EPISODE 22. PREGNANT AND EVOLUTION

It’s time to reconsider whether humanity has viewed its own evolution through a male-dominated lens. While it’s evident that female reproductive anatomy evolved to prioritize defense and survival, framing human evolution as driven by reproduction reflects a distinctly male perspective.

Survival is undeniably life’s primary imperative; reproduction is secondary—a ‘backup’ strategy adopted when continuous survival becomes untenable. Yet because women bear the biological burdens of pregnancy and childbirth, their reproductive systems evolved to safeguard survival first.

The female reproductive tract does not ‘consider’ sperm survival. Whether sperm survive is sperm’s problem; the female body neither assists nor selects them. Certain biological facts—like the tract guiding sperm—are likely adaptations of sperm themselves, not evidence of female agency. Claims that women ‘screen’ sperm are strained. If evolution were intentionally planned at the cellular level, would that make women humanity’s arbiters and evolution’s origin?

Why describe two types of humans, with the same cells and shared reproductive biology, as if one ‘chooses’ and the other doesn’t? This is merely a relic of historical efforts to essentialize women as ‘Other.’

In reality, it seems female reproductive organs operate on survival-driven defence mechanisms-Only, except for the existence of the ovulation period: A compromise between defence and genetic continuity. And this can also explain the existence of menopause. Heard of Occam’s razor? Positing the female reproductive organs to ‘choose’ is unnecessary. Defensive reproductive mechanisms exist because perfect defence leaves no genetic record. Reproduction, a secondary survival tactic, only registers in evolution when genes are transmitted.

A female’s choice comes from outside the genes. It is individual preference, educated by history and society. That is why there is so much variation among individuals. Gendering reproduction—mythologising women’s role as selectors—reduces them to biological instruments.

Sperm reaching the egg succeed either by luck or by breaching the female body’s defenses—not because women ‘allowed’ it. Simultaneously, sperm’s survival strategies co-evolved with human intelligence.

Thoughts? I’d like to delve deeper into pregnancy and evolution’s gendered narratives.

Reference

P Le Bouteiller, C tSolier, J Pröll, M Aguerre-Girr, S Fournel, F Lenfant, Mini symposium. Placental HLA-G protein expression in vivo:

where and what for? Human Reproduction Update, Volume 5, Issue 3, May 1999