sounds in their throats became louder and more urgent. For photograph of herself and the girl on holiday the previous summer, one brief, wonderful moment they hovered on the brink, then climaxed more or less simultaneously. It had easily lived up to the both tanned, drunk and happy. Not far away on the shelf was a day's anticipation. They settled into their usual post-orgasmic photograph of herself with her young son. He was now ten years embrace, hands now idly stroking each other's body. In the old, but it was several months since she had seen him. Once she had seconds before drifting off to sleep, she thought how much more begun living openly with her current lover, his father had refused expert they had become at giving each other orgasms since they her access, insisting on looking after the boy himself with his new first started living together.
partner. If only he knew, she thought, that the boy almost certainly Normally, they slept for only fifteen minutes or so after sex, wasn't his but, most likely, the product of a wild evening she had but when she woke nearly an hour had passed. Her partner was spent in a hotel room with two men and a girl while he had been still asleep and it seemed cruel to wake her. Nevertheless, she was away. Memories of that evening triggered the familiar tingle beginning to fret. She had only an hour to get dressed and cross between her legs. It was only an hour since her last climax, but the town. Eventually, she could delay no longer and made to move minute she felt that sensation she knew she would masturbate off the bed. Immediately, her lover woke and sleepily urged her to before the evening was over.
stay a little longer, suggesting it wouldn't matter if she was a bit The girl got off the bus and walked into the restaurant. She was late for her meeting. Sliding off the bed and going in search of late. She had known it would be a mistake to try to fit in sex before clothes, the girl said she wished
leaving but had been desperate for an orgasm all day.
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Looking around the tables, she wondered if he would still be for the past day or so and it was bothering her. Suddenly, she there. This was their first real date, though he had been pushing began to look up the telephone number of the bar where the girl her for some time. She didn't really want to deceive her partner, and her friends usually went after their lectures and meetings. She especially now. The latter's problems over access to her son and phoned, asking to speak to her, intending to suggest that she came the worry of her abnormal cervical smear results were putting and joined them. It wouldn't be the first time. She was told, them both under considerable strain. Somehow, though, she didn't however, that neither the girl nor her friends were there. Deciding feel quite as guilty about a clandestine meeting with a man as she they must have gone elsewhere, she tried to If settle down to her would with another woman.
book once more.
It was over a year since she had had sex with a man. In fact, There was an inquisition when the girl eventually returned ---
her current lesbian relationship had been so rewarding that she late, but not unduly so. The story she gave was that after their had begun to think she would never feel like sex with a man meeting her friends had decided they should all try somewhere again. She had always known she was bisexual, ever since she new. Eventually, she convinced her partner she was telling the was a child. Throughout childhood and adolescence she had truth, but there was still an atmosphere between them when they persuaded girlfriend after girlfriend to take off their clothes and went to bed.
get into bed with her. Once in her mid-teens, however, she had In fact, the girl and her male escort had not had sex that also given in to the occasional male.
evening, but it was only a week before they did. Afterwards, as At first she had just been curious about heterosexual sex, but the weeks passed, their relationship developed in a way that she after a few experiences had actually begun to enjoy it, in its own had only thought possible with a woman. Her infidelity to her way. More than anything, though, she had enjoyed the feeling of lesbian partner became increasingly difficult to hide as she found power she could have over boys. Compared with her girlfriends, herself wanting to spend more and more time with her lover. Her first the boys and later the men had seemed so gullible, so easy to ingenuity was stretched to the limit. She also began to feel guilty at manipulate and deceive, that she had found it difficult to respect what more in the way of trouble she might be giving to a woman them. Also, men were so sexually inept; so selfish. As long as she whose life was becoming increasingly fraught in every way. Her was in the mood, she could virtually guarantee that another repeat smear again indicated abnormal cells --- and she began the woman could give her an orgasm. With a man, she nearly always stressful process of having further tests and waiting for results. As had to apply the final touches herself, if she felt like it. So what if that wasn't bad enough, she continued to be denied access to her was she doing in this restaurant, clandestinely meeting a man?
son and was passed over for promotion at work when the rumour She really didn't know, except that perhaps she was ready for that she was a lesbian, which had been in the air for a while, another experience --- and this man really was rather attractive. A began to spread. The woman had begun to suspect that her young hand waved from the corner table. She waved back and went to lover was unfaithful to her, and increasingly they began to argue.
join the hand's owner.
Their worst fight was sparked off when they accused each other On the other side of town, while the pair in the restaurant ate, of faking orgasms. But she still couldn't be certain about her the girl's lover was lying naked on the bed, bringing herself to a partner's infidelity --- right up to the moment, that is, that the climax. Afterwards, she went into the sitting-room to relax with a latter broke the news of her pregnancy. At first, she tried to bottle of wine, music and a book. But she couldn't settle. There convince her that they could look after the baby together, but had been something strange about her lover's manner 288
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the girl was adamant about moving out and living with the baby's Not only are there fewer female bisexuals than male, but on father.
average they begin their homosexual (lesbian) activities a little For a time, the woman was ill with stress and loneliness. After later in life. Only 50 per cent of bisexual women have had their losing her job, she began to feel suicidal. But then, in! the depths first homosexual experience by the age of twenty-five, and only of depression, she met a man who had just been) deserted by his 77 per cent by the age of thirty. Some do not have their first partner and family. They counselled each other out of their joint lesbian experience until they are in their forties.
despair and within weeks were living together. A year later, she Another difference between male and female bisexuals is that had his child --- a daughter. Not long afterwards she was operated bisexual women do not have as many homosexual partners as on successfully for cervical cancer, and from then on her life bisexual men. Only 4 per cent of bisexual women have more than improved.
ten homosexual partners in their lifetime compared with 22 per Once her son became independent of his father, he came to see cent of bisexual men. Similarly, women are more likely to have her. Untainted by his father's homophobia, he quickly grew close longer-lasting 'monogamous' relationships with each other than to his mother and his younger half-sister and they became very are men. A common pattern, shown by the girl in the scene, is for much a family. Although the woman died relatively young, in her a woman to stay in a homosexual relationship for one to three sixties, it was not before she had enjoyed fifteen contented years as years before moving on to a heterosexual relationship. Also as in a doting grandmother.
the scene, older women often 'fit in' a stable homosexual relationship between successive heterosexual ones.
Compared with these minor differences between male and aving discussed the way that homosexual behaviour can female homosexual behaviour, there are many important Haid men in their pursuit of reproductive success (Scene similarities. For example, most women who show homosexual 30), it is relatively straightforward to do the same here for behaviour are bisexual. Fewer than 1 per cent of women in any women. This is because there are many similarities between male society are exclusively homosexual throughout their lifetime.
and female bisexuality and relatively few differences.
Over 80 per cent who show lesbian behaviour also show Even those differences that do exist are largely just a matter of heterosexual behaviour, as did both women in Scene II. All degree. For example, on average across societies there are fewer human societies contain bisexual women; moreover, female bisexual females than males --- a trend that is also shown in most bisexuality is genetic and inheritable. And, like all of the animals. In any given human society, there tend to be about a characteristics we have discussed, female bisexuality is third to half as many women bisexuals as men. In large industrial widespread among different species of mammals, birds and societies, in which only about 6 per cent of men show reptiles. In fact, there is one species of lizard which consists only homosexual behaviour, about 2-3 per cent of women do so. In of females. These will not develop eggs unless they are first societies in which all men show homosexual behaviour, about 30-mounted in a pseudo-copulatory act by another female. They take 50 per cent of women do so. This difference means that on it in turns to mount each other and to stimulate each other's egg average we should each need to go slightly further back in our production.
family tree to find a female bisexual than to find a male. But the The many similarities and few differences between male and difference is only about one generation --- back to about 1850
female bisexuality are significant enough to justify a similar instead of 1875.
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the reproductive success of female bisexuals and heterosexuals, To what extent this increased risk of disease is a direct result of we reach precisely the same conclusion as we did for men (Scene bisexual activity is not known. Sexually transmitted diseases, 30) --- as a strategy for the pursuit of reproductive success, female such as herpes and genital warts, can be passed directly from bisexuality is a real and successful alternative to heterosexuality.
woman to woman during love-making. But there are other aspects Briefly, bisexual women reproduce earlier than heterosexuals of female bisexuality which could also increase the risk of but are also more at risk to disease and an early curtailment of infection, as we shall soon see.
their reproductive life. Just as for men, the net advantage of The fact that female bisexuality is less common than male bisexuality tends to be greatest when the behaviour is rare. The suggests to an evolutionary biologist either that women have less proportion of women in any given population who are bisexual, to gain from bisexuality than men or that they have more to lose therefore, should reflect the level at which the costs and benefits
--- or both. However, it is unlikely that bisexual women have just balance each other.
more to lose - quite the opposite, in fact. For example, not only do In many ways, we know more about the costs and benefits of male bisexuals seem much more likely to be at risk to disease, female bisexuality. This is because it is much easier to know how they are much more at risk to violence from homophobes than are many children a woman has had at different stages in her life than female bisexuals. This is probably because lesbians are much less it is a man --- especially a man who has had many different of a reproductive threat to heterosexual women than are gays to partners. For example, we know that by the age of twenty a heterosexual men.
bisexual woman is four times more likely than a heterosexual to The conclusion, therefore, is that if women do not have more to have a child, and that even by the age of twenty-five she is still lose from bisexuality than men, they must have less to gain --- and twice as likely. The woman in Scene 31 had had one child by the this should not be so surprising. We have already seen that males time she was twenty and two by the age of thirty-one. By the end have a lot more to learn about sexual technique during early of their reproductive lives, however, bisexual women tend to have adolescence than females (Scenes 27 to 30). Homosexual fewer children than heterosexual. In Britain in the 1980s, for experience at the appropriate time can confer precocious sexual example, one survey gave the average figures to be 1.6 children competence on both sexes, but does so much more clearly on for bisexuals and 2.2 for heterosexuals. The trends for earlier but males. In fact, given that females have fewer basic sexual fewer children for bisexuals just cancel out, giving them the same techniques to learn than males during adolescence (Scene 27 ), we overall rate of reproduction as heterosexuals.
have to ask what it is about sexual experience with other women As briefly mentioned above, part of the reason that bisexuals that gives bisexuals such an early advantage over heterosexuals.
often end up with fewer children despite an earlier start than The main things that a woman has to learn about sex are those heterosexuals is that, like the woman in the scene, their repro-techniques that allow her to get the most out of long-term ductive life can be curtailed through disease. Just like male relationships (Scene 18). In particular she needs to learn the bisexuals, females are at greater risk of contracting sexually techniques of infidelity and deception. She also needs to learn how transmitted diseases. By the age of twenty, they are more likely to to make the most of her orgasms in a way that will give her the have experienced genital infections. By the age of twenty-five greatest control over sperm retention and warfare (Scene 26).
they are more likely to exhibit abnormal cells in cervical smear The elements of deception needed to exploit infidelity are tests, and by thirty they are more likely to have cervical cancer.
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probably better practised with another woman than with a man.
most common technique used by lesbians is the stroking and Moreover, they are best practised within the context of a managing of the genitals, particularly the clitoris. After that, in relatively long-term monogamous relationship with a woman ---
decreasing order of frequency, come the stroking and massaging of which is one of the key features of female homosexual behaviour.
the breasts, the licking and sucking of nipples, oral sex, and the If a woman can fool a long-term female partner over infidelity, pressing and rubbing together of the genitals. In societies such as faked orgasms and the like, then she should find it relatively easy some in Melanesia, lesbians only ever use their mouths and hands to fool a similar male partner. This allows her to exploit the during sex. Elsewhere, objects are sometimes used, either to advantages of infidelity and sperm warfare (Scenes 21 and 26) stimulate the clitoris or to insert in the vagina. These range from while reducing the risk of having to pay the costs (Scenes 9 and reindeer calf muscle in parts of Siberia to bananas, sweet potatoes, 11).
and elegant carved wooden phalluses in other parts of the world. In If bisexual women learn earlier and better how to exploit the more industrialised societies, of course, commercially relationships and how to promote and influence sperm warfare, it available vibrators and dildoes are sometimes used. However, should not be surprising to find that they make earlier and greater penetration either by fingers or objects is still a relatively use of these abilities. Bisexual women are inseminated just as infrequent part of lesbian stimulation. In one American survey, many times over their lifetime by a man as are heterosexual only 3 per cent of lesbians said that they regularly used penetration women. Moreover, bisexual women are more likely to have more to stimulate their partner during sex.
than one concurrent male partner, and to have sex with two The orgasm 'success rate' is about twice as great if a woman is different men in a short enough period of time to promote sperm stimulated by another woman rather than by a man. Moreover, the warfare.
orgasms women give each other are much more likely to occur Not only do bisexual women promote sperm warfare more during the fertile phase of their cycle. The peak of sexual activity often, they seem better able (though the finer details have not that we witnessed right at the beginning of Scene 31 took place a been measured) to control sperm retention and thus the outcome week after the women had finished their periods. If they were of that warfare. They are more likely to masturbate, and to going to ovulate that month (and they might not ---Scene15) it masturbate more often, than heterosexual women. They thus would be within the next few days. They were both in their fertile create stronger cervical filters (Scene 22). When they do have sex phase.
with a man, bisexuals are no more nor less likely to have an Interestingly, this peak of orgasm frequency during the fertile orgasm. But they are more likely to have a bypass orgasm (Scene phase of a lesbian's menstrual cycle is mirrored by peaks of 25), negating the effect of their cervical filter.
homosexual activity by other female animals at a similar phase of Because many of the orgasm responses that are a woman's their cycle. Whether we study cows, rats or guinea-pigs, we find greatest weapon in sperm warfare actually occur in the absence of that females are much more likely to mount each other during their men anyway (masturbatory; nocturnal --- Scenes 22 to 26), they fertile phase. It has been shown experimentally that such mounting can easily be practised in the context of a lesbian relationship ---
behaviour is hormone-linked, so that changing the hormone including even those orgasms that in a heterosexual relationship balance during menstrual cycle alters the timing of mounting, and normally occur before, during or after penetration. This is can even stop it altogether. Lesbians who take oral contraceptives because the stimuli women give each other during lesbian sex are lose their peak of mid-cycle orgasm activity. This suggests that, very similar to those given by a man during foreplay. The like
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the other animals described above, a lesbian's motivation to have whether menstrual synchrony is a real phenomenon. The most orgasms with her partner is also under hormonal rather than recent research suggests that it is --- but that so too is cerebral control.
desynchrony. In some groups of women, the menstrual cycles Our final picture of the homosexual behaviour of women, then, become more similar, in others, more different. Which direction is shows a process of practising with women for success at getting taken by any particular group is not due to chance, but depends the most out of longer-term relationships with individual men.
more than anything on how many of the women in the group are This is not really any different from our conclusion for the ovulating regularly (Scene 15). Groups in which few are advantage of bisexuality to men. Bisexual men, however, are ovulating, particularly if some are on the pill, lend to synchronise.
practising primarily for success with many women. Unlike a man, Groups in which most are ovulating tend to desynchronise. It is as a woman cannot increase her reproductive success simply by if the women's bodies are trying to ovulate as many days apart having more sex with more men. She does so, instead, by being from each other as possible.
much more selective and strategic and by thus making the most of Just why these responses should exist is still a mystery, but It exploiting the men around her. In this, a bisexual woman is aided probably has something to do with hiding the fertile phase from by a precocious ability to promote and manipulate sperm warfare men (Scene 2). If a group of women all ovulated at the same time, and by a longer-term ability to make better use of infidelity. Just even the most unaware of males might notice the behavioural as for male bisexuals, however, the reproductive strategy of changes associated with the fertile phase (Scenes 1, 6, 10 and 22).
female bisexuals brings with it increased risks that can result in an In isolation, an individual can more easily hide these changes early curtailment of their reproductive activity through disease or from her partner amidst random swings in mood and behaviour.
early death. The net result, therefore, is that female bisexuals and The fact that the two women in Scene 31 were synchronised heterosexuals have similar reproductive success --- but achieve it suggests that they had not ovulated in recent months. This is a by different means.
common response to the absence of men (Scene 15). With the There is one last feature of interest in Scene 31 that we have beginning of the younger girl's heterosexual activity, we should not yet discussed. When women live together, they often expect her first to ovulate, then to desynchronise her cycle from synchronise their periods. Not only lesbians, but mothers and her female lover.
daughters, nuns, prisoners, nurses and students also often synchronise when they live together. In a fascinating series of experiments carried out in the USA in the early 1980s, each woman in a group of volunteers agreed to have the underarm secretions from another woman rubbed under her nose every other day for a few months. Each woman who received the secretion adjusted her menstrual cycle to synchronise with that of the woman who had provided it --- which implies that chemicals are present in a woman's underarm secretions which enable groups who spend a lot of time together to synchronise their menstrual cycles.
