Monday, June 11, 2018

Monogamy According To Vox

An interesting essay b y William Buckner over at Quillette, breaking down the episode on Monogamy in the Netflix series "Explained." Monogamy, Explained is mostly just made up stuff some editor wishes were true, according to Buckner, and he makes the case. The only scientist interviewed, evolutionary biologist David Barash, gets almost no time, and his simple description of sexual selection theory is dismissed, without the audience quite knowing why.  Why doesn't matter, because the other experts, the advice columnist and the author, assure us it is just known not to be so. (The Netflix episode is at the link. Had I any temptation to watch any more of their "Explained" series, it has now certainly vanished.)

The film is merely silly, and the silliest bit is that sexual selection theory was just made up by scientists in the late 19th C to justify traditional gender roles. The author wonders how Barash got into the film at all, and suggests it might be because he wrote a book entitled The Myth of Monogamy, which they figured meant he must agree with him. Not really.  Maybe 30%.

Thanks to Sarah Hoyt for linking this over at Instapundit.

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