I asked if she and her friends had learned anything about evolutionary psychology, which attempts to explain, among other matters, how male and female behaviour is affected by the fact that they have fundamentally different reproductive strategies. Females have always sought long-term commitment from males, because without it their babies would die. Men are inclined to seek more sex partners because, in reproductive terms, sperm are cheap and eggs are expensive.

Ms. Fessler explained that feminism treats these ideas as taboo. Feminists believe they were invented to oppress women. “It wasn’t socially acceptable in university to rely on evolutionary psychology to explain human behaviour,”she said. “It was like eugenics.”

So who had it worse – the generation before mine, when women’s sexuality was denied, punished and repressed, or her generation, when sexual liberation and gender equality are a given? She paused for a moment. “On the surface everything is better,” she said. “But emotionally, everything is more messed up.”

Curated by Erbe
Original Article