Now updated with groundbreaking research, this award-winning classic examines the construction of sexual identity in biology, society, and history.
Why do some people prefer heterosexual love while others fancy the same sex? Is sexual identity biologically determined or a product of convention? In this brilliant and provocative book, the acclaimed author of Myths of Gender argues that even the most fundamental knowledge about sex is shaped by the culture in which scientific knowledge is produced.
Drawing on astonishing real-life cases and a probing analysis of centuries of scientific research, Fausto-Sterling demonstrates how scientists have historically politicized the body. In lively and impassioned prose, she breaks down three key dualisms — sex/gender, nature/nurture, and real/constructed — and asserts that individuals born as mixtures of male and female exist as one of five natural human variants and, as such, should not be forced to compromise their differences to fit a flawed societal definition of normality.
ISBN-13: 9781541672895
Media Type: Paperback(Revised ed.)
Publisher: Basic Books
Publication Date: 06-30-2020
Pages: 608
Product Dimensions: 5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.60(d)
Anne Fausto-Sterling is the Nancy Duke Lewis Professor of Biology and Gender Studies in the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology and Biochemistry at Brown University.
Table of Contents
Preface ix
1 Dueling Dualisms 1
2 "That Sexe Which Prevaileth" 32
3 Of Gender and Genitals: The Use and Abuse of the Modern Intersexual 48
4 Should There Be Only Two Sexes? 83
5 Sexing the Brain: How Biologists Make a Difference 117
6 Sex Glands, Hormones, and Gender Chemistry 150
7 Do Sex Hormones Really Exist? (Gender Becomes Chemical) 176
8 The Rodent's Tale 203
9 Gender Systems: Toward a Theory of Human Sexuality 244
10 A Sea of Gender 268
Afterword 315
Acknowledgments 345
Notes 349
Bibliography 481
Index 565
