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Essay on The Red Queen by Matt Ridley
The book, Red Queen by Matt Ridley looks at sex in light of different theories. I really enjoyed reading this book. Reproduction, evolution and sexual behaviour have always been proved to be very interesting topics to read. In fact they appeal not only to the scientists but also to the common public. This is because it discusses human behaviour in general.
The author is this book is mainly talking about sexual evolution in both scientific and non-scientific ways. He argues that humans sexually evolved to combat disease but then he also examines human sexual behavior and compares it with their past behavior. He also uses various animals, like apes (our distant cousins) and peacock’s tail to explain human behavior.
Matt Ridley explores the problem of reproductive waste, questions why individuals choose their partners or mates, what attracts them and why to certain people, and what has been found out by researching the nature of sex. It explores all the above topics and the implications of these findings on the behavior of our species.
Matt Ridley has also very effectively used the metaphor Red Queen from “Alice in the Wonderland” who has to constantly keep running to stay in the same place. Ridley has used Lewis Carroll’s Red Queen theory to demonstrate why sex is humanity's best strategy for outwitting its constantly mutating internal predators. According to new theories, evolution is not about progress, but about changing in order to survive. Because humans are in a perpetual battle with the parasites or diseases in their bodies, they need to be able to change their molecular locks to combat disease. By constantly combining and recombining genes every generation, people "keep their genes one step ahead of their parasites," thereby strengthening resistance to bacteria and viruses that cause deadly diseases or epidemics. This is the argument that Ridley weaves into his theories and arguments......
