The Disposable Male: Sex, Love, and Money: Your World Through Darwin's Eyes

This book lays out a Darwinian view of life that says just about everything I think and feel about women and men, sex and romance and what family life is all about. In the first half the author takes you literally from the Big Bang to today. He lays out the evolutionary point-of-view in a funny and very interesting way, explaining how the original relationship evolved between the sexes. There are many interesting diversions along the way, about everything from how our brains developed, to the role our genes play in our make-up now, to the meaning of our sexual fantasies. In the second half of the book Gilbert turns to our modern lives. Thats when he analyzes how our lives look when you look at it from this evolutionary position. How the lives of men and women today are in harmony with the past and how our lives now vary from it. This leads in to a lot of common sense ideas but also some controversial issues. In a way, its a conservative book but the more traditional values he puts forth are based on science, not on religion. Feminists are going to hate this book but, as a woman, I found it very fair. In fact, he's pretty hard on men and often exalts the feminine values, especially in relationships. The author also makes a point of saying how these classical gender roles based on our natural history do not apply to everyone--that there are big differences among each gender. I highly recommend this book. You may not agree with it as much as I did but you're definitely in for an entertaining read.

Contrary to the title, men are not disposable. They are an integral part of our biological needs of the highest animals on the food chain. The male's capacity for mutation, a core element of evolution, is necessary for the survival of humankind. What Gilbert explores in this book is the necessity of both celebrating and utilizing the differences of gender. Surprisingly, I found this book informative, intelligent, articulate, easy and entertaining to read, introspective, and astonishing in regard to celebrating gender. Gilbert infuses opinion but backs it up with fact. You will find yourself bristling in places and cheering in others as Gilbert reveres both male and female for what we biologically are. Gilbert calls this a "how-come" book, not a "how-to" book, which is why I believe I found it so fascinating. He takes millions of years of evolution and transcribes it all into today's societal groupings, along with kudos and warnings for the directions humankind has taken along our evolutionary pathways. Nor does he condescend religion, although he categorizes it contrary to my personal belief. One of the more interesting facts is how today's youth is the least prepared in history for reaching adult goals. In a nutshell, 'The Disposable Male' is a wake-up call of family values, not from a religious standpoint but from an evolutionary standpoint, reaffirming that bringing back the family is not just a right-wing religious fantasy or weapon to be used in politics. Darwin meets religion, and they shake hands and get along. Are their evolutionary forces at work behind the denigration of our society, the high levels of depression, the soulless march of self-entitlement? Are we advancing our minds or denying our biology? Are our females overburdened while our males are aimless? All these subjects are open for discussion, with argument on both sides of the coin. If you are interested in an evolutionary study, a biology study, a gender study, a socio-economy study, or simply a good book to read, you really can't go wrong with 'The Disposable Male'. Gilbert only shows his opinion face strongly in the last chapter, which was a little too anti-gay for my tastes. I've known many gay couples to raise exceptionally well-adjusted and "normal" heterosexual children in a secure and safe environment (a la The Birdcage). A bibliography would have been nice, but since this is a layman-written work (yet highly informative and still using references in the meat of the text) it's not particularly necessary. I found 'The Disposable Male' entertaining and enlightening, and highly recommend it. Enjoy!

