Moxon gets slightly out of his depth in his initial foray into selfish gene territory. Concepts such as "the interest of the reproducing group as a whole" or "the benefit to the whole gene pool" are non-starters. The only interest or benefit, if there is one, is the alpha male's (i.e. his genes'). Beta males simply have no choice but to stay put or confront the alpha male and get killed. The concept of "male filter" (Atmar, 1991) is used in Chapter II to explain why males are genetically such a mixed bag. The idea is that males bear most of the selective pressure. Males are a laboratory in which genes, good or bad, are tested - filtered out or filtered in - via intra-sexual competition. Males fight it out among themselves while females look on. Females then pair off with the winners, thereby securing the best genes for their own offspring. Males have a harder life from the start.
After that the book really takes off and proves to be a mine of sobering information and incisive argumentation.
We are reminded that as recently as 150 years ago, no more than 5% of the men in England had the right to vote. To put it another way: 95% of the men were politically disenfranchised and had no say in the politics of a country that would send them to die on the battlefield. This was the big injustice, not the fact that the 5% landed minority entitled to vote was male rather than female.
Married women, feminists are keen to remind us, were formerly under the legal guardianship of their husbands. Yet this was because women were protected from being sent to debtor's prisons. Whenever a wife wanted to borrow, mortgage or gamble, her husband's signature was required because should the money not be repaid, he was the one who would go to jail. In "Herstory", privilege is presented as discrimination, protection as victimisation.
Meanwhile there's convincing evidence that men, not women, are the main sufferers of domestic violence involving serious bodily harm. The lies and injustices foisted upon men by a female-biased system are only equalled - alas - by men's inability or unwillingness to stand up for their most basic human rights.
My impression upon putting down this riveting book is that feminism is nothing short of organized crime.