Different: Gender Through the Eyes of a Primatologist

Primatologist de Waal (Emory Univ.; Mama’s Last Hug: Animal Emotions and What They Tell Us About Ourselves) applies his decades of observation of apes to examine human behavior and its relation to gender and biological sex. He contends that biological sex, for all its implications, does not intrinsically support the gender roles that exist in human societies; rather, gendered behaviors, roles, and proclivities are evolutionary social adaptations with biological origin. De Waal looks to humans’ nearest genetic relatives—chimpanzees and bonobos—for comparison. But “different” also applies to these three ape species, which have developed remarkably dissimilar social structures and ways of relating within and between the sexes, so while de Waal’s observations are fascinating, the social lessons of this study can be elusive. His perspective is that gender arises from biological distinctions in human bodies and brains but is overlaid and complicated by socialization and culture, and he takes great pains to make clear that description is not endorsement of sexist or patriarchal behavior or sex- or gender-based oppression. The book’s slippery conflation of the terms “gender” and “sex” muddies this point, as does its lack of engagement with transgender, nonbinary, or intersex experiences.