Book review and question
Nov. 21st, 2007 12:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kayreI've just finished reading A Brother's Price by Wen Spencer. I enjoyed it very much, and found it thought-provoking as well.
The setting is a world where the birth rate is heavily skewed towards girls; the result is a polygamist matriarchy where young men are swapped or sold into marriage for valuable dowries. The author uses rigid gender roles in the reverse of our society's, without apology, in a way that frequently made me pause and ponder; this despite the fact that I have of course examined societal gender roles before. All this and a reasonably fun plot and engaging characters, as well (though development of minor characters left something to be desired).
I'm left wondering, though-- are there any examples in nature of species with a natural birth rate that is not 50/50 in gender? In the novel, the male birth rate seems to be about 1 to 15 female.
The setting is a world where the birth rate is heavily skewed towards girls; the result is a polygamist matriarchy where young men are swapped or sold into marriage for valuable dowries. The author uses rigid gender roles in the reverse of our society's, without apology, in a way that frequently made me pause and ponder; this despite the fact that I have of course examined societal gender roles before. All this and a reasonably fun plot and engaging characters, as well (though development of minor characters left something to be desired).
I'm left wondering, though-- are there any examples in nature of species with a natural birth rate that is not 50/50 in gender? In the novel, the male birth rate seems to be about 1 to 15 female.
