Summary

Baker begins this chapter with a description of his presence on what he defines as a New Kids on the Block cruise, a trip down the Mississippi River in the company of a ship-full of women. His intention, he says, was to experience a “Girls Trip,” aware that being a man in this circumstance was probably to “negate the sacredness” of such a gathering (56). He also describes, however, his recollection of encountering the intense focus of women at the concert of the New Kids boy band, a recollection that led him to imagine that his presence would ultimately not be too disruptive.

Baker then comments that this point in his narrative “seems like as good a time as any to pause and examine the story of human evolution” (56), with an eye to considering “two of our greatest evolutionary ‘advantages’” – the human ability to...