A review by brdwilliams
Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution by Cat Bohannon

informative inspiring medium-paced

4.0

I generally really, really liked this book. The big "nope!' for me was the unquestioned screeds against obesity which felt like parroting talking points, and felt really out of step with the otherwise science-infirmed writing. If you're going to write a book about the evolution of women and even talk about women's fat stores and distribution AND talk about the dangers of women being underfed particularly before, during and after pregnancy, just repeating "obesity is bad" felt lazy and jarring. 

I was hoping for a discussion of women's body size variability and instead got nothing of the sort. For a much more nuanced description of wome 's bodies from a philosophical lens, read Kate Manne's "Unshrinking"

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Fatphobia

Minor: Child abuse

She uses obesity casually throughout.