PLAYGIRL BLOG
Last summer, a guy sidled up to my friends at a bar. “Excuse me ladies,” he said, motioning toward another guy at a neighboring table. “My friend over there thinks you guys are dumb. You guys aren’t dumb, are you?” The quasi-insult, delivered with disarming nonchalance, threw the girls for a loop. ..While these particular guys didn’t succeed in scoring any digits from my friends, apparently the technique has a success rate high enough that not only has the “Mystery Method” been the subject of a bestselling book and a show, but some men pay upwards of $2000 to be schooled on its finer points in a “Seduction Boot Camp” seminar. Across the nation, as newly savvy dudes steamroll their way through happy hours wielding their new techniques, the unsuspecting ladies they encounter are left wondering: “WTF!?”
It’s tempting to write off the phenomenon as misogynist bullshit capitalizing on guys’ socially prescribed desire to feel like players, but might there be something scientific underneath? In The Score ($24.95) sex-science journalist Faye Flam undertakes an investigation of the evolutionary biology that drives men’s seemingly insatiable need “to score.” To start, she sits in on a seduction boot camp as a “Mystery” surrogate called (wait for it) “Future” trains a group of real-estate investors and stock brokers in the arts of “survival and replication.” On an individual level, the goal is as simple as being able to pick a chick out of a bar, chat her up, and bring her home—in other words, to be a successful dude. But, as Flam finds, on a species-level it’s more than that: it’s intertwined with millions of years of evolution.
To explain why guys will basically do (and spend) anything to have sex, Flam takes us back 3.5 billion years to the proverbial primordial swamp we crawled out of—a stew of asexual bacteria. It was here, a mere 600 million years ago, that two organisms accidentally banged into each other, sex was born, and life on earth (and in the City) really got interesting. ..Flam wrestles billions of years of science into an understandable and engrossing narrative, peppered with plenty of anecdotal animal-world examples that will leave you awed and amazed. She answers the burning questions you may or may not have had stewing in the back of your mind since eighth grade like: Why do humans come in (give or take) two sexes, instead of 30,000+ like mushrooms? and Are there gay animals? Plus those that come up regularly at the dinner table like: If we can have babies without sex, do we really need males? and Why, oh why, do men like porn so much more than women like porn?
…So the next time some dude corners you and announces that his meter is running but he first just needs to ask when the last time you got your hair cut was, you might have a little more patience. The poor sap may be trying too hard, but in the end he’s acting on behalf of the survival of the species. It’s in his nature. And if by chance you happen to, in spite of yourself and your distrust of Canadians in eyeliner, fall for it—hey, that’s just yours. READ MORE

 

EDITORIAL REVIEWS

Here's a controversial article that ran in Salon.com

"Faye Flam knows exactly how to make sex scientific and how to make science sexy. She penetrates the mysteries of human and animal passion with great style".
-Matt Ridley, author of Genome and The Red Queen

"Faye Flam provides a fascinating tour of how the quest for sex has shaped the evolution of human and nature in all of its staggeringly delightful forms. Written with a deft touch and humorous hand, The Score is anchored in solid science of sexuality. It takes readers on a journey of insights that ranges from the tactics of pick-up artists to some surprising benefits of testosterone. Faye Flam has a genius for spanning different scientific disciplines, and bringing out the hidden gems contained in each. I couldn't put the book down."
-David M. Buss, author of The Evolution of Desire

"Offering a fascinating look at everything from transsexual snakes and the long corkscrew penises of ducks to club pickup techniques and the connection between male scum and scum that is male, Faye Flam ranges broadly over many disciplines to show how sexual strivings and strategies have shaped not only us, but virtually the whole animal kingdom. Whether you're interested in cads or cod, The Score will provide you with scores of compelling, often counterintuitive insights."
-John Allen Paulos, professor of mathematics at Temple University, and author of Innumeracy and Irreligion

"Faye Flam's fabulous new book reads like Sex in the City but pulls together the best scientific studies on human sexuality, explaining on so many levels just how driven we all are by these baser instincts, and how that makes an evolutionary explanation for sex so compelling. The Score is one sexy book written by one sexy woman. Read it and score yourself."
-Michael Shermer, publisher of Skeptic magazine, monthly columnist for Scientific American, and author of Why Darwin Matters and The Mind of the Market

"Faye Flam is a very clever writer, smart and witty. She wears her scholarship lightly, stylishly, and with a wink. Men picking up this book hoping for tips on bedding women might at first be disappointed, but if they stick around they might learn the most important pick-up skill of all: To listen. After all, chances are she’s smarter than you, and more entertaining. There’s no better proof of that than this book."
-Mark Bowden, author of Black Hawk Down