In recent years, there has been a lot of discussion over 296
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she asked if it was his first time ever or just the first time he'd paid for it. It was the first time he had paid and might be the first time ever, he said. He wasn't sure. He had got close a couple of times but didn't know if he really had or not.
SCENE 32
She didn't ask him to elaborate --- just told him to relax and leave The Tenth Tonight
it to her. Then she took off her bath robe and knickers, lay down on the bed, and told him to take off his trousers and pants and join her. She didn't react at all when she saw that his penis was limp The doorbell rang. It was uncanny the way she could tell and small, as if it had been hiding under his clothes. With something about the person at the door just from the way he rang difficulty, she put a condom on him, then did her best to encourage the bell. The previous ring had been aggressive and persistent, but an erection. It was many minutes before she felt any reaction on this one had a tentativeness about it. She got up off the bed and his part, despite her soothing talk and practised hand. Then just as pulled on her bath robe over her underwear. Young, she thought he began to stiffen and she thought she might be able to help him to herself --- or a vicar.
after all, he ejaculated, long before she could try to put him inside On her way down the stairs, she did some quick mental her. His look of dejection and embarrassment touched her. She arithmetic. It had been a busy night. This would be the tenth ---
told him not to worry and, as he hurriedly dressed to leave the maybe she should also make it the last.
scene of such humiliation, tried to reassure him that he would be When she saw him standing there, she smiled to herself --- he fine next time. It was just nerves. She saw it happen all the time, was young, not a vicar. And he looked distinctly uncomfortable.
she said.
Diffidently, he asked her how much. She told him, then pointed After he had gone, she dressed. As she reckoned up her night's out that it was more if he didn't want to use a condom. Taken earnings, five with a condom and five without, the thought crossed aback partly by the price and partly by her appearance, he her mind that maybe she should become a sex therapist when she hesitated, then agreed. She stood back to let him in, told him to go retired. A few minutes later she was walking out of her front door on up, and closed the door. Before following him, she took her and on to the street. Hailing a taxi, she set off for home.
'Model - first floor' notice out of the window.
As she watched the familiar route unfurl, her thoughts drifted buck Once in the room, she asked him which it was to be, condom to the student and she marvelled at the way education seemed to or no condom. He said it would have to be with a condom slow down a person's sexual development. Not that being a student because he didn't have enough money to pay for it without.
had hindered her. In fact, it was when she was at college, about
'Money first,' she told him.
fifteen years ago, that she had started on her career. Nobody could The youth looked very nervous. To settle him she told him her deny it had been profitable, even if it hadn't been the career she had name, or rather a name, and asked for his. He told her his family envisaged when she left home. Short of money, as were many of her name. Despite herself, she laughed. She asked him if he was in fellow students, she had exploited her looks and joined an escort the army. Embarrassed, he explained he was a student, that he had agency. Tempted by the financial offers she received, she had only just left school and couldn't get out of the habit of giving his begun to spend the occasional night with those clients she found family name when asked. She told him to relax, then asked if it most attractive. By
was his first time. When he said it
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the time she graduated, she was earning so much money from sex, bouts of disease and all had cleared up quickly with the help of had accumulated such a large clientele of her own and, frankly, antibiotics. She had been beaten up a few times, but no serious was enjoying herself so much that she saw no point in embarking damage had been done. Most importantly, though, she had on any other career.
managed to avoid the drugs that had been, and still were, the At one time or another during her fifteen years she had ruination of so many of her fellow prostitutes. For all these years exploited just about every avenue by which an attractive girl could she had been making as much money each night as most people make money from sex. A chance encounter gave her a brief spell make in a week, or even a month. There had been overheads, of making hard-core pornographic films. In the main, it had been fun.
course --- protectors to pay and places to rent. But even so, she She laughed to herself as she remembered the contortions could have retired years ago and still have lived comfortably off necessary, amidst a dozen naked men, to get a penis in both hands the interest from her savings. And the reason she hadn't retired was and all three orifices and still leave room for a camera. Even so, simply that she enjoyed her job too much. She would be loath to when a rich politician from among her clients decided he wanted leave it all behind. In fact, she was seriously considering starting exclusive access and set her up in an expensive flat in the heart of her own escort agency or bordello when she did eventually decide it the city, she had retired from her film career to become a was time to stop.
professional mistress. She didn't entirely give up having sex with The taxi pulled up outside her home --- a large detached house on other men, but pretended she had --- and got away with it.
the outskirts of town. Her partner shouted from the kitchen that it Eventually, the politician's sex life had been exposed by a tabloid was good timing --- the dinner was nearly ready and the children newspaper and she moved on --- this time to a judge.
were already in bed. She went upstairs, douched herself, then had a After the judge died, conversations with some of her fellow bath. While she lay back in the warm water, her partner brought professionals led her into trying the streets for a while. In many her a glass of wine, then went back downstairs to finish the cooking.
ways, she had enjoyed her time on the streets more than any other Before going down to join him, she looked in on her four children, phase of her career. It had certainly paid well. Eventually, each in their own bedroom. It would be interesting to know who however, she gave it up. After a few close shaves, a bad their fathers were. She liked to think that the two daughters, now experience with a particularly violent customer had put her in ten and eight, were fathered by the politician and the judge, but she hospital for a few days. After that, she had moved into the relative couldn't be certain. Her elder son was conceived while she was in security of a bordello, which she also enjoyed. She only left when the bordello, and could be anybody's. Many of the clients were her looks began to fade and she could no longer compete in open men of wealth and status and there were several she wouldn't have parade with the younger girls. At least with her 'Model - first floor'
minded being his father. Her younger son should be her partner's.
method of recruitment, men had already half committed She gave up working for a while specifically to conceive his child, themselves by the time she opened the door. Anyway, she was still but she became pregnant so quickly they still couldn't be entirely attractive enough for most to accept her price rather than walk certain he was the father.
away when they saw her.
Her partner was five years younger than her. An ex-student and She was going to retire soon. She knew she had been lucky and an ex-client, he had volunteered to look after the children that she should quit while she was winning. Despite several in exchange for his keep and sexual access. They had been together thousand sexual partners in her lifetime, she had only had three now for five years.
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After the meal the couple drank, and talked. For the first time woman being categorised as a prostitute. Often the exchange is that week, they had sex before going to bed.
ritualised, as during marriage ceremonies. Even on the wedding night, money may be demanded by the woman or her family before intercourse is allowed to take place.
iologically, a prostitute is an individual who offers other Clearly, there are degrees of prostitution. In principle it is Bindivi
duals sexual access in exchange for one or more difficult to know where to draw the line between a traditional resources. In humans, the resource sought and offered is usually prostitute exchanging insemination for money and a woman in a money, but it might just as well be food, shelter or protection.
long-term partnership exchanging insemination for support, Nowhere is sperm warfare more rife than in the reproductive tract protection and 'gifts'. The woman in this scene is clearly a of active female prostitutes. By the end of a night's work, the prostitute, but what about the woman in Scene 18?
number of sperm armies waging war inside a prostitute's body It is similarly difficult to decide for other animals just what is often runs into double figures. And, from time to time, the winner prostitution and what is not. At one extreme, there are clear acts of of that war claims the prize of fertilisation.
prostitution --- like the female empid fly who trades sex for food.
Prostitutes reproduce. Often, like the woman in the scene, they For a male empid to be given the opportunity of mating, he first reproduce very successfully. Why do some women abandon has to find a swarm of gnats, catch one, wrap It In silk from his fidelity, or secret infidelity, and openly pursue their reproductive salivary glands, then find a waiting female and offer it to her.
success via prostitution? When they do, how does their While she unwraps and then eats her meal, he is allowed to mate.
reproductive success compare with that of women who pursue The larger the gift, the longer it takes her to feed, the longer the more conventional strategies?
male is allowed to mate, the more sperm he transfers, and the Female prostitutes have been, and are, an almost universal more eggs he fertilises. Once he has gone, the male waits for the feature of human societies. Anthropologically, only 4 per cent of next male to bring her food and to mate. In some species, females societies claim not to contain any. The remainder acknowledge are so successful as prostitutes that they never need to find food their presence. It is difficult, though, even in these societies, to themselves.
estimate what proportion of women engage in prostitution at some Migratory birds occupy a position at the other extreme of the time during their lives. Estimates of the number of overt prostitution scale. Males return to the breeding areas first and prostitutes active at any one time range from less than 1 per cent compete for the best territories --- those in which they and a of women in Britain in the late 1980s to about 25 per cent of female can most successfully raise their young. Females arrive women in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in 1974. Such estimates, later and inspect the different territories and the males who defend however, are unreliable and are probably underestimates. More them. Each female then makes her choice of the best compromise women than this will sometimes engage in prostitution.
(Scene 18) between territory quality, male quality and availability Part of the problem lies in the lack of a precise definition.
(because the best territories and males are quickly snapped up by Overt, promiscuous sex in exchange for money is, in many ways, the earliest females). Eventually, a female will allow a particular simply the least ambiguous exchange of sexual access for male to have sex with her. In lunge she is allowed to share his resources or 'gifts'. Throughout human history and culture, there territory. If the male is ousted by another, the female does not are examples of men giving the woman (or her family) a 'gift'
leave with her former partner, but allows the new male to mate around the time of their first intercourse, without the with her in exchange
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for being permitted to carry on living in what is now his territory, would inherit her genes because of the competitive success of her male descendants.
The female is intent on living in a particular territory and is This advantage of prostitution as a reproductive strategy is the prepared to mate with any male who successfully lays claim to same advantage gained by any woman who promotes wholesale that territory in order to do so. In principle, this is still prostitution sperm warfare in her tract (Scene 21). It is just that prostitutes
--- the trading of sex for resources --- even though it is taking exploit this technique more often than any other category of place within a monogamous relationship. As such it is little women in the population. Few other women, except those who different from the behaviour of the majority of women around the suffer gang rape (Scene 34) or who seek out group sex (Scene 21), world, few of whom would consider themselves to be prostitutes.
are ever likely to contain the sperm from as many different men at Men, also, of course can prostitute themselves. The young the same time.
gardener in Scene 18 is an example. In most circumstances, The success of prostitution as a reproductive strategy means however, it is much more difficult for a man to find a woman who that most of us will contain the genes of a prostitute among our is prepared to pay, in whatever sense, for sexual access to his ancestors. On average, we should each need to go back through body. Most men are only too willing to have sex with a woman our family tree no further than the 1820s (seven generations) without any reward other than the sexual opportunity itself. In before finding an ancestor who was born to a prostitute (assuming, contrast, for all the reasons we have discussed in this book (see conservatively, that only 1 per cent of the population is conceived particularly Scene 28), women have much more to lose from any by overt prostitutes).
single sexual encounter than men and usually need some sort of As a way of life, however, prostitution has many risks. First and pay-off to balance the potential cost. Only when a woman is eager foremost, as we have discussed on numerous occasions, there is a to collect a particular man's genes might she be prepared to pay in high risk of contracting sexually transmitted disease. This factor some way for the privilege.
alone can condemn a prostitute to early infertility and death. Many However we define prostitution, though, the woman in Scene try to reduce the danger by using condoms but are forever fighting 32 is clearly at the 'empid fly' end of the scale we have just against male aversion (presumably for reasons discussed in Scene described rather than the 'bird' end. For her, prostitution is a way 29). Prostitutes report men trying surreptitiously to remove the of life. Biologically, it is also a strategy for reproduction --- and, condom that they have agreed to wear. Even since the advent of moreover, a highly successful one. By her mid-thirties she had AIDS, the majority of clients prefer not to use a condom. So had four children and had earned more than enough money to strong is the male body's preference for insemination that, like the give them a comfortable and healthy environment in which to woman in Scene 32, many prostitutes are prepared to settle for live. Each child had a different father, at least two of whom could simply exploiting the situation by charging more for intercourse have been men of status. What all of the fathers had in common without a condom.
was that they produced very competitive ejaculates: sperm armies There is also the danger of being injured or killed by a client.
able to defeat those of many other men. The woman's sons, her Prostitutes attempt to reduce this risk by gathering together in a grandsons, and any later male descendants should also have an brothel or massage parlour, by paying a man or men to watch over above-average chance of producing competitive ejaculates. In them and provide protection, or simply by having a chaperon later generations, many people in the population (often their mother or father). By far the biggest danger to prostitutes, however, is drug
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Prostitutes are also potentially expensive, both financially and In addiction --- a danger both physically and financially. Despite terms of disease risk. Thus, although insemination is easy, as we sometimes having to pay rent on the room from which they work, have just seen, the reproductive benefits are relatively low. Any or for protection, prostitutes have an earning capacity that most single ejaculate has a low chance of achieving fertilisation because other people can only fantasise about. Yet few prostitutes are rich.
of the intensive sperm warfare that it will encounter. In addition, In part, this is as a result of exploitation: young girls are first introduced to the drug scene and then 'encouraged' into prostitution even during long periods of unprotected sex, prostitutes are less as the only means of earning enough money to support their habit.
likely to conceive in any given month than a woman who is having The agents then take their own commission for providing only occasional sex with a single partner. This could be due to
'protection'. Such sad cases inevitably incur the costs of prostitution prostitutes having a lower rate of ovulation (Scene 16) or a more without reaping the benefits.
efficient cervical filter (Scene 22). It could also be due to sperm Not only is prostitution a reproductive strategy for women, the warfare. Perhaps such warfare is so intensive inside prostitutes that visiting of prostitutes is also a reproductive strategy for men. In the sperm armies from different men often neutralise each other.
ancient Greece and Rome, almost all men inseminated a prostitute A man needs to inseminate prostitutes many, many more times at some time in their lives. In the USA in the 1940s, 69 per cent than he does a conventional mistress in order to produce a single had inseminated a prostitute at least once and 15 per cent did so on child outside of his long-term partnership. Of course, no man a regular basis. In the UK in the 1990s, 10 per cent of men between would say that his reason for visiting a prostitute is to gain a forty-five and fifty-nine years old have paid for sex at least once in chance of fathering a child. Nevertheless, from time CO time a their lives. Apart from the occasional priest, the average man who man will succeed in this, passing on to his child in the process the pays for sex usually has other reproductive outlets --- in the UK, genetic program that made his ejaculate so successful at sperm for example, they are also more likely to have an above-average warfare --- prostitutes are unsuitable targets for men who are not number of unpaid partners.
sperm war specialists (Scenes 19, 30, and 35).
