Smith Lecture: Author Lucy Cooke "Busting Myths About Being Female"

BITCH – Busting myths about being female

What does it mean to be female? Mother, carer, the weaker sex? Think again. In this fascinating and funny talk, based on her best-selling book Bitch: On the Female of the Species, Lucy Cooke exposes how sexist and heteronormative biases have been baked into evolutionary biology since the time of Darwin. Lucy introduces us to the animal redefining what it means to be female. Her cast of philandering female monkeys, post-menopausal orca matriarchs, same-sex albatross couples and sex changing fish overturn outdated binary expectations of bodies, brains, biology and behaviour and showcase the extraordinary plasticity of sexual expression in nature.