April 20, 2026

"This foray into looking at humans as creatures that are governed by instinct and biology offered little in the way of advancing Darwinist theory..."

"... nor was his explicit approach of studying man as a mere ape a novel one. What ensured the popularity of The Naked Ape was first its clarity of prose, and second, the era in which it was published, where a popularised 'back to nature' philosophy and sexual liberation were all the rage.... [T]he salacious manner of the book helped to guarantee it success. During copulation, he wrote, 'the female breasts … shows a significant increase in size. By the time orgasm has been reached, the breast of the average female will have increased by anything up to 25 per cent of its normal dimensions. It becomes firmer, more rounded and more protuberant.' Elsewhere, Morris would tell readers that the human penis is the largest of all primates, and the only one without a bone, making it harder to achieve an erection.... The Naked Woman (2004) was a similar blend of zoological observation and detailed titillation, with an analysis of women’s backs ('even at rest … naturally more arched than a man’s back'), legs ('part of the sexual fascination … is that they focus attention on the point where they meet'), buttocks (they 'transmit a powerful gender signal') and breasts (which 'operate first as visual stimuli and then as tactile ones'). Never short of ideas, Morris also advanced the theory that female breasts had developed as imitation buttocks 'to shift the interest of the male to the front.'..."

From "Desmond Morris obituary: natural world expert/Zoologist, broadcaster and author best known for The Naked Ape dies aged 98" (London Times).

29 comments:

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Can't argue with an expert: "breasts (which 'operate first as visual stimuli and then as tactile ones')"

It's true. Every word. In order.

Kai Akker said...

Right, the original T&A guy!

Michael said...

Was assigned The Naked Ape in our Human Sexuality class in college. Sparked a lot of conversation both in and out of the classroom. This was 40 years ago when a lot of feminist thought was taking hold in the faculty, with the idea that our sexual behavior is all a social construct, nature vs nurture type stuff.

Quite the contrast with the Bacchanal that was campus in the early 80s, where a woman classmate would tell you in the afternoon that "Male lust is the result of the patriarchy", while that very same night be demanding, "Stick it in my azz."

Lem Vibe Bandit said...

Big fan of his television docs.

YouTube: The Language of the Body

"I decided to make a complete classification of all human actions, gestures, postures, expressions all over the world, and this is going to take a very long time, I was going to do for actions what dictionary makers had done for words."

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Very enticing quote there, Lem.

imTay said...

It’s probably impossible to know every factor that if integrated across time explains the human organism, but speculation deepens our understanding, nevertheless.

gilbar said...

i actually READ the Naked Ape, way back around 1980..
anyone else?

imTay said...

One strong piece of evidence that human sexuality is a social construct is how thoroughly social engineering has bolixed it up to the point that societies where it has been imposed are dying out for lack of children.

Enigma said...

I respect Morris for going there on a topic that's bound for pushback, snickering, and political tension. He was head and shoulders above many who followed.

Male and female bodies are indeed keyed to each other. Tab A must fit in Part B or no babies can be made. Size follows functional needs (i.e., large human baby heads = a bigger birth canal = a larger insemination tool). Female fat deposits first serve a survival function (resource storage), and also in keeping babies alive, and also easy ID of female maturity. Males respond to but perhaps don't "need" a lot of visual stimulation.

Human babies are hardwired for the rooting reflex, whereby they turn their heads and open their mouths in an "O" if rubbed by a finger/nipple on the cheek. They are hardwired to respond to the functional feeding part of mommy, and it's placed exactly where mommies hold their babies in their arms.

n.n said...

Our physiology is ape-like. Our consciousness is anthropogenic and intelligent with a capacity for discernment, creativity, and moderation.

imTay said...

Maybe we should not mess with systems of vast complexity like the social aspects of human sexuality since the consequences are probably impossible to predict.

n.n said...

Men and women are equal in human rights and complementary in Nature/nature.

Howard said...

Male and female beauty are actually proxies for health, athleticism intelligence and reliability, not the other way around.

n.n said...