As a reproductive option for men, prostitutes provide a target for The final conundrum is why some men are prepared to form insemination that is quick and easy. The more prostitutes a man long-term partnerships with prostitutes. Clearly, such a man inseminates, the greater his potential reproductive success. He may experiences all of the disadvantages just discussed for a prostitute's also gain in other ways, depending on his situation. For example, clients. Usually, however, he trades these costs against the benefit the young student in Scene 32 was hoping to gain experience of a share in her wealth. The man in Scene 32 traded his financial (Scene 27) that would later be of use in his more conventional and lifestyle benefit for effectively looking after her, her home and reproductive attempts with other women (on average, students lag her children. In addition, he had some opportunity to father a child two years behind other people in their sexual experiences). Men with her and may already have done so. His lifestyle probably also without a partner are simply including prostitutes in their search for meant that he would have a chance to inseminate other women as females to inseminate. Occasionally, a man may find a long-term well. His reproductive strategy was risky. The potential gains were partner through his contact with prostitutes, like the woman's high, but so too were the potential costs. Apart from any other partner in Scene 32. Men already with a partner are using genetic characteristic he needed to benefit from such a strategy, at prostitutes as targets for their infidelity.
the very least it
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would have helped if he had also been a sperm war specialist (Scene 35).
Given that prostitution and the use of prostitutes are both reproductive strategies with high potential benefits and considerable potential risks, prostitutes share many similarities SCENE 33
with bisexuals (Scenes 30 and 31). We do not know whether there The Predator
is a genetic predisposition for prostitution in the same way as there is for bisexuality, but if there is, it would seem that only a minority of women possess the genes for prostitution. So it is possible that, The man locked his car, then made his way along the dark road.
as we concluded for bisexuality, prostitution is an advantageous As he walked, he could hear the sound of traffic a block away on the strategy only as long as it remains relatively uncommon, at least in main road running through the town. It was midnight but still hot, societies in which its costs are high. If all females were available to and the pavement cafes and bars around the busy main square were all men, the potential value of prostitution and the reproductive still crowded and noisy, mainly with holidaymakers. Turning away edge it would give each prostitute over other females would from the square, he saw at the end of a narrow road the beacon he disappear. At the same time, the spread of disease would greatly was seeking. It was a telephone booth, shining out of the darkness increase.
of a marble-tiled square outside a church.
If this 'genetic minority' interpretation of prostitution is He phoned home, checked with his partner that she and their two correct, the corollary, as for bisexuality, is that on average the children were well, and told her he would see her the following reproductive success of prostitutes and other women should be the night. With that, he walked a short way back down the road, same. Without a genetic analysis similar to that which has been stepped into the darkest of shadows, and leaned back against cool carried out for bisexuals, however, we cannot be certain --- and wall of the church. After checking the flick-knife in his back pocket, there is an alternative interpretation. This is that all women are potential prostitutes --- but that only a few ever encounter a he lit up a cigarette and settled back to wait. Apart from the glow of situation in which they judge the potential benefits to outweigh the the cigarette, he was totally invisible. His throat dried and tightened potential costs. If this interpretation is correct, the corollary is that in a mixture of excitement, fear and anticipation. The waiting was women who judge the situation correctly and become prostitutes the part he liked best.
should have a higher level of reproductive success than other The girl at the pavement bar was crying. The anger had gone but women.
the pain and worry were still there. Two tables away, laughing This interpretation has less in common with our interpretation drunkenly with his friends, was this holiday's sexual partner. As of bisexuality (Scenes 30 and 31) than it has with our interpretation she sat with her friends, she could feel the flowback dampening her of another high-risk, minority sexual strategy ---rape. This is the knickers. Scarcely more than an hour ago, they had had sex on the subject of the next two scenes.
grass in the nearby park.
She wasn't on the pill. All week, since they first met, he had used a condom. Tonight, he had only pretended to put one on. As if that hadn't been cruel enough, no sooner had he withdrawn than he had gloated that she was the second that 308
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night --- that an hour earlier he had been in the same spot with leading away from the church. She wanted to scream, but fear of another of the girls from their group. He always liked to have the knife, the man's arm around her throat, and blind panic left her more than one girl each holiday, he boasted, and if she really totally mute.
wanted to know, he much preferred the other girl, anyway. But he From that first moment, everything seemed to happen at the speed didn't mind carrying on having sex with her for the rest of the of light. Still standing behind her, the man pressed the cold metal holiday, if she wanted.
against her cheek and ear. Speaking softly, in a language she didn't After insulting him to the limits of her vocabulary, she had understand, he moved his arm from her throat to her waist and made her way drunkenly back to the bar to seek the sympathy of made her bend forward, as if to touch her toes. He lifted her dress her friends. Now, after the anger and the tears, she had the sudden forward over her head, placed his knife in her knickers and, with urge to speak to her boyfriend at home and to seek the reassurance two quick, practised cuts, removed them. Within seconds of that at least he still cared for her. Clumsily, she stood up, her chair making her spread her legs, he was inside her. Fifty thrusts later, falling over on to the pavement. She told her friends she was he ejaculated. For a few seconds, he paused before withdrawing going to the phone. Her best friend offered to come with her, but and for one panic-stricken moment she thought he was going to kill she said she wanted to be on her own.
her. But he pushed her to the ground and ran off into the darkness.
The man had been leaning against the wall in the shadows for Within a minute he was back in his car, driving to his hotel, two about fifteen minutes and was smoking his second cigarette when towns away.
he saw the girl appear at the end of the road. In all that time, only The girl lay sprawled on the ground in shock for several one couple had come to the phone and the church square was now minutes. Then came the tears. Eventually, she got up and moved empty. He waited, fully expecting someone to be with the girl.
off, a sad, dishevelled figure. She saw no one. Back in her hot, But no, she was on her own. His luck was in, yet again. For a few humid hotel room, she took off her clothes, stepped into the moments, she was back-lit by the lights from the main square and shower, and stayed there for nearly an hour, washing and washing he could see the silhouette of hips and legs through her thin dress.
herself. She fell on to the bed and spent the night half in shock, Then she was in shadow and he heard, rather than saw, her half in sleep.
coming towards him. He took one last drag on his cigarette and threw it away. His penis sensed action --- beginning to stiffen into Inside her body, a sperm war raged between the armies from her the rod of iron that hadn't once let him down. This girl would be holiday lover and the rapist, while her right ovary made his fifth this summer. He reached into the back pocket of his preparations for ovulation. Two days later, while she was still trousers for the knife.
agonising over whether to tell her friends or the police, she The girl had noticed the glow of a cigarette in the shadows but conceived. The war was over.
was too drunk and too angry to sense danger. She barely noticed the Daunted by the prospect of explaining what had happened to man as she passed him in the blackness, but a second later she was police who did not speak her language, and worried by how her grabbed from behind, a strong arm around her throat. The knife in boyfriend might react if he ever found out, she told no one about front of her face was silhouetted against the light of the distant the rape. A week later, back in her own country with her telephone kiosk. As he held her, she glimpsed a group of people boyfriend, she contrived on their first night together to have walking past the end of one of the other roads unprotected sex.
On discovering her pregnancy, she first considered an abortion, but with her boyfriend's reassurances that he would help 311
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raise what he thought was their child, she decided to keep it By Which had a reproductive outcome. The girl was violated, but the time her baby was born, she had managed to convince herself Hot physically damaged, and was left able to conceive and give that it was probably his anyway. But it wasn't. Her son's father birth. The rapist's weapon --- in this case a flick-knife --- was was in fact a predatory rapist from a distant country.
used as a means of coercion, not to inflict physical damage. This is the commonest scenario. As testament to the reproductive nature of their behaviour, such rapists usually select victims who iologists are rarely less popular than when they offer an are at their peak of fertility, aged between twenty and thirty-five.
Bobjective analysis of rape
. If they say that rape yields
On such occasions, the bodies of the men concerned are reproductive benefits, they are accused of encouraging the act. If clearly using rape as a reproductive strategy. On a minority of they conclude that rape has a biological basis, they are accused of occasions, however --- albeit those which receive the widest condoning it. If they dare to suggest that female behaviour may publicity --- a woman is not only raped but is also physically sometimes invite rape, they are accused of violating womankind harmed, mutilated or killed. On these occasions the men just as surely as if they had committed the act themselves. Yet to concerned are bent on violence and murder, not reproduction. As report proper conclusions is not automatically to encourage, testament to the non-reproductive nature of their behaviour, such condone or violate. Are historians accused of encouraging warfare rapists are more likely to select older women, from their late if they conclude that a country benefited from a war? Are they thirties onwards --- women who are past their peak of fertility.
accused of condoning warfare if they conclude the behaviour has a These latter, more violent events are not part of our discussion.
biological basis? Are they accused of violation if they conclude Here we are concerned solely with sexual events in which the that a country invited invasion? Or are they, on the other hand, woman is not physically harmed by the rapist, at least not so congratulated for incisive historical analysis and for aiding the much that she is unable to conceive from the intercourse or later prevention of future conflicts ?
give birth (though she may suffer psycho-logical consequences).
Prevention of socially unacceptable behaviour, be it rape or On these, the majority of occasions, the reproductive success of warfare, demands a proper understanding of the circumstances both the rapist and the victim is influenced by their interaction.
that trigger such behaviour. If the objective conclusion is that Moreover, such rape often involves sperm warfare. This under certain circumstances all men will rape or all countries will relationship between rape, sperm warfare and reproductive go to war, there is no value in wishing or pretending that men or success is an essential and proper topic for consideration in this nation states are somehow different. The value will lie instead in book.
identifying the circumstances that facilitate rape or war. Then, We have to ask whether rape can be a successful alternative some attempt can be made to ensure that those circumstances strategy in the male pursuit of reproductive success. And, rarely, if ever, occur. The only reliable pathway to understanding unpalatable as the question may be, we also have to ask whether the situation is via objective analysis, even if en route some conceiving via a rapist attack can be an alternative strategy for conclusions may be unpleasant, unpalatable or socially 'incorrect'.
the female body, as well. Anthropologically, rape of the type The first step is to be clear about the phenomenon that we are described in Scene 33 is common in nearly 50 per cent of about to discuss. The rape in this scene was a sexual event societies and is reportedly rare in only 20 per cent. It is estimated that in some of the world's major industrial cities nearly half of women experience an attempted rape in their 312
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lifetime, and a quarter are actually raped. Such estimates are, of However the female birds behave, the outcome is the same. Not course, very approximate and confounded not least by the fact only do rapists produce young with their partner, they also that, as in our scene, very few rapes are actually reported. The produce a few through forcing copulation on other females. The current estimate is that only about one rape in ten is made known result is that, on average, rapists of this species have a greater to the authorities. So widespread is rape and so often do children reproductive success than non-rapists.
result from rape that all of us could probably find a rapist among As we shall soon see, it is crucial for our understanding of the past five generations of our ancestors.
human rape, particularly the response of the female, to know Humans are by no means the only animal in which rape is part whether rapists have an above --- or below-average reproductive of the male sexual repertoire. The males of species as diverse as success. Are human rapists more like the scorpion fly, or the insects, ducks and monkeys are all known to force copulation white-throated bee-eater? Are they reproductively below under certain circumstances.
average --- making the best of a bad job after a lack of success At least one insect, the male scorpion fly, has a special hook on via more conventional strategies? Or are they above average ---
its wing which it uses to grip the female while it forces adding their success via rape to an average success achieved copulation. Without that hook --- for instance, if it is removed by more conventionally?
an experimental biologist --- the female always escapes a male's Unfortunately, the evidence is a little ambiguous. There have attempt at force. All males in this species have a hook, but not all been a few, albeit rather weak, claims that rapists are, in fact, males need to use it. Females are attracted to the bigger males and like the scorpion fly, making the best of a bad job. Such allow them to mate without being forced. Rapists in this species studies describe the average rapist as young, poor, and physically are the smallest males, unattractive to females, who cannot obtain unattractive to women. Other much more thorough studies have a mate in any other way. Even so, they are relatively unsuccessful shown that age for age, social status for social status, and and are lucky to force a mating more than once in their whole physical attractiveness for physical attractiveness, rapist are no lives. In contrast, the largest males have females queuing up for less likely than non-rapists to have a partner and children. If we their unforced favours. In this insect, therefore, rapists are males believe these latter studies, it would seem that on balance human making the best of a bad job, having been born small and rapists, like white-throated bee-eater rapists, have the potential relatively unattractive to females. This is not the case for most for an above-average reproductive success. Whether they realise animals.
that potential, however, depends on whether they succeed in More often than not, rape is an extra option for males who are making the potential reproductive advantages outweigh the in all other respects reproductively normal and attractive. Among potential costs. Like the other minority strategies discussed in white-throated bee-eaters (a species of bird), for example, the this section (bisexuality, prostitution), rape is a risky business.
rapists are individuals who, having managed to breed early in the Not only is there the ever-present possibility of infection, there is season and having raised young with a monogamous partner, later also a real danger that rape will trigger strong and often violent embark on raping forays. They chase any female who is still retribution.
