PATTERNS OF SEX

A preposterous combination of fact and opinion delivered with unctuous self-righteousness. First comes a fulsome description of sex among animals, accompanied by gasps at the strength of the sexual ""drive"" and the satisfaction attained by bugs and such (evident to whom?). Then come windy chapters on human sexual development which alternate outrage with exasperation. We are told, for instance, that we really ought to do something to eliminate the nuisance of menstruation. We ought to rejoice in the menopause since it frees women of dread fears and permits culture to benefit from mature maternal lore. Ford, a self-appointed authority described as a lecturer and broadcaster, next expounds on human sex in all its varieties. We have so emphasized mechanical sex instead of ""pair-bonds"" and love that, he warns, the decline and fall of society will surely follow. Unisex and perversity are our fate if we continue to disregard biological imperatives, emphasize sexual equality, and tolerate stress and overcrowding. All this, of course, is accompanied by graphic depictions of who does what to whom. Some years ago the term ""pious pornography"" was coined to describe titillating magazine articles masked as reports on science and health. Ford's text is another of same.