How many people here think evolutionary biology is sexist?

1 Answer

Answer :

I think there is a school of feminists has a tendency to react strongly against any categorical statement about women as a group. So if evolutionary biology tries to say “women behave in x manner”, this type of feminist’s reaction is automatically, “not ALL women”. Which is a valid complaint——there are probably a lot more difference WITHIN the group of [all women] than BETWEEN the groups of [all women] and [all men]. Also, I think there is a school of feminism that truly believes our genders are 100% social constructs, and any attempt to find biological differences between men and women is misguided. This is blatantly incorrect. Aside from the obvious, there are a lot of things that make men and women different that are a byproduct of our biology, including some behaviors. So to answer your question—I think a lot of evolutionary psychology is crap, but not for that reason. A lot of it seems like post hoc speculation rather than proper science. Edit: Oops—for some reason I thought you asked about psychology rather than biology—which is a lot more contentious.

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