fertile and who has been left unguarded by her mate, and attempt First, there is some risk that rapists will be injured or even to force insemination. Sometimes such females offer resistance.
killed by the victim herself --- though, as in the scene, females At other times, like the girl in Scene 33, they may simply allow do not always resist. Secondly and more importantly, they are at the male to mate.
risk to retribution both from their victim's partner and from the 314
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society in general. Men do not stand idly by and watch their or a woman has to report a rape long before she knows whether she other men's partners being raped if they can prevent the attack.
has conceived. Secondly, the difference in conception rate Vigilante groups against rapists are by no means uncommon, between rape and routine sex is greatest during the least fertile particularly in large cities. Nor are humans alone in showing such phases of the menstrual cycle --- during menstruation and again defensive behaviour. The male members of a lion pride, for three or more weeks after menstruation. These are precisely the example, will band together to repel attacks from marauding times that a woman would least expect to conceive.
gangs of bachelor males intent on gaining sexual access to the However reluctantly, therefore, we should accept that a woman females. Injuries, sometimes fatal, are commonplace.
is more likely to conceive from rape than from routine sex. The In most modern human cultures, however, most of the most plausible explanation is that the trauma of rape actually defence against rapists is institutionalised. Incarceration rather than violence, injury or early death is a rapist's destiny if he is stimulates ovulation, especially if her body happens to be 'on ever caught.
hold' (Scene 15). We have already seen that rather violent rough-Rape is clearly a dangerous reproductive strategy. It can be and-tumble sex play can trigger ovulation in mink (Scene 28).
very successful but it can also be a complete failure. As a result, However, trauma may not be the only factor. Although a the successful rapists amongst our ancestors, those who left most woman is more likely to conceive from rape than she is from children and thus whose genes we are now most likely to possess, routine intercourse with her partner, there are other, less were those who were the best judges of circumstances; those who traumatic, situations in which she is equally likely to conceive.
most accurately assessed (subconsciously) whether the potential One is when she has sex with a partner whom she has not seen for reproductive benefits of an opportunity to rape really outweighed a long time and whom she sees only briefly --- as when a soldier the potential costs.
comes home on a short leave (Scene 15). Another is during So far, we have looked at rape as a reproductive strategy for snatched moments of infidelity (Scenes 6, 17 and 19). What these men. When we consider women and their physiological response two situations have in common with rape is not trauma but a to being raped, we encounter an unpalatable conundrum.
limited opportunity to collect a particular man's genes. The Theoretically, if being raped is reproductively disadvantageous physiological mechanism for conception is also likely to be the to a woman, she should be less likely to conceive from it than same in all three situations --- ovulation in response to intercourse from routine intercourse. On the other hand, if being raped is (Scene 15).
advantageous, she should be more likely to conceive from it than It is not difficult to see why a woman should want to make the from routine intercourse. So what happens? Are women more most of a limited opportunity to collect the genes of a partner or a likely, or less likely, to conceive via a rapist?
lover. But why should she want to make the most of a one-off All of the available evidence points in the same direction. It opportunity to collect the genes of a rapist?
suggests that, like the girl in Scene 33, a woman is more likely to It was to answer this question that we needed to consider earlier conceive from rape than from routine sex with her partner. It is whether human rapists have an above-or below-average just possible that this conclusion is false, the data reflecting reproductive success. As we have seen on many occasions in this instead a greater probability that a woman will report rape if she book, the genes of males who have an above-average reproductive is likely to conceive. But this is unlikely for two reasons. First, success are desirable targets for a woman's body.
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success via male descendants who inherit the same potential for The only remaining question to answer here is why the rapist success. Since we decided for rapists that, on balance, they do In Scene 33 was the winner of the sperm war inside his victim's indeed have above-average potential, it should be no surprise to body. In fact, the contest was very one-sided. First, the girl's find that when a woman's body has a one-off opportunity to boyfriend, because he normally used a condom, failed to enter an collect a rapist's genes, it often does so.
army until it was too late. The fertilisation trophy had already This conclusion does not mean, as people often assume, that a been claimed. Secondly, all week her holiday partner had also woman should therefore seek to be raped. On the contrary, it is been using a condom. So when the day of our scene began, the reproductively important to the woman that her body collect genes girl contained no sperm. On the night of the rape, her holiday from only the most successful of rapists. If she conceives to an lover actually inseminated her. But this made little difference inept rapist, doomed quickly to be caught and to suffer social because his body, unable to allow for having used a condom retribution and incarceration, her male descendants would inherit previously (Scene 29), will have calculated that few sperm were unsuccessful characteristics. As we discussed earlier (Scene 28), a needed to top her up, it being only a day since they last had sex.
man needs to pass certain tests if his genes are to be acceptable to In addition, he had just inseminated another female and, as it was a woman. The only way a woman's body can select out the most their first intercourse, he would have given her a large inseminate.
successful of rapists is to do everything possible to avoid being The result was that the victim received from her holiday lover raped. She should avoid risky situations and take full advantage of only a small inseminate, one rich in young killers and egg-getters the protection offered by her partner, by other individuals, and by but relatively low in immediate blockers. In addition, she had the wider society. Whether she should also try to fend off the ejected the flowback from that intercourse before being raped.
rapist physically will depend on her assessment of the danger of The overall result was that, when the rapist inseminated the being physically damaged. Unlike the tests set by women during girl, his seminal pool had her vagina to itself. Moreover, his perm rough-and-tumble sex play (Scene 28), she may often be better were confronted with only a minimal cervical filter and a small advised to follow the example of the girl in Scene 33 and not army of killers. He will have injected a large army, full of killers resist. A woman who follows this overall strategy is unlikely to and egg-getters. Admittedly, the holiday lover had an hour or so's fall victim to any but the most cunning, determined and competent start, but ovulation was still two days away. It is likely that by the of rapists. The result is that only a minority of women are ever time the egg-getters in her oviduct encountered an egg, they will raped, but those who are may then respond by conceiving.
virtually all have been from the rapist. Another set of rapist genes Our discussion should not end here. If rape can be a successful will have been passed on to the next generation.
alternative reproductive strategy for men, and if conceiving via the more competent of rapists can be a successful reproductive strategy for women, we need to ask why rape is not more common. In particular, we need to discuss whether rapists are a genetic minority, like bisexuals (Scenes 30 and 31), or whether all men are potential rapists. This question will be examined in Scene 34.
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the soldier in command asked the grandfather who else was in the house. 'Nobody,' said the old man, fear in his eyes and voice. The soldier hesitated, very much on the edge. He pointed HI the children and asked the whereabouts of their parents. The old man SCENE 14
looked at his partner, then said they were dead, shot by people like them.
Soldier, Soldier
The soldier looked around, told the old man that if he was lying he also was dead, then ordered his two companions to search the A single shot rang out. A flock of large black birds flew noisily house. The pair moved tentatively towards me only other exit out of the trees as the five soldiers threw themselves to the ground.
from the room. It had no door, but a makeshift curtain. As they While the men lay quietly in the cover of vegetation by the side of reached the doorway, there was a sudden movement in the room the road, the birds circled briefly above them before re-settling beyond. They dodged quickly to either side of the exit, guns one by one in the trees. Quietness returned. The soldiers looked at raised. One of them reached for the curtain just as they heard the each other, checking first whether anybody had been hit, then back door burst open. The other two members of their patrol had whether anybody had any idea where the shot had come from.
arrived. There was the sound of scuffling, then the curtain was They waited for a while, then crawled along the roadside on their thrown back and the two soldiers appeared, pushing a woman in knees and elbows, seeking the cover of trees just ahead of them.
her late twenties in front of them. She fell to the floor. As she Once sheltered, they discussed the situation. A few minutes raised herself to her knees, her daughter ran to her and clung ago, one of them had noticed a house. Almost hidden by trees, it round her neck, sobbing.
was by the side of a rough path that joined the road. A sniper in The soldier in charge pointed his gun at the old man.
the house might just have had one chance for a shot at them
'You lied, you're dead,' he said.
through the trees as they passed. They decided to investigate and
'You did kill their father,' the old man replied.
planned their approach for maximum cover, splitting into two
'And now we're going to kill you,' continued the soldier, 'but groups: three to enter the front of the house, two to go in by the maybe not yet. I think you deserve to watch us have our fun, first.'
back.
He ordered the others to check the house, inside and out. While The house was small and in poor repair, but obviously they were out, he stood over his captives, gun in hand, waiting inhabited. There was no sign of a potential sniper at the windows, and smiling. The others returned. He ordered one to Watch the but the soldiers took no chances in their final approach. It was back, another the front, and the other two to watch the old couple.
very hot and the group of three were soaked in the sweat of The soldiers knew what was coming, and began to relax. This exertion and tension as they paused by the front door. When they wasn't the first time during this war they had been in this position.
burst in they found nothing more threatening than an elderly Their commander looked at the mother and her twelve-year-old couple, a baby, and a young girl of about twelve. Nevertheless, the daughter, sobbing in each other's arms. Then he shouted to his soldiers remained tense and alert. The girl ran screaming to her companions, asking them which it was to be, the mother or the grandmother, who was holding the baby. Adrenaline still coursing daughter. The mother shouted hysterically, clutched her through his veins,
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daughter, and begged the soldier to take her, not the child. The to open the front door when he told his companions to stop.
soldier pulled the girl away from her mother and threw her back Turning to the grandfather, he asked the old man if he had really towards her grandmother. Then, prodding the mother with his gun, thought he would forget to do what, on first arriving, he had told her to stand up and take off her clothes. When she was naked promised; then he shot him. Next, he turned his gun towards the he pulled her over to a table in the corner of the room, making her old woman, who was still holding the baby. He paused, finger on bend over to rest her face and chest on the table. He had chosen the trigger, then smiled. Telling her that her family had given him location carefully, so that while standing behind her he could still enough fun for one day, he lowered his gun.
see the room. Once satisfied with his vantage point, he threw his Two children were conceived that day, one by the mother and gun to one of his companions, opened his trousers, and entered the one, against all odds, by the twelve-year-old girl. However, the woman from behind. Throughout the intercourse, he was coolly soldiers would never know nor care which of them was the father, vigilant, only losing his concentration during ejaculation itself. As in either case. No sooner were they clear of the house than they he removed himself, he told the woman to stay where she was.
were all dead, gunned down by guerrillas. The young girl's father Then he walked over to retrieve his gun and told the soldier who had seen the soldiers approaching and gone for help.
had been holding it that he was next.
One by one the soldiers took it in turns to inseminate the woman in front of her daughter and parents. Throughout her forty-minute e have already discussed the presence of predatory rape W
ordeal, the woman occasionally sobbed but, afraid that they might in the male sexual repertoire (Scene 33). Our conclusion turn on her daughter instead, did not once ask them to stop. When was that rape is a strategy by which a man can increase the all of the soldiers had had their turn, she slumped to the floor in number of women who might have his children. Any child sired in the corner, unable to look at anyone. The soldiers allowed her this way is a bonus, an addition to those fathered via a daughter to run over and join her, but made her stay naked, not conventional long-term relationship. And in order to gain this allowing the grandmother to take over her clothes.
bonus, a rapist has to negotiate successfully the defences that For a while, the soldiers sat around, smoking and laughing, surround a woman. Rape is a risky strategy, and incompetent recovering from their exertion. Inevitably, somebody eventually rapists lose out rather than gain from their behaviour.
suggested that maybe they should have the daughter anyway. A We have also discussed why women should do everything heated discussion broke out. Two of them voiced their disapproval possible to avoid being raped. Having been raped, however, a and swore at their companions for even considering the prospect.
woman may gain, reproductively, by then conceiving.
But the soldier in command was keen. He told the other two they All of the arguments rehearsed in Scene 33 apply with equal could abstain if they wanted, but he was going to make the most of force to the 'gang rape' we have just witnessed (which is loosely their find. When the mother tried to stop him from taking her based on a documented event in a recent war). Before examining daughter, he knocked her unconscious with the butt of his gun.
gang rape in humans, we shall first look at the phenomenon in When three of them had raped the young girl, their commander other animals. Males of at least one species of monkey are known decided it was time to leave. They were just about to band together for this purpose. But the most detailed information is available for birds, in which gang rape is particularly common and has been described for many species.
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On his own, a male bird finds it almost impossible to force at raping females as a group of five --- yet a male in the larger copulation on a female. Intercourse in birds involves the male gang has only half the chance of winning sperm warfare of a male balancing precariously on the female's back, then bending his tail in the smaller.
under hers. Most do not have genitalia as such, but simply a small As far as humans are concerned, a significant proportion of all sac which they have to evert. Male and female sacs are similar, predatory rapes are gang rapes --- even in peacetime. Some and sperm are transferred by the male and female pressing their estimates suggest that 70 per cent in industrialised societies are sacs together once the male is in position. On his own, a male can gang rapes. Others suggest about 25 per cent. Inevitably, human easily be dislodged from a female's back. Moreover, she can avoid males gain all the same reproductive benefits from gang accepting his sperm simply by not everting her genital sac. A membership as other male animals. The same arguments apply group of males, however, can effect copulation by forcing her to and the size of human gangs tends to be small, usually four or five the ground through weight of numbers and then continuing to peck individuals.
and attack her until she accepts sperm transfer. Females who do In our discussion of predatory rape in Scene 33, we left open not comply have been known to die in the melee.
one very important question. If rape can be a successful alternative There are more benefits to gang membership than simply being reproductive strategy for men, and if conceiving via the more able to force insemination. A gang is also more able to brush aside competent of rapists can be a successful reproductive strategy for the female's defences, either her own or those of guarding males.
women, why is rape not more common? There are two extreme In some species of duck, for example, the gangs divide their possibilities, just as there were for prostitutes (Scene 32). One is labour. On discovering a female and her partner, some of the gang that rapists are a genetic minority, like bisexuals (Scenes 30 and chase and keep away the guarding male, while the others rape the 31). The other is that all men are potential rapists --- but that rape female. Members of the gang swap roles, so that over a period all still remains rare because few men ever encounter a situation in benefit from their membership.
which the potential reproductive benefits of rape outweigh the The benefit of gang rather than individual rape to male birds, potential reproductive costs (many of which are imposed by the therefore, is that through cooperation they each increase their wider society (Scene 33)). Of these two possible explanations, the chances of inseminating an unwilling female. The cost is that on latter seems likely to be nearer the truth --- because in wartime the each occasion their sperm have to engage in warfare with sperm incidence of all forms of rape, including gang rape, increases from other males in the gang. Whether a male gains an overall dramatically.
