Adapt or Die! The Evolutionary Biology of Pop Culture
Darwin did not expect to have "his" theory applied to pixelated creatures...this is payback for taking the limelight over Wallace. On Adapt or Die, Austin (a PhD candidate in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology) explores topics in popular culture that can be dissected with evolutionary theories and ideas. We will ask questions like "Does Pokémon evolution work like actual evolution?" or "How would evolution inform what lives and what dies after nuclear fallout". Combining peer-reviewed science, humour, and a smidge of speculation we will adapt our understanding of pop culture together.
Adapt or Die! The Evolutionary Biology of Pop Culture
18. I Capture the Clefairy: Same-sex behaviour in evolution
Welcome to this brand new (and final for this season!) episode of Adapt or Die! The evolutionary biology of pop culture hosted by Austin Ashbaugh. The current cultural phenomenon we are discussing this season is Pokémon and todays episode is focused on the fairy type. Our evolutionary connection to the fairy type is the topic of same-sex behaviour in evolution.
In the Safari Zone, I get into the difference between sex and gender in an evolutionary context, the evolution of same sex behavior, and using fairy type pokémon as a case study in understanding how misleading "normal" is in evolution. During the pokémon professors rant, I appropriately rant about how to improve the fairy type in representing evolution. Lastly, we will end todays episode with describing a new ghost/fairy type lineage and results from our latest pokémon spectacular competition. Sit back and relax in a chair older than yourself, open an old dusty tome, and join me as we adapt or die!
Link to Google Slides of Pokémon discussed in this episode
Additional resources mentioned in this episode:
1. Adsit-Morris, C., & Gough, N. (2021). Queering evolution: The socio-political entanglements of natural and cultural evolutionary mechanisms. _Queer Ecopedagogies: Explorations in Nature, Sexuality, and Education_, 95-121.
2. Lindqvist, A., Sendén, M. G., & Renström, E. A. (2021). What is gender, anyway: a review of the options for operationalising gender. _Psychology & sexuality_, _12_(4), 332-344.
3. Page, M. R. (2016). The literary imagination from Erasmus Darwin to H.G. Wells: Science, evolution, and ecology. New York: Routledge.
4. Pascoe, J. (1993). Female botanists and the poetry of Charlotte Smith. In C. S. Wilson & J. Haefner (Eds.), Re-visioning romanticism: British women writers, 1776–1837 (pp. 193–210). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
5. Richards, E. (2017). Darwin and the making of sexual selection. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press
6. Roughgarden, J. (2013). _Evolution's rainbow: Diversity, gender, and sexuality in nature and people_. Univ of California Press.
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Song credits: Music by Gregor Quendel from Pixabay
Logo design: Austin Ashbaugh, Chase Ashbaugh, Xander Allen
