THE SECOND SEX: Facts and Myths DESTINY: The Data of Biology and hence neither one of the two sexual potentialities is exclusively and hence the female, is supreme, since the egg is especially dedicated to the mere propagation of life; but here the female is hardly more Numerically equal in the species and developed similarly from like n an abdomen, and her existence is entirely used up in a mon beginnings, the fully formed male and female are basically equivalent. travail of ovulation. In comparison with the male, she reaches giant Both have reproductive glands-ovaries or testes-in which the gam- proportions; but her appendages are often tiny, her body a shapeless tes are produced by strictly corresponding processes, as we have seen her organs degenerated in favor of the eggs. Indeed, such males These glands discharge their products through ducts that are more and females, although they are distinct organisms, can hardly be re or less complex according to sex; in the female the egg may pass di garded as individuals, for they form a kind of unity made up of in- rectly to the outside through the oviduct, or it may be retained for a separable elements. In a way they are intermediate between hermal time in the cloaca or the uterus before expulsion; in the male the se- oditism and gonochorism men may be deposited outside, or there may be a copulatory organ Thus in certain Crustacea, parasitic on the crab, the female is a through which it is introduced into the body of the female. In these mere sac enclosing millions of eggs, among which are found the mi- respects, then, male and female appear to stand in a symmetrical re- ute males, both larval and adult. In Edriolydnus the dwarf male is lation to each other, To reveal their peculiar, specific qualities it will still more degenerate; it lives under the shell of the female and has be necessary to study them from the functional point of view. no digestive tract of its own, being purely reproductive in function It is extremely difficult to give a generally valid definition of the But in all such cases the female is no less restricted than the male. female. To define her as the bearer of the eggs and the male as bear it is enslaved to the species. If the male is bound to the female, the of the sperms is far from sufficient, since the relation of the organism latter is no less bound down, either to a living organism on which it to the gonads is, as we have seen, quite variable On the other hand, exists as a parasite or to some substratum; and its substance is con- the differences between the gametes have no direct effect upon the sumed in producing the eggs which the tiny male fertilizes organism as a whole; it has sometimes been argued that the eggs, Among somewhat higher animals an individua being large, consume more vital energy than do the sperms, but the be manifested and the bond that joins the sexes weakens; but in the latter are produced in such infinitely greater numbers that the ex insects they both remain strictly subordinated to the eggs. Frequently, penditure of energy must be about equal in the two sexes. Some have as in the mayflies, male and female die immediately after copulation shed to see in spermatogenesis an example of prodigality and in and egg-laying. In some rotifers the male lacks a digestive tract and oogenesis a model of economy, but there is an absurd liberality in the dies after fecundation; the female is able to eat and survives long latter,, too, for : jority of eggs are never fertilized. s In no way enough at least to develop and lay the eggs. The mother dies after the represent in microcosm the organism as a appearance of the next generation is assured. The privileged position whole. It is to hole organism-that we must now direct held by the females in many insects comes from the fact that the our attention production and sometimes the care of the eggs demand a long effort, One of the most remarkable features to be noted as we survey the ale of animal life is that as we go up, individuality is seen to be whereas fecundation is for the most part quickly accomplished. In the termites the enormous queen, crammed with nourishment more and more fully developed. At the bottom, life is concerned only and laying as many as 4, oco eggs per day until she becomes sterile and in the survival of the species as a whole; at the top, life seeks expres- is pitilessly killed, is no less a slave than the comparatively tiny male ion through particular individuals, while accomplishing also the sur- who attends her and provides frequent fecundation. In the matri. vival of the group. In some lower species the organism may be almost archal ants nests and beehives the males are economically useless and entirely reduced to the reproductive apparatus; in this case the egg, are killed off at times. At the season of the nuptial Aight in ants, all eggs and at most 25 or 3o child the males emerge with females from the nest; those that succeed in ren; in animals the disproportion is often mating with females die at once, exhausted; the rest are not permitted