advantage from being a gang member depends on how these costs There are three main reasons why this is so. First, having routed and benefits balance out. Mainly, it depends on whether the greater its enemy, a successful army has effectively removed the males number of females a male inseminates through gang membership who might otherwise defend the women. Secondly, the mobility compensates for his reduced chance of fertilisation on each and confusion of war make it very difficult for rapists to be occasion. If he is a member of a gang of four, he has only a one in tracked down. Thirdly, because of the ever present risk of four chance of fathering any child produced by their activities, so imminent death, the prospect of social recrimination for rape only if the gang as a whole manages to inseminate more than four seems trivial. On balance, therefore, unlike in peacetime, men In times as many females as the male could on his own is his the midst of war are much more likely to chance across a situation membership worthwhile. For this reason, gangs tend to be rather in which the reproductive benefits of rape outweigh the costs.
small. A group of ten will not be twice as effective 324
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The increased incidence of rape during warfare is due to more and killed people. That society either successfully attacked or men becoming rapists, not to a limited number of men raping defended itself in warfare against an enemy intent on territorial more often. This pattern is much more what we should expect if defence or expansion. History books are full of civilisations and all men were potential rapists, rather than if only a fixed genetic societies that have been annihilated by their neighbours.
minority had rapist inclinations. Unpalatable though this might Obviously, we are more likely to be the descendants of the be, it should be no more so than that other facet of male killers, and not of the ones who were killed, so we all have the behaviour highlighted by war --- that all men are potential killers.
potential to kill. Whereas in wartime, many people are The soldiers in Scene 34 were essentially ordinary young men continually encountering circumstances in which the benefits of who, had they been born at another time in another place, would killing another person far outweigh the costs, in peacetime far have proclaimed themselves incapable of either rape or killing.
fewer people encounter such circumstances. Next, let us consider Yet, in a wartime scenario, they found it within themselves to wartime rape. We have all inherited our genes from those men commit both. This should not be so surprising. As we discovered amongst our wartime ancestors who took their opportunities to in Scene 33, we all possess the genes of rapist ancestors. For the reproduce when they could, •von when it involved rape. We have same reasons, we all possess the genes of past killers.
not inherited the genes of men who opted to wait for a safer and First, let us consider wartime killing. Few people would deny more conventional opportunity in a future that for them never that the predisposition to wage war against neighbouring came. Those men In Scene 34 who decided not to rape the young communities has a biological basis. Similar behaviour is shown girl did not live to produce more children who would inherit their by many social animals, from insects to primates. Neighbouring compassion, whereas one of the men who raped her did produce communities of chimpanzees, for example, each forty or so a child to inherit his lack of compassion. It is by this process of strong, have been seen to engage in what can only be described as weeding nut genes that do not enhance reproductive success that inter-group warfare. One social group was observed over a period evolution has saddled the majority of men with the propensity to
of several months systematically murdering individuals from the behave as rapists in the appropriate situation.
other group, until none were left. As far as humans are concerned, Wartime rape and murder also combine to shape our historical inter-village battles in New Guinea and South America characteristics in the process known as genetic infiltration.
should be regarded as little different, either in scale or in Warfare displaces and sometimes annihilates whole lineages by territorial motivation. Only the distance from which the people this process. The invading armies annex lands and rape the could kill each other was different. And although modern human women. Then subsequent settlers establish relationships and have warfare between nation states is clearly greater in terms of scale children in less aggressive ways. By this means, whole genetic and mayhem, the behaviour, motivations and fears of the stocks can be infiltrated and diluted almost out of existence by individuals concerned as they kill each other are just the same.
more successful genetic lines. There are few people in the world Distasteful though it might be to accept, most people are alive today who do not contain at least a few genes from ancestors today only because at some time in the past the wider society in who, two thousand years ago, lived In a completely different which their ancestors lived successfully waged war geographical area. Wartime rape is one of the key elements in this ebb and flow of genes across the earth's surface. Not one of us would be precisely the person
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we are today if one of our ancestors had not taken advantage of three. The chances for the daughter conceiving, however, were the relative immunity of war to commit rape and murder.
probably no higher than one in fifty.
Biologically, it might seem strange that the men in Scene 34
It is difficult to guess which of the soldiers sired the two considered a twelve-year-old girl a suitable target. But, children. Inevitably, one of the features of gang rape is that it unfortunately, it is not. Authenticated records show that women generates intensive sperm warfare in the victim. All else being have conceived at all ages between seven and fifty-seven, with equal, we might expect the first male who inseminated each unconfirmed reports of women conceiving up to the age of female to be the reproductive winner (Scene 21). He was the one seventy. Reproductively, therefore, a predisposition to find any whose egg-getters got a head start in reaching the oviducts, woman between these ages to be sexually attractive is not totally whose killers were first to take up their positions in the womb, futile. Pre-pubescent girls may ovulate before their breasts and and whose blockers had the chance to establish themselves in the pubic hair develop and before their first show of menstrual blood.
cervix. However, as we discussed in Scene 21, much will have Post-menopausal women may conceive up to at least eighteen depended on how quickly the subsequent men also inseminated months after their last period. In between, as we have discussed the female, on how efficiently each penis removed the seminal at length (as in Scene 2), men are totally unable to judge whether pool from the man before, and on precisely when each female and when a woman is fertile.
ovulated. In Scene 34 the odds will have favoured the soldier in As far as rape is concerned, young girls and older women are command because he was the first to inseminate both females, in a sense victims of their gender's success at unconsciously con-but any one of the doomed men could have left a descendant to fusing and deceiving men. Unable to decipher female fertility, the perpetuate his rapist genes.
male body has responded evolutionarily by a blanket approach ---
inseminating whoever and whenever it can. As we have noted, given the choice it will prefer women in their most fertile years (twenty to thirty-five), but under some circumstances it will find SCENE 35
even very young and very old women attractive. Faced with four Men Are All the Same
females, one a baby, one twelve years old, one in her late twenties and one in her sixties, all of the men in Scene 34 wanted to inseminate the woman in her late twenties, three wanted to The sound of laughter erupted from the corner of the bar. The inseminate the twelve-year-old, and none wanted to inseminate two women at the table looked around, suddenly feeling the older woman or the baby. Under different circumstances, with Conspicuous --- but they had drunk enough not really to care.
a more restricted choice for the men, the older woman might also They leaned towards each other again, the taller of the two have suffered rape.
making the shape of a cup with her free hand, determined to The two who were raped both ovulated and conceived. Perhaps convey to her friend just how big her partner's testes were. She'd they were stimulated to ovulate by the rape itself, as we discussed seen quite a few men's packages in her time, she said, and her previously (Scene 33). This was almost predictable for the partner's were by far the biggest.
mother, but was against the odds for the daughter. Given that The two hadn't met for years but had exchanged the females might ovulate in response to rape, the chances of the occasional letter. Finally, they had decided it was time to meet mother conceiving could have been as high as about one in up again, so the other woman had invited her friend, 328
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her partner and their two young children to stay for the weekend.
self-consciousness, the taller woman replied that she came Tonight, the men had wanted to watch some sport on the sometimes --- but her partner expected her to come every time.
television, so the women had decided to leave them to baby-sit In the early days, she had told him once or twice that she hadn't while they went out to get drunk and catch up on each other's and he had sulked for hours. Ever since, if she didn't come, she lives. Now that they were drunk, what they really wanted to talk faked it. Besides which, she said, he could keep going for hours, about was sex. In particular, they wanted to know about each just waiting for her. If she didn't fake it, he would never stop.
other's sex life.
Feeling uncomfortable, the other woman took another sip. She The other woman wasn't sure that she would like big testes.
found some consolation in her friend's answer, but not much.
Her own partner, she said, trading information, had really small There was a brief silence. She knew it was her turn to reciprocate ones, smaller than table tennis balls. His penis seemed a bit but couldn't decide whether to tell the truth or not. In the end, she small, too. Not wanting to miss the opportunity, the taller woman admitted that she had never come during sex. In fact, she didn't said her partner's penis was definitely big. Sometimes she wished think she had ever had an orgasm. When they pad sex, her it weren't quite so big. He tended to be really vigorous when he partner just stuck it in and ejaculated. Admittedly, he had tried ---
was thrusting and sometimes he hurt her. She didn't know what it at least in the early days. He used to fiddle around between her was inside her that he kept poking, but it was certainly legs during foreplay, but it had never really done much for her. If uncomfortable. She also wished he didn't want sex quite so often.
anything, she used to get embarrassed rather than excited. In the Most of her friends, she said, were down to once a week, but, end, she had told him not to bother and just to get on with it.
even after all this time, she still had a job to keep him down to Once or twice she had felt something during intercourse but it two or three times a week. Even then she reckoned he had never amounted to anything. She wasn't sure whether it was masturbated if she ever left him alone in the house.
her or him, but she had just never got anything from sex ---
That would be no good for her, her friend said. She wouldn't except their baby.
be able to cope with having sex that often. Fortunately, her In a matter of fact way that shocked her friend, the taller partner also had a low sex drive --- they were lucky if they woman asked if it was any better with other men. The other managed it twice a month now. It had been once or twice a week woman smiled and shook her head. There hadn't been any other when they first started living together, but it had soon declined.
men, she said. The taller woman asked if she meant never, or not As for masturbation --- they had never talked about it. She wasn't since she had been living with her partner. When told never, she even sure he'd know how to. The taller woman laughed and then expressed disbelief, astounded that anybody could get to thirty expressed her amazement that they had never talked about it. One and only ever have had sex with one man. She m ust have had at of the first things her partner would tell her when she returned least twenty. When asked if she meant when she was younger or after leaving him alone in the house was whether he had if she had had other men since living with her partner, she masturbated. Maybe he didn't always tell her, but she thought he laughed at the innocence of the question and said both. She did usually.
expected at least one fling a year. She'd even had sex with They paused to sip their drinks. The other woman hesitated, someone else while she was pregnant with her first child. The summoning the courage to ask what for her was a big question.
thought of only having sex with her partner and missing out on Falteringly, in a quiet, confidential voice, she asked her friend the excitement of someone new occasionally was unimaginable.
how often she came during sex. Without any surprise or 331
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Unsure of how she felt about her friend in the light of these men were all the same. Drunk or sober, young or old, they were revelations, the other woman tried to think of a suitable only interested in one thing. If they had half a brain as well as response. In the end, she simply said she didn't know how the genitals they would really be quite dangerous.
other managed to get away with it. Her own partner hardly ever let her out of his sight and she was sure he would know if she even thought about being unfaithful. Her friend said she exually, men are much more similar to each other than are sometimes wished her partner were a bit more attentive. Not too Swomen. Virtually all men ejaculate (whereas not all women much, but a bit. Sometimes she thought he didn't care what she have orgasms). Virtually all men masturbate (whereas nearly a did. He was never around when she needed him --- for all she quarter of women do not). Virtually all men have nocturnal knew, he could be having a different woman every week. There orgasms at some time in their lives (whereas 60 per cent of women were always women around him. He could take his pick. It do not). Nevertheless, men do still differ in the ways they pursue would be a hopeless task trying to turn him into an attentive reproductive success. There are roughly four different strategies.
partner and father. In any case, if she did, it would give her far One strategy mentioned in Scene 35 is bisexuality (discussed at less chance to enjoy herself.
some length in Scene 30). The two other strategies described by the She leaned forward and touched her friend's hand. Apparently women in the scene represent the two ends of the male spectrum of taking no account of the latter's confessed fidelity, she told her sexuality. We have met these two types of men before in a different what she should do if she wanted a partner who would give her orgasms. In a whisper, she confided that the best lover she had context (Scene 19). One specialises in sperm warfare, the other in ever had had been gay. She hadn't realised until she had seen him avoiding sperm warfare. In between these two types lie the holding hands with another man in a bar a few weeks after they majority of men who intermesh an avoidance and a seeking of had finished. He had been wonderful, and had always seemed to sperm warfare in as productive a way as possible. Just which know exactly what she wanted. Try and find yourself one, she strategy a male is programmed to adopt will depend largely on his urged.
rate of sperm production --- which in turn depends on the size of Her friend was just about to recoil at a prospect so alien to her, his testes.
when one of the men at the bar began to make his way unsteadily Men have a pair of testes of unequal size (on average, the right over to their table. He put down his drink and balanced himself is 5 per cent larger), which hang in a scrotal sac at different heights awkwardly with arms outstretched, fists on the table. Dribbling (more often the left is lower). The testes of all mammals originate slightly, he observed that the two women looked as though they inside the body in the same position as the ovaries --- and in many knew how to have a good time. Why didn't they come with him? He species that is where they stay. In other species, such as humans, could give them a night to remember. Maybe they should toss a they descend into the scrotal sac before birth and stay there coin to see who could have him first.
throughout life. In yet other species, the testes descend during the The taller woman told him to drop dead. When he didn't leave, breeding season, then go back inside the body for safe keeping she stood up and pushed him away. He fell backwards on to the once the breeding season is over.
floor, then got to his feet and swore at them before Scrotal testes are more vulnerable than internal testes and can staggering back to the bar. The woman sat back down, picked up easily be damaged. The main compensation is that, because they her drink and smiled at her friend. Deep down, she observed, allow the sperm to be stored at a lower temperature than 332
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if they were stored inside the body, it is easier for the sperm to small testes, injecting few sperm into their respective partners keep fitter and healthier for longer. When men are naked, their and making no attempt to inseminate other men's partners. Into sperm are stored at a temperature that is 6°C cooler than if they this population comes a man with large testes who not only were inside the body, but when they are clothed, the difference is claims a partner of his own but also tries to inseminate other only 3°C.
men's partners. At first, he does extremely well. Every time he On average, taller and heavier (but not obese) men have larger inseminates another man's partner he is likely to win the sperm testes. Some men, though, have testes that are relatively large for war because he introduces a larger sperm army. Yet, at the same their body size; others have testes that are relatively small. This time, he is safe from the possibility of 'cuckoos' appearing in his difference is genetic and heritable. As long as there are no own nest because other men are not inseminating his partner. As associated clinical problems, even the smallest of testes can a result, at each generation men with large testes produce more produce enough sperm for fertilisation in the absence of sperm children than men with small. Moreover, their male descendants warfare. Moreover, small testes are less vulnerable and less likely inherit their large testes, their promiscuity and their ability to win to be damaged than larger ones. So why don't all men have small sperm warfare.
testes? The answer is that when sperm warfare is likely, small But this success eventually becomes self-defeating. At each testes are a major handicap. The sexual strategy that a man does generation there are more and more men with large testes ---
best to pursue, therefore, is dictated to a large extent by the size of descendants of the original invader --- and in the end such men no his testes.
longer have an advantage. First, they are no longer assured of Men with larger testes manufacture more sperm per day, winning sperm wars because the women they inseminate are ejaculate more often, and introduce more sperm at each being inseminated by other men with large testes. Secondly, their intercourse. Interestingly, they don't ejaculate more sperm during own partners are now vulnerable to being inseminated by other masturbation. They spend less time with their partner, and are men with equally large testes. Thirdly, the greater promiscuity in more likely to be unfaithful and to choose a partner who will also the population puts everybody at greater risk to disease, be unfaithful. The converse is true, in all these respects, for men particularly the most promiscuous --- such as themselves. Thus, with smaller testes.
when there are too many men with large testes in the population, In short, men with larger testes are programmed to specialise in the less well endowed ones who concentrate on guarding their the pursuit of sperm warfare --- warfare which, because of their partner against other men actually do better. Not least this is large sperm armies, they are likely to win. Men with smaller because such men are less at risk to disease and their smaller testes, on the other hand, are programmed to specialise in mate testes are less vulnerable to accident and damage.
guarding, fidelity and the avoidance of sperm warfare --- warfare So if sperm war specialists with large testes ever become too which, because of their small armies, they would be likely to lose.
common in the population, they actually do worse reproductively So who is the more successful reproductively, a man with small than men with small testes. We have met this situation before testes or a man with large ones? The answer seems to be neither.
