Bitch: A revolutionary guide to sex, evolution & the female animal

By Lucy Cooke (2023)

I still can’t get over the feeling that I am cheating if I audiobook something rather than reading it. I audiobooked it twice if that makes it count more?

Looking through my notes and bookmarks, there is key theme. These words come up a lot:

• Bias – such as Conformation bias
• Binary
• Polarisation
• Assumption
• Expectation
• Preconception

Deeply rooted in science and thoroughly researched, Bitch ripped apart my outdated beliefs of bodies and behaviours in the animal (non-human) world. Like with her last book The Unexpected Truth About Animals, I was shocked at how my understanding of the more-than-human world was still built upon an old fashioned scientific system. This is despite my active research into fields of ecofeminism and queer ecology as part of my PhD. Honestly, sometimes these realisations left me a little ashamed. I recognised I didn’t always apply the same inclusive approaches to the non-human as I did to humans. It did leave me curious, nonetheless, to reflect on and disassemble my own scientific assumptions of the more-than-human world.

Cooke’s performative reading really brought this book to life (I always recommend an audiobook!). But it was the context and detail she provided her arguments with that I found most impressive. It is very easy, for me at least, to feel anger or blame towards those who crafted or knowingly practice these scientific binary systems. Particularly, those who project these polarising systems and expectations onto others for their own gain. Cooke explains how these systems have been built into our (Western) cultural knowledge and educational models and how they have worked to supress groups in society – such as Cooke’s tales of talented female scientists. So it is easy and I could argue irresponsible of me to jump to blame, rather than ask myself the more difficult question of how I might support or express these exclusive and restrictive binaries in my research and practice.

These traditional scientific expectations don’t only impact humans, whether they be scientists, school pupils or audiences of Natural History documentaries. But they also shape the way we understand and (physically and emotionally) relate with the more-than-human world. Cooke’s accounts of historic biological studies, such as those of bird mating rituals, paint a clear picture that the females of species were seen as the weaker sex. Whereas the males, who were more beautiful and fought for the females attention, were positioned by scientists at the top of the evolutionary hierarchy as they were more powerful and ruled their roosts in patriarchal systems. Please read the book for a much better telling! Cooke’s examples demonstrate the role that confirmation bias has played historically in developing our understanding of biological science. They clearly show how experiments and analysis were swayed (and not always on purpose!) as scientists tried to discover new knowledge that complimented the scientific existing systems and that would get them recognised in their fields.

I found it a little scientifically complex at times. This maybe because I was listening to it and needed to see it in front of me, to read and understand the complexity of the genetic make up of the plethora of species Cooke discusses. Or maybe my biology and chemistry knowledge is not up to scratch! Nevertheless, I am aware this complexity may make the book harder for some to understand and as a result less accessible to lay audiences. But it does make a point through its scientific detail: bodies, gender, sex, behaviour, biology and even non-human politics is complicated! Let alone the convoluted human scientific systems that try to capture them in their objective scientific experiments. There are so many factors – biological, behavioural, environmental… that affect the web of ecology that these animals exist in. It is hard (arguably verging on impossible) to pull one animal out of their habitats and state they exist in one clearly defined state.

Yes this makes it hard (again verging on impossible) for storytellers, like those in Natural History documentaries or teachers, to convey the complexity of factors that shape the diverse and changeable ecosystems. Especially now that climate change and the environmental crises are rapidly changing everything! I can’t imagine how tricky it would be to write it into a concise textbook! How would you capture the detail and context? But maybe I am missing the point. Surely it is this complexity that makes it beautiful and rather interesting in the first place? Maybe that’s just me, with my mild obsession about learning to live-with the messy entangled web of life at this time of global crises (again I highly recommend Haraway’s 2016 Staying with the Trouble).

So the questions I leave my book club with today are:

1. Which story impacted you the most and why? Were any of your personal beliefs challenged?
2. What binaries, assumptions and expectations can you identify within our cultures scientific knowledge? And how might our scientific understanding promote or limit certain groups?
3. How could a new understanding of evolutionary biology shape our relationship with the more-than-human world? And how might this affect how we engage with the global crises?

Maybe, my main take away from this book is a reflection on my emotional journey through anger, blame and shame to one of excitement, wonder and curiosity. And maybe its just an increased appreciation for how truly complex the more-than-human world is. What I do know is that I have lots of knowledge gaps where context and detail is missing, which has limited my ability to be critical of my own beliefs. Therefore, I would like to think I have more awareness of my own biases thanks to Cooke. Or at least I am more aware that I need to be more critical of my own beliefs, binaries and biases, as they may unintentionally support traditional polarising systems that empower some while supressing others. This critical reflection is not only important in my research, but is something that I must practice in my daily life as well.

I hope this book gets your brain ticking as much as it did mine. And good luck if you too face some hard questions. If I had any advice, it would be sit with the hard ones and let them stick. My other advice would be to give the book a go!

Find the book here: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/433914/bitch-by-cooke-lucy/9781804990919

Go now! Read it! And let me know what you think.

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Writer note:

Book cover: Cooke, L. (2023). Bitch. A revolutionary guide to sex, evolution & the female animal. United Kingdom: Penguin.