THE SECOND SEx: Facts and Myths DESTINY: The Data of Biology by the workers to re-enter the nest, and die of hunger or are killed The fertilized female has a gloomy fate; she buries herself alone in with other males. Accordingly the organs of locomotion, touch,and the ground and often dies while laying her first eggs, or if she succeeds prehension are frequently more highly evolved in the male. Many fe in founding a colony she remains shut in and may live for ten or twelve years constantly producing more eggs. The workers, females males of insects have more highly developed colors, wing-covers,legs with atrophied sexuality, may live for several years, but their life is and pincers. And sometimes to this endowment is added a seeming largely devoted to raising the larvae. It is much the same with bees luxury of brilliant coloration, Beyond the brief moment of copulation the drone that succeeds in mating with the queen during the nuptial the life of the male is useless and irresponsible; compared with the fight falls to earth disemboweled; the other drones return to the hive, dustriousness of the workers, the idleness of the drones seems a re where they live a lazy life and are in the way until at the approach of markable privilege. But this privilege is a social disgrace, and often the winter they are killed off by the workers. But the workers purchase male pays with his life for his futility and partial independence. The their right to live by incessant toil; as in the ants they are undeveloped ecies, which holds the female in slavery, punishes the male for his females. The queen is in truth enslaved to the hive, laying eggs con gesture toward escape; it liquidates him with brutal force. tinually. If she dies, the workers give several larvae special food so as In higher forms of life, reproduction becomes the creation of dis- to provide for the succession; the first to emerge kills the rest in their crete organisms; it takes on a double role: maintenance of the species cells and creation of new individuals. This innovating aspect becomes the In certain spiders the female carries the eggs about with her in a more unmistakable as the singularity of the individual becomes pro- silken case until they hatch. She is much larger and stronger than the nounced. It is striking then that these two essential elements-per le and may kill and devour him after copulation, as does an insect tuation and creation-are separately apportioned to the two sexes. the praying mantis, around which has crystallized the myth of de- his separation, already indicated at the moment when the egg is vouring femininity-the egg castrates the sperm, the mantis murders fertilized, is to be discerned in the whole generative process. It is not her spouse, these acts foreshadowing a feminine dream of castration the essential nature of the egg that requires this separation, for in The mantis, however, shows her cruelty especially in captivity; and higher forms of life the female has, like the male, attained a certain autonomy and her bondage to the egg has been relaxed. The female ditions, when she is free in the midst of ab food, she rarely dines on the male. If she does eat him, it is to enable sh, batrachian, or bird is far from being a mere abdomen. The less her to produce her eggs and thus perpetuate the race, just as the soli trictly the mother is bound to the egg, the less does the labor of re- tary fertilized ant often eats some of her own eggs under the same production represent an absorbing task and the more uncertainty there necessity. It is going far afield to see in these facts a proclamation of is in the relations of the two parents with their offspring. It can even the"battle of the sexes"which sets individuals, as such, one against happen that the father will take charge of the newly hatched young, another. It cannot simply be said that in ants, bees, termites, spiders, as in various fishes or mantises the female enslaves and sometimes devours the male, for Water is an element in which the eggs and sperms can float about pecies that in different ways consumes them both. The fe nd unite, and fecundation in the aquatic environment is almost al- nale lives longer and seems to be more important than the male; but ways external. Most fish do not copulate, at most stimulating one an- she has no independence-egg-laying and the care of eggs and larvae other by contact. The mother discharges the eggs, the father the are her destiny, other functions being atrophied wholly or sperm-their role is identical. There is no reason why the mother in the male, on the contrary, an individual existence begins to be more than the father, should feel responsibility for the eggs. In some species the eggs are abandoned by the parents and develop without the female, seeking her out, making the approach, palpating, seizing assistance; sometimes a nest is prepared by the mother and some and forcing connection upon her. Sometimes he has to battle for her times she watches over the very often it is the father who takes charge of them. As soon as he has