(Scene 30) and the outcome should be the same. The proportion Just as for bisexuality, evolution seems to have produced a of men with large testes settles down at the level at which, on balance such that men with large testes and men with small do average, such men do no better and no worse than men with equally well.
small ones.
To illustrate this point, imagine a population of men with In Scene 35, the man with large testes was raising two children
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who may or may not have been his. In addition, he may or may not below which a man cannot introduce sperm far enough up the have produced other children with other women. The man with vagina. There is also an upper limit --- that beyond which a man small testes was raising one child, which was certainly his would be unable to thrust without damaging the woman. Within (according to his partner). The latter male has greater certainty, the (his range, though, why should any man have a penis smaller than former has greater potential. On average, however, the two types of the upper limit? The answer is that within this range there is no men should produce equal numbers of children.
real disadvantage to a smaller penis (other than being an In between these two extremes of testis size and reproductive infrequent handicap for sperm warfare) and there may even be an strategy lie the majority of men --- those with testes of intermediate occasional advantage.
size. These employ a 'mixed' strategy by which they try to strike On the one hand, a smaller penis is no disadvantage in terms of the best compromise between mate guarding and sperm warfare, sperm retention. First, it is not particularly less efficient at but specialise in neither. The presence in the population of this delivering a seminal pool to the top of the vagina. This is because
'mixed' majority might seem to complicate the picture, but in fact even when a penis of below-maximum size withdraws after the conclusion remains the same --- their proportion is also fixed at insemination, the vaginal walls close behind it (Scene 3), the level at which on average their reproductive success is no better effectively pushing the seminal pool to the top of the vagina.
and no worse than males with smaller or larger testes. In effect, as Secondly, penis size has no influence on the probability of a man's long as a man pursues a reproductive strategy appropriate to the partner having an orgasm during intercourse.
size of his testes and his rate of sperm production, he should on On the other hand, a smaller than maximum penis may even be average do just as well as other men with different-sized testes.
an advantage, particularly during routine sex. Everything depends The sperm war specialist in Scene 35 had a large penis as well as on the costs and benefits of a man removing his own seminal pool large testes, whereas the mate-guarding specialist had a small penis whenever he inseminates a woman twice in rapid succession, say as well as small testes. This should not be surprising, given that the within thirty minutes or so (Scene 25). On these occasions, a penis does have a role in sperm warfare --- the removal of any smaller penis will be an advantage if the previous seminal pool is seminal pool from the vagina (Scene 21). On the whole, however, a better left in place. If the pool is better removed, a smaller penis large penis is not as consistent a feature of sperm war specialists as can still do the job --- it just takes longer. In many ways, therefore, large testes --- because, compared with testis size, penis size a smaller than maximum penis endows a man with greater influences the outcome of sperm warfare far less often. After all, flexibility than does a larger one. It is also less likely to be penis size is important only on those rare occasions when a man accidentally damaged.
has sex with a woman very soon after another man --- so soon that Testis size and penis size vary not only between males within a the latter's seminal pool is still at the top of her vagina. In contrast, population, they also vary between populations and races. On testis size, via sperm number, is always important in sperm average, even relative to body size, Negroes tend to have larger warfare.
genitals than Caucasoids, and both have larger genitals than This explains why there has been much more pressure on sperm Mongoloids. The number of sperm inseminated during intercourse war specialists to have larger testes than to have a larger penis, but varies accordingly. It has been claimed that these differences it does not explain why any man should have a small penis. There between populations reflect different balances in sexual strategy, is, of course, a lower limit to penis size --- that just as they do between men within populations. In other words, populations with larger genitals (on
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average) should contain more men pursuing sperm warfare than drunk, then moved in. They had been talking for hours. Even when populations with smaller genitals (on average). Although this claim she had gone to the toilet, always a dangerous moment, she had has not been tested for different populations within the human come back to him. For the last hour, their conversation had been species, it has been tested between species.
about sex. With an honesty born out of drunkenness, they had In some species of primate, such as chimpanzees, females often traded increasingly personal details, such as how often (hey each mate with several males and nearly every conception involves masturbated and how many partners they had each had. She was sperm warfare. In others, such as gibbons, females rarely mate with well into double figures and sometimes despaired Of herself, she a male other than their partner and conception rarely involves confided, but she could never really think of a good reason to say sperm warfare. Linked with this difference, chimps have much no.
larger testes relative to their body size than do gibbons. Humans, She began to look sad and emotional. He said she shouldn't think with 4 per cent or more of children conceived via sperm warfare badly of herself. Without her experiences, she wouldn't be the (Scene 6), are intermediate between the two, both in terms of person she was now: so worldly, so relaxed and so attractive.
warfare risk and testis size.
Those past sexual experiences had surely helped her become the Not only primates but many other groups of animals have been person that he, for one, was now finding so irresistible. With that, shown to have testes of a size appropriate to the risk of sperm he had stroked the side of her face with the back of his fingers. She warfare. From butterflies to birds and from mice to men, the more leaned her face against his hand and small tears appeared in her likely a male's sperm are to engage in conflict, the larger his testes eyes. She smiled and apologized as he wiped the tears from her relative to the size of his body.
cheeks. Then, as he continued gently to touch her face, tracing his fingers round her eyebrows, nose and mouth, she looked him in the
eyes with an expression he recognized from a previous lover - she SCENE 36
wanted sex. There were still people in the room, but the pair of them were now oblivious. He moved his hand from her face to her Exquisite Confusion
neck, then back again, stroking with his finger tips. Then he moved down and traced round the edge of her low-cut dress, briefly His moment had come. It was a year since his second partner had slipping his fingers inside so that they brushed over an erect nipple.
left him, a year of celibacy, anticipation and nothing but She made a tiny noise in her throat. His moment had come. He masturbation. But, unless he did something totally stupid, it looked took hold of her hand and suggested they go somewhere more as though this was going to be it.
private. Unhesitatingly, she let him lead her.
It wasn't the first party he had thrown since she had left. It was As he led her upstairs to his bedroom he congratulated himself.
an easy way of filling the house with lots of young women (and a Maybe, at last, he was becoming competent at the sexual arts. The few men). But it was the first at which he had managed to keep thrust of the conversation he had just used to interest this girl had anybody's attention for more than about ten minutes. He had been almost identical to the one he had used when he first seduced targeted this young girl, nearly thirty years his junior, the minute his last partner, ten years ago. In fact, apart from this girl's she walked in the room. A friend of a friend, she stole his attention relatively tiny breasts, she could almost be his last partner.
immediately. He had waited until she looked 338
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Within seconds of bolting the door, they were lying naked on the to thrust and left all the movements to her, patiently and politely bed and he had started the routine that according to his ex-partner waiting for her to climax before he ejaculated. The sounds in her had made him an exquisite lover. His hands, lips and tongue began throat grew louder and louder. Then, suddenly, she stopped - no to move over her body, with varying degrees of lightness and contractions, no apparent release or relief, no anything. As she strength. It was a well rehearsed routine that had never failed to stopped moving he began to thrust, but he was too late. Without stimulate her to orgasm when she was as aroused as this girl seemed waiting for him to ejaculate, she removed herself and lay to be. She used to lie there as he caressed her, getting more and more breathlessly on the bed, leaving him erect, wet and frustrated.
excited as he spent more and more time massaging her clitoris until As she lay, recovering, he kissed and stroked her. Desperate to she eventually climaxed. However, as he worked slowly over the inseminate her, he tried to keep her interest, but it didn't work. A young girl's body, judging the right moment to move to her clitoris, few minutes later, she got off the bed and started to dress. He he realized that she wasn't reacting. Then suddenly she seized him assumed she was going to the toilet, but as she got to the door she by the neck and kissed him passionately, almost violently. Taken said goodbye. She had really enjoyed it, she said, but she had to aback, he did his best to respond before trying to take the initiative go. He protested that he hadn't yet come. She told him to do it again. Rolling her on to her back, he forced his hand between her himself - if she had more time she would help him, but she really legs. For him it was an unfamiliar angle, and she was moving so had to go. Her boyfriend was coming to pick her up and take her much he couldn't find her clitoris. He had rarely had such a home. As she opened the door, he suggested they should do it problem with his ex-partner. But then she had always lain still again sometime. She smiled, shook her head, and went.
while he stimulated her.
After dressing, he went back down to the party, but most people Thrown from his usual routine, he placed his fingers in the girl's had gone and none of the girls still there attracted him. He ushered vagina instead. She was very wet. But instead of allowing him to the last few people out and went back to bed. But he couldn't sleep, gently move his fingers up and down, in and out of her vagina, as even after masturbating. He couldn't believe he had missed his did his ex-partner, she responded by vigorously rubbing her pelvis chance. He was nearly fifty and still he couldn't guarantee making against his hand for a few seconds. Then she quickly maneuvered the most of his opportunities. It wasn't that he was inexperienced -
him on to his back and herself up his body. Next, in a movement he just that he had never met anybody like this girl before.
had never come across before, she seemed to grab his penis with He had had little opportunity to learn about sex during her vaginal lips and virtually suck him in. He felt awkward lying on adolescence, and hadn't really got to grips with intercourse until he his back because he was used to being on top. He tried to start had met his first partner. During their fifteen years together they thrusting but the girl was thrusting too. His ex-partner used to lie had produced two children. Yet not once in their entire relationship still and leave him to orchestrate the whole intercourse. But then, did she have an orgasm. She had been totally passive. She didn't she had usually climaxed during foreplay, if she was going to like him touching her between her legs and refused to allow his climax at all.
face anywhere near her pubic hair. Because of their lack of Concentrate though he might, he just could not synchronize his foreplay, she was rarely wet when he tried to enter her. To get thrusting to the girl's. He kept coming out. Each time she lost his herself lubricated, she used to urge him to put penis, she would simply relocate it with her vaginal lips and suck him in again. In the end, he gave up trying 340
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the tip of his penis just inside her vagina and then work himself massage and squeeze the area around it. But she never wanted to backwards and forwards gently. Once he was fully inside, she then climax during foreplay. He became expert at judging the right liked him to ejaculate quickly. If intercourse lasted too long, it was moment to move from using his fingers to using his penis. And as as if she became embarrassed. On more than one occasion, she had long as he judged the moment correctly, she always seemed to actually made him stop and withdraw because he was taking too climax during intercourse. Somehow, though, he always had the long. Ironic though it seemed in hindsight, he had convinced feeling that she was faking it.
himself while he was with her that there was no such thing as the This first infidelity lasted a year and passed undetected by his female orgasm.
partner. It ended when his mistress met someone nearer her own When he was thirty, he had his first opportunity to be age. A year later, he began his second affair. He was now unfaithful. At a party at work, one of the junior girls had started relatively experienced at the deceptive techniques of infidelity, but stroking his leg with her foot. They went back to his office and was still not fully convinced that the female orgasm was a reality.
lay uncomfortably on the uncarpeted floor. Assuming she would As it turned out, his second mistress was not the person to want the same as his partner, he missed out foreplay completely enlighten him.
and, in a tangle of half-removed skirt and knickers, trousers and Most of the time he was with her he felt like her puppet. They pants, tried to penetrate her immediately. She was offended by worked together and from time to time had legitimate reason to his lack of consideration and disappointed that she wasn't going spend time together away from their respective partners.
to get an orgasm. Suddenly she had seemed to become aware of Eventually, she let him into her bed on condition that he did not try the discomfort of the situation and equally suddenly became to penetrate her. On their first night, she helped him to ejaculate in overtaken by guilt - she, too, had a partner at home. Pushing him exchange for having him stroke her body and, particularly, to place away, she said that maybe sex wasn't such a good idea after all, his head between her legs and lick her. At first he had no idea what and left.
he was doing. Though he was now thirty-five, she was the first He nearly suffered the same fate three years later when he woman who had actually urged or even allowed him such intimate tried to make love to his first real mistress. She, too, took offence at contact. Yet she was virtually insatiable, wanting him to lick her his initial urgency. But instead of dismissing him after the first genitals, thighs and anus for twenty minutes at a time so that she occasion and despite being ten years his junior, she set about was covered in his saliva. Even so, she never had an orgasm or educating him - and there was a lot he needed to know. For even became excited; she seemed to find his attention therapeutic example, in all his time with his partner he had neither touched rather than stimulating.
nor seen her clitoris. In truth, he didn't even know she had one A year later, on what was their tenth assignation, she was still and, with the benefit of hindsight, he suspected that neither did insisting that he could only have his excitement as long as he did she. Two things his mistress did share with his partner were a not penetrate her. This time, their business was abroad and they mild liking for having her nipples sucked and a strong dislike of were away for a fortnight. For two nights, he let her tell him what having his face between her legs. Whenever he tried, she to do but on the third night, as they lay naked and he had his head restrained him. He never did in fact see her clitoris. However, between her legs, his excitement and frustration at last took him she managed to show him both how to find it with his fingers beyond the threshold of reason. He slid up her body, kissing her as and, having found it, what to do with it. She didn't like him to he went. Then, while kissing her face and touch the clitoris bulb directly, preferring him to 342
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mouth, he slipped his penis into her vagina. She immediately laughter. Almost immediately the party was under way, the female struggled but he pinned her down, smothering her protestations host had disappeared to her bedroom. She returned a few minutes with his mouth and free hand. She became violent, hitting and later wearing a short, almost transparent, white dress. Then, scratching him whenever she could free a hand. But he was too seemingly unnoticed by her very drunk partner, she openly took strong for her and so excited that he ejaculated quickly. When it the hand of one unattached man after another and led him away to was over, she called him a bastard - but didn't throw him out. I Nor her bedroom. When it came to his turn, she told him she had been did she get dressed, and within an hour she was taunting him into saving him till last. She took him upstairs and, without locking the forcing her to have sex again. Over the remaining week, they had door, removed his trousers and underwear. As she took off her sex every night. Each night, he had to find a different way of knickers, he could smell the semen from the previous men.
