The Meme Machine

CHAPTER 10
‘An orgasm saved my life’
Sex sex sex sex sex sex – sex – sex.
Did you perk up? Did you pay more attention to the start of this chapter than
any other? Probably not. I expect you have developed plenty of defences
against sex memes. Nevertheless, if you want to sell magazines, television
programmes, or books, one obvious strategy is to put the word ‘sex’ in a
prominent position. A count at my local railway station revealed that of 63
magazines on the shelves 13 had the word ‘sex’ on the cover – and that is
ignoring all the ones with erotic photographs, or headlines like ‘Naked couples
reveal al1’, ‘How would you like to bed this hungry hunk?’, and ‘An orgasm
saved my life’.
According to the American author Richard Brodie (1996), memes that deal
with sex, food, and power all press powerful meme ‘buttons’ because of the
importance of these topics in our evolutionary past. And memes that press
buttons are successful memes.
Another way of putting it is that genetic evolution has created brains that are
especially concerned with sex, food, and power, and the memes we choose
reflect those genetic concerns. Apart from the use of the word ‘meme’, the logic
thus far is exactly that of sociobiologists or evolutionary psychologists who
assume that the ideas we have, the stories we pass on, the cultural artefacts and
skills that we develop, are all ultimately serving the genes. According to
sociobiology, culture should reflect genetic concerns, since culture is ultimately
for the genes.
Yet, in our own society there are many obvious anomalies. Birth rates have
fallen dramatically now that many couples think that having two children is
quite enough. Some people have decided that they want no children at all, and
prefer to devote their lives to their careers or other occupations. Others adopt
children who are not biologically related to them and yet bring them up with
great care and devotion as though they were their own. Advertisements, films,
television, and books encourage us to enjoy sex with multiple partners
throughout our adult lives, without any intention of getting pregnant, and
teenagers carry condoms around in their pockets. Contraception has not only
brought about effective family planning, but also sex for pleasure and sex for
spreading memes. Sexually, we do not behave in ways that maximise our
genetic legacy. We no longer have sex in order to get the greatest possible