From the purely secular, evolutionary perspective, the female sex is a prop and womb, on a farm in modern families. Masculine genders are anthropogenic gender inseminators (AGI) and herders gazing, fondling clouds.

n.n said...

Morris was politically incongruent and socially progressive.

BarrySanders20 said...

I always thought peckers were in it for the poontang, but turns out this one guy (Desmond Morris) was in it for the bestseller list.

Aggie said...

Ah, those bygone days of literal interpretations about sex. How far we've come.

Eva Marie said...

Proponents of strictly ‘hard-wired’ human behaviors often end up issuing strong prescriptions about how people should live. Unnecessary if the traits were truly fixed and automatic.”

Enigma said...

@Eva Marie --

Scientist emphasized moderate nature vs. nuture models for generations. They used to say behavior was 40% biological, 40% social, and 20% random. Then they got fMRI machines, DNA testing, etc. Now the evidence is closer to 60% biological. Male and female brains, as well as bodies, are indeed different.

Note that the tabula rasa "blank slate" left most recently issued strong, dogmatic DEI/equity prescriptions about how people should live. The old-time bio guys like Morris were typically centrists or sane leftists, and the data easily discredits 100% social models of behavior.

How long did lefty DEI Colorado persecute of the Christian baker? What about the one-sided nature of "Conversion Therapy" dogma?

Josephbleau said...

Contraception has turned us into drug resistant bacteria. We still have the same physical instincts and incentives but it no longer leads to reproduction. Humans have trick fucked themselves out of their environmental niche.

Jupiter said...

"anyone else?"
I read it when it was first published. But I recall that he said the hairs on men's backs curl around in a way that he somehow thought was related to water, and hypothesized that humans had at some previous time been aquatic. I was only 13, but I could see that didn't make any sense at all. I decided he was a sensationalist fruitcake. Prove me wrong.

john mosby said...

" female breasts had developed as imitation buttocks 'to shift the interest of the male to the front"

...easier to say "my eyes are up here!" vs "My eyes are on the other side!" I guess. CC, JSM

Roger Sweeny said...

gilbar, I read it back then, too. Thought it was great. Wished history could exchange it for all of Freud, who set psychology down a wrong road for decades. Still feel that way but tried to reread it a few years ago and found lots of it pretty bad.

rehajm said...

Manwatching was a freshman textbook for me, over a decade after it was published…

boatbuilder said...

" female breasts had developed as imitation buttocks 'to shift the interest of the male to the front"

...easier to say "my eyes are up here!" vs "My eyes are on the other side!" I guess. CC, JSM


It seems to me that both sides are pretty damn interesting.

"I hate to see you go, but I love to watch you walking away."

Eva Marie said...

“How long did lefty DEI Colorado persecute of the Christian baker? What about the one-sided nature of "Conversion Therapy" dogma?”
Both sides in the nature vs nurture debate lack confidence in their own positions.
We’d be better off forgetting the debate and building a society that prioritizes individual freedom and merit.

Sydney said...

Gilbar asked "i actually READ the Naked Ape, way back around 1980..anyone else?"
I read my parents' copy of it when I was a teenager, but only the salacious parts.

Eva Marie said...

Let me add: when I say we’d be better off forgetting the debate - I don’t mean in forums such as these. I mean in real life.

Enigma said...

@Eva Marie --

Left or right-wing zealots and absolutists do not lack confidence; to the contrary they are ignorantly overconfident. The left aggressively pushed the middle and right wings out of universities and career government jobs and media way back in the 1960s and 1970s. See Jimmy Carter and the end of the Civil Service exam (1978) as discriminatory. See Obama and Biden for refusing to hire exceptionally well-qualified white male air traffic controllers because of DEI.

The dogmatic left pushed its blank slate utopian DEI fantasy as 'science' and 'proven' for decades. The debate cannot end when (state funded) gender reassignment and DEI outcomes remain scientific nonsense but official dogmas.

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