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Bitch

A Revolutionary Guide to Sex, Evolution and the Female Animal

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Bitch

By: Lucy Cooke
Narrated by: Lucy Cooke
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About this listen

What does it mean to be female? Mother, carer, the weaker sex? Think again.

In the last few decades, a revolution has been brewing in zoology and evolutionary biology. Lucy Cooke introduces us to a riotous cast of animals, and the scientists studying them, that are redefining the female of the species.

Meet the female lemurs of Madagascar, our ancient primate cousins that dominate the males of their species physically and politically.

Or female albatross couples, hooking up together to raise their chicks in Hawaii.

Or the meerkat mothers of the Kalahari Desert—the most murderous mammals on the planet.

The bitches in Bitch overturn outdated binary expectations of bodies, brains, biology and behaviour. Lucy Cooke's brilliant new book will change how you think—about sex, sexual identity and sexuality in animals and also the very forces that shape evolution.

©2022 Lucy Cooke (P)2022 Penguin Audio Animals Biological Sciences Gender Studies Nature & Ecology Outdoors & Nature Science Social Sciences Natural History

Critic Reviews

"Beautifully written, very funny and deeply important - Lucy Cooke blows two centuries of sexist myths right out of biology." (Professor Alice Roberts)

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This book is perfect. Beautifully written, funny and easy to follow it is a literature masterpiece, but more importantly the subject it covers has extreme implications into how we view science and our society. It is a lesson in the importance of free thinking, unbiased science and having a wide diversity of individuals involved in research. Thank you Lucy. I will be recommending to everyone!!

It should become compulsory reading in schools

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Oh wow I adored this masterwork which is a journey through time and across the world to review what the natural world actually gets up to. I loved meeting scientists who were governed by logic to analyse what is actually going on. it was also fascinating to realise there is still so much we don't know about our world and the damage caused by deliberately leaving out research into half the population! how can one gender ever give the whole picture?

The Victorian patriarchy clearly never attended Discos where a full range of mating behaviours are commonly displayed across both genders! The descriptions of birds and their rich love lives felt very familiar.

Audiobook Review: My audiobook reviews will always reflect my needs as someone with a congenital reduced hearing range. I have short range in low and high tones. With close to standard mid tones. I listened to this Audiobook via Bluetooth streaming to my hearing aids. I found Lucy's voice clear and distinctive. There is a notable English accent but it didn't interfere with comprehension. I enjoyed the accent. The pacing of the voice was good and while I did need to turn the volume up to hear comfortably I didn't need to go to full volume or strain myself.

Engaged, Fascinated and Stimulated

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Fantastic book! Lucy is a brilliant writer that has managed to explain complex biological, social and political concepts in a science based and humorous way. This book brings to light the implicit sexist bias that is evident in science that needs to be broken in order for objective measurements to be made. I definitely recommend everyone should read this book!

Fantastic book!

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Loved every moment of this book! Funny narration to make sharing of scientific data interesting, backed up with research and entertaining anecdotes.
Will listen again.

Fascinating and informative

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Loved it! I think this book should be compulsory reading in schools teaching natural sciences!
It challenges the accepted view of the natural world and the order of social interaction across animal species with balance and intelligence and crams a lot of science and research into a very 'readable' story. Move over slightly Darwin.. there is more to it all than you could see

A book that challenges and balances status quo

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