restraining and forcing her. She conceived that week but three Sitting on the edge of the bed, she began to give him oral sex.
months later miscarried when her partner, having been denied sex From the noises she was making, she was becoming excited even for well over a year, decided to leave her rather than bring up faster than he was. Eventually sounding frantic, she pulled him on somebody else's child.
top of her and scrambled with her hands to insert his penis. As he Until his mistress miscarried, our man had been tempted to leave pushed himself in, she let out a blood-curdling scream and her his partner and help her raise the child. After the miscarriage, body began jerking wildly. The violence of her reaction was such though, he could not face the prospect of years of having to force a shock to him that his erection began to fade. He carried on sex, and finished the relationship. But it 1 was too late. His partner thrusting, trying to rejuvenate himself. But just as she was had been told of his affair by his mistress's, and three months after building up to a second crescendo and his own ejaculation was finding out she left him for another man, taking their two children only seconds away, her partner burst into the room. Only an with her.
instant before he ejaculated he was pulled off her, pushed to the There followed three short relationships, each girl as different ground, and ordered out. With apparently little surprise and with from the others as she could be. The first was afraid of sex. Raped minimal aggression, her partner proclaimed that now it was his as a young girl, she had a fear of the erect penis that distressed him turn. Hardly faltering in her build-up at the change of penis, the almost as much as it did her. They drank excessively. Over the girl released yet another blood-curdling scream.
course of a year they shared a bed perhaps five or six times, but His third experience was with an exotic woman with whom he never managed to have intercourse. He didn't realize her similarity had sex about five times. The first two times were clearly a to his last mistress until, at their last meeting, she asked him to rape disappointment to her. She had refused to let him enter her her. He obliged, emotionally torn at watching her distress as he without extensive foreplay. Yet the foreplay he provided, forced his penis inside her. Unlike his last mistress, however, she borrowed from his technique with his first mistress, seemed to do did not come back for more and he never saw her again.
nothing for her, and on each occasion it was with reluctance that Now nearly forty, his next experience was a great shock. He had she eventually let him have intercourse. The third time, she told been out celebrating with a small group of friends from work. They him she would do it herself. She masturbated in front of him and, had all returned to the house of a young couple barely in their after she had climaxed, allowed him to have intercourse. Years twenties, and were soon plunged into a drunken party with very later he was to realize that, had he
loud music and much raucous
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already experienced the woman who was to be his second long-term partner, he would probably have been able to excite this woman. What she did to herself was precisely what that second partner later taught him to do to her. After twice watching his ompared to men, women are incredibly varied in their sexual exotic lover masturbate, he began to feel fairly incompetent. In Ccharacteristics. Some women (2---4 per cent) never orgasm; the end he found himself wondering if what she really wanted was others (5 per cent) have multiple orgasms, scarcely coming down for him to force her, like his second mistress. He tried this, failed, from one climax before building up to the next. Ten per cent never and was thrown out, never to be invited back.
climax during intercourse; another 10 per cent nearly always Soon afterwards he met his second long-term partner, twenty climax. Some prefer to be totally passive in their build-up to years his junior (the woman who had just left him, taking their climax during intercourse; others prefer to be more active. Fifty child with her). The first time they had sex she was so upset by per cent masturbate regularly; 20 per cent never do. Finally, 40 per his urgency that he almost forfeited his second chance. Instead, cent have nocturnal orgasms, whereas others cannot even imagine she relented and taught him what she needed. After two or three such an event.
years of education he became quite proficient. Quiet and Added to, and often associated with, these differences in orgasm sensuous, she liked him to stroke her gently while she lay back, pattern are differences between women in the sensitivity of soaking up the sensations. Unlike his first mistress, however, different parts of their bodies. Some women have sensitive sucking her nipples did little for her. She showed him precisely nipples; others do not. Some have a clitoris so sensitive that they where her clitoris was and how to find it. She liked the bulb itself, dislike the bulb being touched; others have one that responds very once lubricated, to be rubbed and massaged directly.
little to stimulation.
Eventually, he could virtually guarantee giving her an orgasm It is not quite true that no two women are the same - but to during foreplay, as long as she wanted him to. Rarely, very many men it often seems that way. Why is there so much variety rarely, did she have or even want an orgasm during intercourse, to female sexuality, and what bearing does such variety have on saying they were so weak they weren't worth having. When each the female pursuit of reproductive success? The answer is that it is episode began, she would tell him whether she felt like an orgasm yet another manifestation of the advantages gained from confusing during foreplay or whether she just felt like intercourse. If she men (Scene 2) and testing their abilities (Scene 27). It works changed her mind or if for some reason he was unable to excite because, as we have seen before (Scene 27), men have to learn her, she would openly masturbate to satisfy herself. And she told him about her nocturnal orgasms. As far as he knew, none of his their sexual technique.
other partners had experienced them.
The man in Scene 36 was bemused. However, he wasn't quite the failure he imagined himself to be. In fact, reproductively, his After ten years with her, he had felt able to excite and satisfy life was fairly successful. He had two children with his first any woman. Tonight's events had proved him wrong. Shocked partner and one with his second (assuming they were all his). But and disappointed, he drifted off to sleep in a sea of confused he could have had even more. At different times during his life he thoughts. He would never understand women.
had the opportunity to impregnate seven other women, and to varying degrees he had failed each time. On some occasions he failed even to inseminate. On others, he failed to handle the relationship either well enough or for long enough to have a 346
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realistic chance of paternity. The nearest he got to a child with a disease or to find a faithful partner, she may actually prefer a further woman was with his second mistress. Eventually, her body naive man. On the other hand, if her priority is to find a man who allowed him to fertilize one of her eggs. But it took him a year of is genetically more attractive (Scene 28) she may prefer someone missed opportunities, and that was just too long. Had he whom many other women have found attractive (Scene 27).
impregnated her earlier, he might successfully have deceived her Secondly, she has more initial control at each sexual encounter partner into raising another's child. Then the baby might never with a new man, which lasts for as long as it takes the man to have been miscarried and his reproductive success might have fathom the best way to relate to her. The result is that she has been 33 per cent higher than eventually it was.
more time to assess the man as a long-term partner. In Scene 36, His failure to capitalize on opportunities to reproduce with three women tested the main character sexually, but managed to these seven women was due in every case to some combination of avoid being inseminated before rejecting him. One took longer to surprise, shock and misjudgment. He did what he could, but he decide how she felt about him, but was able to keep both the was confused by the sheer variety of female sexuality. As he number of inseminations and sperm retention down to a minimum moved from woman to woman he tried to extrapolate from his in the process. Two others managed to avoid insemination for past experiences. He assumed that techniques of seduction, nearly a year while they made up their minds. One finally rejected stimulation and insemination that had been successful in the past him, and the other conceived but later miscarried.
would be successful in the future. To some extent, his approach Thirdly, after accepting a man as a partner, she can still educate worked - his gradual accumulation of experience with different him in her needs without facilitating his infidelity. In the scene, females slowly increased his awareness and competence in the two of the women (his first mistress and his second long-term sexual arts. But, even after encounters with eight very different partner) evidently found the man's other qualities attractive women, he still failed to inseminate a ninth.
enough to tolerate his initial sexual incompetence. They then In some species, experience gained by a male with one female began the relatively long process of educating him in helping can readily be extrapolated to another. In other species, however, them to climax (Scene 27). This could have been self-defeating, if such extrapolation is less successful - and it is least successful in his increased competence had made it easy for him to seduce those such as humans in which the underlying female strategy is other women. Of course, it did help him a little, but not as much the confusion of males. Then, not only do individual females as it would have done if women were more similar. His first confuse their partner through unpredictable swings of mood and partner pursued the ultimate version of such a strategy. By not behavior (Scene 2), but also the female population as a whole having orgasms herself, she could not educate him at all. As a manages to confuse through variety. As was clear from Scene 36, result, she made him miss one opportunity for infidelity and a woman gains in three main ways from being as different as she slowed him down in taking advantage of another.
can be from other women.
Although it is not difficult to see that women can benefit First, she can set each man a much more challenging test of considerably from being different from one another, there has to experience and competence (Scene 27). From this she can quickly be a limit to this range of possibilities. Different though women learn whether he has a little or a lot of experience of other women.
may be in their individual sexuality, therefore, we can Because women are so different, a man will only have nevertheless still recognize a number of broad categories. These encountered her type before and thus know how to treat her if he categories are probably genetic, are probably in some sort of has had a lot of experience. If her priority is to avoid 348
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balance in the population, and are probably all most successful if of the ways we have discussed (Scenes 22 to 26). In particular, they they are not too common.
can vary the frequency with which they have and do not have every We have met evolved balances of genetic categories before in type of orgasm so as to take maximum advantage of the men and earlier scenes. The proportion of bisexuals and heterosexuals opportunities which present themselves. They are thus probably the (Scenes 30 and 31) and the proportion of men with different-sized women most able to exploit sperm warfare whenever it is testes (Scene 35) are both examples of different categories co-advantageous to do.
existing in an evolutionary balance. When too common, each Although as a whole this first category of women is probably the category has a success rate that is below average. When rare, each largest (about 75 per cent), there is tremendous scope for women to has an above-average success rate. The incredible variation in differ within the category. For example, about 30 per cent within the female sexuality is simply the most complex example we have yet category both masturbate and have nocturnals, whereas 50 per cent encountered of such a balance. As in all previous examples, our only masturbate and 10 per cent only have nocturnals. These expectation will be that the balance point has been fixed by differences probably reflect variety for variety's sake, as we have evolution such that reproductively all of the different categories do equally well.
discussed. Masturbation and nocturnals are alternative means to the same end (Scenes 22 and 23). Variation in emphasis on one or the So, what are these different categories? More importantly, are other outlet allows women to differ. It may also influence their the categories different simply for the sake of being different, or is scope for secrecy in preparation for infidelity (Scene 23), but it is each category linked to other aspects of sexual behavior? The latter unlikely to have major repercussions on their ability to manipulate seems the more likely. Just as large testes (Scene 35) and sperm retention. In addition to differences between women within bisexuality (Scene 30) predispose some men to specialize in the category, each woman also has so much scope for varying her particular sexual strategies, the different orgasm patterns shown by own behavior (from phase to phase and man to man) that she need different women will also predispose them to particular sexual never become predictable.
strategies. For example, some orgasm patterns will help the women The second category consists of women who are programmed to concerned get the most out of the promotion and exploitation of avoid one or other of the major avenues for the manipulation of sperm warfare. Others will help the women concerned to get the sperm retention and warfare. Either they do not have solitary most out of fidelity and an attentive partner. Very crudely, while (masturbatory and nocturnal) orgasms or they do not climax in the accepting that the tremendous variation in female sexuality largely presence of men. In most cases, however, such women sacrifice defies categorization, we can make life easier for ourselves by only a little of their manipulative ability. In compensation, they gain recognizing four main types.
by being slightly less common. Thus, about 10 per cent of women The first consists of women who are programmed sometimes to are programmed neither to masturbate nor to have nocturnals, which have (and sometimes not to have) the full range of possible has the effect of delegating responsibility for the manipulation of orgasms (masturbatory, nocturnal, foreplay, intercourse and post-sperm to orgasms in a man's presence. The full range of sperm play - with some being multiple). Although only about 5 per cent of manipulation is still possible (via orgasms during foreplay, women have absolutely the whole range, an additional 25 per cent intercourse and post-play - Scenes 22 to 25), but it becomes much have all except multiple orgasms, and an additional 40 per cent more important to the woman that she chooses a sexually competent again have all except multiple orgasms and nocturnals. All women man. Other
in this category can manipulate sperm retention in all 350
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women (again about 10 per cent) are programmed never to climax in fathered children. It is rather because the clinical conditions that a man's presence but do masturbate and/or have nocturnals. They also cause some men to introduce few sperm (perhaps only tens of have the full range of sperm manipulation. They can secretly prepare millions instead of hundreds of millions) at the same time render a strong or a weak cervical filter-but what they cannot do is change their ejaculates sub-fertile.
their minds at the last minute and bypass an over-strong filter (Scene The women in this final category do, of course, lose the benefits 25).
of orgasm as a defense against infection. But then, of all the The third category consists of those 10 per cent of women who categories of women, they are also the least likely to encounter climax virtually every time they have penetrative sex. Such women sexually transmitted diseases. In any case, it seems that even women can still manipulate sperm retention, and thus play an active part in programmed to avoid manipulating sperm via orgasm may influencing the outcome of sperm warfare - as long as they vary the nevertheless begin to orgasm if they are ever exposed to genital timing of their climax relative to the moment of insemination (Scene infection. Just how they do so will depend on their anatomy. If their 25). An orgasm more than one to two minutes before the man allows clitorises are sensitive to stimulation they may suddenly experience low sperm retention; any time thereafter allows high sperm retention.
the urge to masturbate. However, it is often part of the programming The final category consists of those 2-4 per cent of women who of such women that their clitorises are relatively insensitive to never orgasm, either during intercourse or via masturbation or stimulation. This may make it difficult for them to masturbate to nocturnally. In compensation, as mentioned above, such a woman orgasm but, of course, in no way prevents them from climaxing gains by not educating her partner in sexual techniques that would aid nocturnally. Clitorectomised women, for example, may still have his infidelity. Unlike those in the previous three categories, such nocturnal orgasms.
women are the least able to influence the outcome of sperm warfare.
The predisposition of different women for different sexual They are, however, well suited to the relatively safe process of strategies adds a final nuance to mate selection - an element that can selecting a mate and making the most of that relationship. They do be added to those we have already accumulated (Scenes 18, 20, 21, have some control over sperm numbers, largely through waiting for 27, 28). This is that a woman should seek a partner whose approach their cervical filter to weaken with time since their last intercourse to sperm warfare complements her own. The small-testicled man in (Scene 22). But since sperm numbers are far less important for Scene 35 who specialized in mate guarding was a good choice for conception than they are for warfare, in the absence of any possibility the woman who never climaxed. Similarly, the large-testicled man in of the latter it does not really matter how many sperm such a woman the same scene was a good choice for the woman with a varied retains from each intercourse.
orgasm pattern who could gain the most from infidelity and sperm Although it is possible to retain too many sperm for conception warfare. This woman gained in two ways. First, her partner's from a healthy ejaculate (Scene 19), it is much more difficult to specializations for sperm warfare meant that his large sperm armies retain too few. Admittedly, ejaculates containing few sperm are often gave the armies from her other lovers a good run for their money.
sub-fertile, even if the woman retains them in full. But this is not Secondly, because he pursued infidelity himself, he often left her because they contain few sperm - even vasectomised men who free to pursue her own reproductive success by following the same occasionally introduce tiny numbers of sperm (perhaps fewer than a course.
hundred) into women have
The final point to stress is the one we have stressed in other scenes in this chapter - on average the different categories of women should all reproduce equally well. The proportions of 352
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each category in the population will have stabilized at precisely the appropriate level for this to occur. Consequently, no woman should be hindered in her pursuit of reproductive success by the orgasm CHAPTER ELEVEN
regime with which she has been programmed - as long as her choice of mate and subsequent behavior are compatible.