Sociobiology, evolutionary biology and psychology, and molecular biology all come together in this jocular, easy to read, and entirely enjoyable book. No footnotes. No technical jargon. Written for the non-specialist general public. Just the biological facts as they constutitue human nature in an accessible and pleasurable read. That the author chooses the prisms of SEX, LOVE, and MONEY as his templates of presentation makes the reading of all these facts much more interesting than the standard texts in this field. After all, what three subjects interest the general readership more than sex, love, and money? One of sociobiology's and the author's principal claims is that we must understand our evolutionary inheritance if we are to understand our lives in the modern world. Many books are available to do that, but none as pleasurable as Gilbert's often-amusing, often-playful way of presentation. And he reminds us, as do all sociobiologists, that the naturalistic fallacy, confusing "is" for "ought," is not being invoked. Just because Nature has made us the way we are over eons of evolutionary history does not mean we cannot adjust those features to fit our contemporary needs. But we must understand the fundamentals before we can do any adjustments, and Gilbert provides a stunning amount of those fundamentals in a very short work. The truly amazing feature about this informal and accessible read is the sizeable number of insights from the various evolutionary disciplines he successfully captures in so short of space. And he weaves them so artfully and matter of factly that one does not feel overwhelmed by them. In this sense, despite the general levity of the read, this is an amazing dense work. But every one of his observations has been documented elsewhere (even if he has chosen to omit them). This decision to omit references is both a strength and a weakness as some claims may strike naive readers as untrue, when everything he observes is empirically demonstrated. When I was a 20-something, a maxim was widely used: "Men give love to get sex, women give sex to get love." That maxim arose outside Darwinism, but it could not be a closer fit to evolutionary reality. Men and women are simply different in their emotional constitutions, largely determined by biochemicals and hormones that drive similar instincts in radically different ways. And while we can generalize about certain features that are common to the entire species, and then particularize those that are more typical of males and/or females, we must also remember, as Gilbert reminds, that these are dispositions given us by nature in a general sense. For another Darwinian insight is that for all our similarities, we will always remain unique individuals. Take, for example, gender properties that we associate with "masculine" and "feminine." Some of these are genetic, some of them are hormonal, and some of them are social. One of the realities of our development is that we all, male and fem

I think the strongest point I can make about this book is how well written it is. It is well organized, complex in structure, but an easy and enjoyable read. It is very engaging because it is so well thought out in terms of presenting a story and powerful analogies and examples. From an intellectual standpoint, it is extremely thought provoking, controversial and thoroughly researched. While I don't agree with everything Gilbert says, he presents good arguments for his point of view. A lot of the information contained within the pages of this book can be found elsewhere. For example, much of it is presented in books by David Buss. On the other hand, the perspective is unique and the story telling is first rate without sacrificing content. It is like a Mozart sonata in the sense that the notes are the same as other music, but the way it is all put together makes it very special. I also like the emphasis on the direction our culture is taking and what the implications are to both sexes. There is also an emphasis on what it means to be a male now and where things seem to be headed. This is all presented in an evolutionary context and the author makes powerful use of contrasting our evolutionary heritage with the realities of modern demands. Even if you are familiar with the work of David Buss or other similar content, I think you will enjoy this book. It was difficult for me to put down and I already had most of the information in it under my belt.

If you placed ten people, male and female, in a room with a copy of this book, a discussion could be started that could probably last for weeks. That is the primary beauty of this work. It is absolutely fascinating! Basically, the premise of this work is that there are boys and there are girls, and, thankfully, they are different. This books covers a wide range of subjects dealing with these differences and their impact on our lives and society. Through the eyes of an evolutionist, and through pure common sense, we find where we came from, where we are and where we might possibly be going in the future. This books is very well written. The author displays great insight and his easy writing style is a pleasure. This is the sort of work that will most assuredly make you think. You need not agree with everything the author says, I certainly did not, and you should probably worry about yourself if you did. On the other hand, what the author does do, is dish you out a very large helping of food for thought. He gives us yet another view to help handle life, which is always a good thing. Much of what the author said, I must admit to have already known, or at least suspected and do indeed agree with. The difference is that Gilbert is able to articulate his thoughts in a way I am unable to do. He has obviously spent a great amount of time in research and has gathered together a great amount of information, made it readable and understandable and in fact, rather enjoyable. I do agree with a couple of the other reviewers here that, personally, I would have appreciated a bit more information on his source documents. On the other hand, upon checking on several of his statements (just to keep him honest), I found not one instance where the author had not done his home work and done it well. Recommend this thoughtful work quite highly. This is certainly one you will want to add to your home library. As a side observation, I should think that an afternoon and evening talking to him on my porch with a jug of coffee would be a hoot.