• The (sexual) politics of evolution: Popular controversy in the late 20th-century United Kingdom.

    Author(s):
    Angela Cassidy (see profile)
    Date:
    2007
    Subject(s):
    Mass media--Study and teaching, Science--Social aspects, Popular culture, Science in popular culture, Science--Study and teaching, Technology--Study and teaching
    Item Type:
    Article
    Tag(s):
    Evolutionary Psychology, science communication, Media studies, Science and popular culture, Science and technology studies (STS), Gender and sexuality
    Permanent URL:
    http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/9jw9-n582
    Abstract:
    This article outlines the major threads of controversy around the emerging subject of evolutionary psychology in the U.K. mass media during the 1990s. Much of this controversy centered on the role of evolution in shaping human gender roles and sexualities, contributing to the subject's mass appeal. This case is used to illustrate the argument that in theorizing about evolution and humans, "human nature" and "human origins" both provide a flexible resource for making arguments about how people do and should relate to one another and that such theorizing is therefore reflective of how power is held (and contested) in society. In the case of popular evolutionary psychology, shifts in the U.K. political landscape during the 1990s combined with changes in gender and sexual politics to create a situation where evolutionary theorizing about humans became more acceptable than it had been in the past. This was particularly true in left-liberal media, where a newfound compatibility between certain aspects of Darwinism and feminism created a very different space for debating gender, sexuality, and the role of human nature in today's society.
    Notes:
    Final revised version as sent to publisher.
    Metadata:
    xml
    Published as:
    Journal article     Show details
    Pub. DOI:
    http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/1093-4510.10.2.199
    Publisher:
    American Psychological Association (APA)
    Pub. Date:
    2007-6-11
    Journal:
    History of Psychology
    Volume:
    10
    Issue:
    2
    Page Range:
    199 - 226
    ISSN:
    1939-0610,1093-4510
    Status:
    Published
    Last Updated:
    5 years ago
    License:
    All Rights Reserved
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