Final Score
SCENE 37
Total Success
The old man reached out a gnarled and wrinkled hand. His stiff fingers touched the hand of the woman sitting next to him outside their home. She turned her head towards him, looking blindly through opal eyes, and smiled. Eventually, everybody had come, some of them traveling for days to be there. For the first time in decades, the old couple were surrounded by their whole family, the product of their long lives together. Including themselves, there were five generations present. Their eldest son was now nearly seventy; their youngest great-great-grandchild, just two weeks old.
The old man looked at his partner's face, his eyesight as keen as hers was faded. The reality in front of him was a deeply wrinkled face, blind eyes that so cruelly imprisoned her, kind mouth and a one-toothed smile - she was so proud of that last tooth. But, for a moment, what he saw was the smooth, beautiful face, clear, dark, mischievous eyes, sensuous mouth and gleaming teeth that had so fired his senses over seventy years ago. He still remembered, as if it were yesterday, how he had chased her through the forest and, on a bed of sweet-smelling leaves, had explored and entered her taut and perfect body for the very first time. She had been a wonderful partner, mother and grandmother, the perfect companion throughout 354
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life. He could remember only one phase, as she approached to be unfaithful. As her partner had grown in wealth and status, her menopause, when their relationship had been strained - but it had biggest fear had been that she would lose him. There had been long lasted a mere five years.
spells in their life when she had found him irritating and arrogant, He had had many opportunities to be unfaithful, and at times had but he was always kind, considerate and fun. As their family had been tempted, but he had always resisted, so afraid had he been of grown, not once had she found herself wishing for a better partner disease and of losing his princess. His last chance had been in his or provider. She asked him once again to tell her who was there -
early sixties when a flirtatious young girl of twenty, so impressed by for a start, could he see all their children?
his status and well preserved body, offered him hers for the night.
He looked around the huge group of people gathered outside their But he had turned her down. It was one of the best decisions of his home. Not only their family but the whole village had assembled for long life, because five years later she was dead. She had succumbed the celebration, which was planned to last all day. The children to the sexually transmitted disease which had become the scourge of were running and chasing, many laughing, a few arguing or crying.
their community and which she had probably been harboring on the The adults were in scattered groups, some sitting on the ground, night she offered herself. What would his partner and his family others standing. Most were drinking, eating morsels of food, and have done for the last twenty-five years had he died and not been anticipating the main meal. Everywhere was the sound of around to sort out their problems and give them the benefit of his conversation, laughter and occasional raised voices as people experience?
renewed old family friendships and feuds.
The night after his last chance for infidelity, he and his partner One by one, the old man located their five children. As he named had sex for the very last time. Somehow, ever since, it had never each one he saw, she nodded. They were all there. She had had eight seemed worth taxing their ageing bodies with the effort - they children but two had died in early childhood and a third, after couldn't have been closer, sex or no sex. Now, swamped by the having a family of his own, had died a few years ago in his fifties.
emotion of the occasion, he told his partner that she was looking Now the grandchildren, she urged him. He knew there should be wonderful.
twenty-three but couldn't remember all their names. He picked out Once again, the old woman smiled her one-tooth smile. Deep in the dozen he knew best, all in their forties, then had to rely on his her stomach, the pain that was now her constant companion was partner to supply the names of the younger grandchildren, some of temporarily eclipsed by the sheer pleasure of hearing her family them still teenagers or younger. She remembered their names around her. She squeezed her partner's hand. It was ten years since clearly, but that didn't always help as he couldn't even begin to she had been able to see him. No longer need she be troubled by the remember what some of the younger ones looked like. Even so, reality of his frailty and his recent deterioration. More and more, the when she told him a name, he said they were present.
image in her mind was not the worn old man she last saw with her When the list was complete, she sat back in satisfaction. Twenty-failing eyes but the muscular young athlete she had known all those three surviving grandchildren. That was three more than her years ago. She still remembered, more clearly and accurately than lifetime friend and rival who, after a complicated and colorful life him even, the first time she had surrendered her body to him as they of great sexual activity, had died ten years ago. Now, she missed swam naked in a lake.
their camaraderie. They had been lucky. Most of their generation It had been a few years before she conceived their first child, but had either died young from disease or after that it had been easy. She had never really felt tempted 356
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accident or had been infertile, or had lost many of their children from the aboriginal outback of Australia to the Eskimo heart-land before they reached adulthood. Between them, she and her friend of Canada, almost always formed long-term male-female had populated a large proportion of the village.
partnerships, most of which were monogamous. Unlike the The old man said he hoped that she wasn't going to ask him to relationship in Scene 37, these partnerships did not necessarily last count their great-grandchildren. She shook her head and laughed.
a lifetime. Often a person had two, or even three, successive He could see the oldest, now nearly thirty, with her new-born, their involvements. But each one was monogamous (give or take an most recent great-great-grandchild. Last night, the old woman said, occasional infidelity) while it lasted, involved deep personal ties, she and their daughter had worked out that there ought to be fifty-and lasted for several years - very similar to what happens in two of them and four more on the way, and already there were modern industrial societies.
sixteen great-great-grandchildren. He sat back and relaxed, freed Only during the fifteen thousand or so years of dependence on from his task of child-counting.
agriculture did many human cultures switch to polygamy. Women
'Just look what we have done,' he remarked with satisfaction, not clustered around the men of greatest wealth - those with the largest for the first time forgetting her blindness. She squeezed his hand areas of cultivated land and those with most livestock. Even again, then let him go, concentrating on the noise and conversation around her.
polygamous relationships, however, are long-term and involve deep ties between the male and each of his females. The women are Suddenly, there was a commotion. A gang of naked children ran expected to be faithful to the man and he is expected to be faithful across the clearing as a group of young men, naked apart from a to his designated collection of women.
belt around their waists, emerged from the forest. On their Not until the advent of urbanization and industrialization over shoulders the leaders were carrying the first of three large animals, the last few hundred years has there been a wholesale swing back already skewered on a wooden spit. The food for their feast had arrived.
towards monogamy, or serial monogamy. But even now women still cluster around the men of greatest wealth and status (Scene 18).
The woman in Scene 37 made a good decision, not to be n the course of this book, scene after scene has documented unfaithful. If, as it seems, her partner was the best provider around Iin cidents of infidelity; moments and situations in which and had the best genes available, she had nothing to gain successive characters have snatched the opportunity to try to reproductively from infidelity (Scene 18), and everything to lose increase their reproductive success just that little bit more than their (Scenes 9 and 11). She had only done a little better, however, than contemporaries. This final scene is a reminder that with the right person in the right situation, the best way to achieve the greatest her close friend who had had a much more varied sex life.
reproductive success can sometimes be within a monogamous Presumably, this friend did not start with the advantage of such a relationship.
good partner. Had she opted to be faithful, she might have been less The scene is also a reminder that long-term relationships, successful - again, reproductively -than she was. How successful including monogamous ones, are estimated to have been a feature the two women were may have had more to do with their ability to of human sexuality for around three million years. Our hunter-attract a good mate than with their strategy of fidelity or infidelity.
gatherer ancestors (Scene 16), from the savanna of Africa to the They each pursued the best strategy for their circumstances.
forests of South America and South-East Asia, The man in the last scene also made a good decision in 359
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avoiding infidelity. He did have much to gain (Scene 13), but he that could lead to sperm warfare - and when it does, such also had much to lose (Scenes 9 and 11). In particular, in his contemplation triggers an escalation in preparation (Scenes 13 and community there was always a real risk of contracting a life-26). More often than not, the contemplation is mere fantasy and the threatening disease, as well as the cost of losing his 'princess'. She preparations unnecessary - no war ensues. But even in our own was fertile, faithful and a good mother and grandmother. Any generation, the majority of men at least once in their lives act on gains from infidelity might not have balanced the costs.
their fantasies and enter their sperm into battle Although the majority of people do not pursue a lifetime of
- and, at least once in their lives, the majority of women do pure monogamy, most (with few exceptions - Scenes 19 and 30) likewise and promote sperm warfare. When war does break achieve the greater part of their reproductive success within long-out, each person's body will have done its best to make sure term relationships. Then, as long as the individual judges the that it is well prepared and that there is a chance the war will moment and the situation accurately, infidelity, rape, group sex, work to its reproductive advantage.
prostitution, partner swapping and so on are all strategies that Few people will have thought deeply about sperm warfare and provide the opportunity to be just that little bit more successful, its consequences before reading this book. Yet, if the phenomenon reproductively, than would be possible solely within a single did not exist, human sexuality would be far less colorful. Without relationship. But all carry risks if badly executed or if the sperm warfare during human evolution, men would have tiny individual does not have the weaponry of physique or character to genitals and produce few sperm. Women would not have orgasms, carry them through.
there would be no thrusting during intercourse, no sex dreams or Maybe the couple in the last scene, particularly the man, could fantasies, no masturbation, and we should each feel like intercourse each have achieved greater reproductive success through infidelity only a dozen times or so in our entire lives - those few occasions and sperm warfare - but in all probability, because of their when conception was possible and desirable. Sex and society, art circumstances, they would not have done. Their reproductive strategy of faithful monogamy had, for them, been a total success.
and literature --- in fact, the whole of human culture - would be Even though the couple in Scene 37 were monogamous and very different.
faithful, they still could not escape the shadow of sperm warfare.
Over the millennia, sperm warfare has helped to shape society.
It is irrelevant that neither of them actually engaged in sperm In contrast, the last few years have seen two developments - one warfare. Their bodies will still have spent a lifetime 'on alert' for a social and one scientific - which in their turn could war that never came.
change the face of sperm warfare. The social development Everyone's body - with no exception - is similarly alert. Con-was the emergence of child support agencies as governments tinuously throughout reproductive life, the body both assesses the tried to shift financial responsibility for the children of women likelihood of sperm warfare and makes the appropriate without partners away from society and on to the absent father.
preparations. When the likelihood is low, some preparations are Interestingly, in their attempts to avoid or defer their support, made but they are minimal (Scenes 12 and 22). From time to time, men everywhere have responded by invoking sperm warfare -
however, absolutely every body contemplates behavior expressing doubts about their paternity of this or that child.
In the past, most such claims of non-paternity would have remained unresolved. However, the scientific development -
genetic fingerprinting - has provided a relatively conclusive method of testing such claims (Scenes 16 and 30).
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It is interesting to speculate how a world of child support their nature - such relationships will probably still happen. Men agencies and paternity tests might change sexual strategy and the will still try to avoid sperm warfare by guarding a mate (Scene 9) role of sperm warfare.
and women will still try to recruit a partner to help with all the The main repercussions are twofold. First, men will find it more other, non-financial, aspects of raising their children (Scene 18).
difficult to have sex and run (Scenes 13 and 29). No longer will it But the financial arrangements for child-raising and the ability to be as easy to deny paternity and leave child-raising to the woman.
identify paternity could well shorten such relationships, removing Secondly, women will find it much more difficult to trick men into as they do two of their main functions. The reproductive life of raising children who are not theirs (Scenes 6, 8, 13, 16, 17, 18, 26, both men and women will centre on a succession of relationships, 31, 33 and 35). It is not difficult to envisage a future in which men each lasting just long enough to produce one or two children.
will routinely pay for (or even be entitled to!) a paternity test at the As far as men are concerned, the balance of reproductive birth of each child they may be legally forced to support.
success is likely to swing even more strongly in favor of those of Although these two ancient strategies will become much less wealth and status than at present (Scene 18) - subconsciously, this successful, alternative strategies, uncommon today, will become may even be why child support legislation appeals to the law-more successful. For example, women will become much freer to makers! Only wealthy men will be able to afford to have children have children by several men. Not only might they gain with a number of women, and hence only such men will be genetically, they might also gain from obtaining long-term targeted by many women. Poorer men, when they do get a chance financial support from a number of men (Scene 18). In the process to inseminate extra women, will be under pressure to make of having children by several men, women should still seek to themselves even more untraceable than at present.
promote sperm warfare so that their male descendants will have Some things, of course, will never change. Nothing - short of competitive ejaculates (Scene 21). But no longer need women risk castration, brain surgery or hormone implants - can remove a dependence on meager support from the state as a result of their person's subconscious urge to have as many grandchildren as they strategy. They will, of course, find it more difficult, if not can. So, nothing will remove a man's subconscious urge to have as impossible, to hide their actions from any partner, but then they many children with as many women as his genes and will have less need to do so. In fact, they will have less need for a circumstances will allow. Similarly, nothing will prevent a woman partner at all. Even if they have a partner, his desertion need not be from subconsciously trying to collect the best genes and recruit the as crippling as in the past. In their turn, men could exploit this best support for her children that her genes and circumstances will potential earning power of women. No longer need they fear being allow.
tricked into raising another man's child - if they take on such a The coercive 'one-family, one-child' legislation in China has child it will be knowingly, having judged that they have more to neatly highlighted how basic reproductive strategies adapt to gain than to lose (Scene 15). Often, they may even calculate that social change. The legislation has successfully reduced the mean the extra income their partner could generate through having other number of children (to 1.6 per woman). But in so doing it has also men's children could actually help them to raise their own children changed the sex ratio (through selective abortion and infanticide -
more successfully.
Scene 16) to 1.6 boys for every girl. Why? Intrinsically, the Although such behavior by men and women could make long-coercion impinges more on a woman's potential reproductive term relationships less common - and will certainly change success than a man's. A successful man 362
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(such as those who conceived and imposed the legislation?) can still have many children if he can surreptitiously inseminate many women and win sperm warfare. In contrast, the only way a woman can generate more grandchildren than her contemporaries is by having such a successful son. A man also, of course, benefits reproductively from fathering a successful son. Whatever people's conscious reasons for wanting sons so badly in modern China that they are prepared to kill their daughters, their biological response is precisely what would be expected if they were trying to enhance their reproductive success.
All of the sexual strategies described in this book will adapt to any new environment. Whatever the effect on society of future scientific and social developments, sperm warfare and its associated behavior seem destined to be an ever-present feature. As such, it will continue to be the major force in the shaping of human sexuality over the generations to come.
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