Take Advantage Of Myths Of Gender: Biological Theories About Women And Men By Anne Fausto-Sterling File Format Digital Format

brilliant demolition of the bad science behind genderroleaffirming memes like "men have better visualspacial perception than women", While much of the book looks at work from the lates and earlys, some of the ideas are still "common knowledge" today, and the sort of bad science or at least bad science reporting that perpetuates those myths is still being done.
FaustoSterling challenges the assertions of certain brain scientists and geneticists among others, and offers a history of scientific misconceptions based on biology, Her main argument is that these gender myths are used to defend or protect the status quo, Fascinating that FaustoSterling picks about a hundred different scientific 'female inferiority/maledominated society' claims and just devastates them, showing their problemriddled studies with details about their neglect to noticing sociological bias and variables.
It was a WEE bit sciencey, though, My main issue is that it doesn't come off as a book to sway anyone who would be thinking differently and reads like a biology textbook half the time, with pages of completely unnecessary factual explanation every chapter.
Utter rubbish This book is, as they say, an oldie but a goodie still shockingly relevant, FaustoSterling dives into the nittygritty of the biology of gender what it is and what it isn't which reveals the sociology of science, how science can be biased and flawed.
A really good read for anyone wanting a better understanding of gender, Some good information, a little bit research heavy for my taste I do better with philosophy than fact, sometimes but it was well written and persuasive, However, I think the nature vs, nurture debate, in any sense, is an impossible question to properly study, And even if we could find accurate information swaying one way or the other, does answering this question really help us Part of being human involves the natural desire to fight your nature, to progress and become better.
And if you believe that, what does it matter if women are biologically handicapped when sexism is a morality issue worth fighting to overcome An excellent, if slightly older book on the issue of gender and its conceptions/misconceptions.
However, even though it is roughlyyears old, it still addressed issues that people are still arguing to this day,

Essentially, this book serves as a refutation to all of those studies out there which demonstrate, unequivocally, that there are distinct differences, particularly biological, between men and women.
The author goes indepth to show that the studies are either incomplete, fail to account for any other reasoning, do not share their statistical data for interpretation by others, do not engage in blind or doubleblind studies, the researchers are typically motivated to prove their hypothesis rather than discover the truth, and that far too frequently, they are motivated by a political bent.
In those few studies were the raw data has been made available, it is often shown that the variations within males and females is higher than the variations between males and females and, in studies where the attempt is made to show males are "superior" in one regard, those results which favor females are often left out or disregarded.


In point of fact, the "Accepted Wisdom" that males possess the "superior" trait and females the

"inferior" will change when those traits are discovered to be the opposite.
PreDarwin, it was the "Accepted Wisdom" that men were more stable and women highly variable when it came to various traits, After Darwin showed that variability and adaptability were more evolutionarily advantageous, suddenly the "Accepted Wisdom" changed to show that in fact males were the ones who were highly variable, whilst females were stable and unchanging.


And, the author shows that the same arguments are continued to be made time and time again, then refuted again, only to come back again once some new thing is discovered.


In the end, I'd agree with the author that if there is a difference between male and female, what can be said with certainty is that they have different reproductive organs.
. . most of the time sometimes because sometimes they don't. And that's about it.

This was a really good read, and I'd highly encourage everyone to check it out, she's fun, funny, and smart, Biology is not a oneway determinant but a dynamic component of our existence,

A surprisingly funny in a totally snarky way attack on both positivist essentialism and the idea that science could exist in a political vacuum, People attempt to legitimize prejudice against trans people using the rhetoric of biology, The argument goes that “biologically” there are indisputably males and females, This is not scientifically accurate it is far more complex, This is a continuation of a long history of weaponizing the language of science to justify sexism, Scientific language is used as a sheen to make discrimination seem natural, This is not actual science, The reduction of this biological complexity to establish social hierarchy is a political process, Empirical science affirms the natural gender and sexual diversity of our species,

Dr. FaustoSterling, professor of Biology at Brown University, teaches us that cultural myths about men and women circulate as “biological truths” with no substantive, replicable research to back them up, We continue to have faith in these stereotypes with absolute disregard for biological evidence otherwise, She undergoes a comprehensive survey of biological, genetic, evolutionary, and psychological studies to reveal that “there are very few absolute sex differences and that without complete social equality we cannot know for sure what they are”.


With no real evidence,th andth century male scientists “made strong statements about the social and political role of women, claiming all the while to speak for the scientific truth”.
They argued that men were smarter than women, that women were inherently irrational and incapable of being leaders, that women should not go to school because it would compromise their reproductive systems, and that women should remain at home because they were weaker than men.
As women scientists gained access to institutions of higher learning, they continued to debunk this “research” as pseudoscience,

It is a cultural choice to conflate “biological” with “reproductive, ” Humans have many different biological systems and physiological processes, There is more biological variation among women and men than between them, This means there is likely to be as much or more different between two womens bodies than between a random mans body and a random womans body,
Some women are tall, some men are short, some women build muscle easily, some men do not, “No two differently sexed individuals can be assumed to have different heights, shapes or strengths”, This is the reality of biology: we are all distinct and unique, like a fingerprint, Or rather, a brain.

Broad overarching categories like sex and race oversimplify biology by diminishing ingroup difference and exaggerating outgroup difference, Race and sex are not synonymous with genetic identity, Genes do not automatically determine physical expression, Genes have multiple potential expressions and physical characteristics are produced from a complex combination of an individuals developmental and environmental history,

Challenging gender norms isnt about denying biology, its about rejecting biological essentialism, Theres a difference. Biological essentialism is the idea that human nature and behavior is innate, with no consideration of the role of external factors, It is a “false understanding of biology”, Biological essentialism isnt science, its a political project that was created to naturalize inequality, Of course biology shapes behavior, but behavior can also alter biology, The physical structure of our brains and bodies are not just impacted by our genes, but our nutrition, physical contact with other humans, and exposure to trauma and other stimuli.
“Genes alone do not determine human behavior, They work under the influence of a set of environments”,

Its important that when people seek to justify discrimination on the basis of biology, we learn from history and demand replicable and reputable evidence,
This book is crushingly hard to get through, but I had to for the sake of my Sociology of Women class, I understand what FaustoSterling is trying to do here proving that the "differences of biology" between men and women are tenuous at best but this book is so steeped in science and theories and that sort of talk that I often fell asleep.
I am more interested in the differences between men and women from a psychological and women's studies point of view, Not that the sociological should be ignored, I'm just praying that the rest of the books we have to read are far more interesting than this one, If you are a biology fiend and love dense scientific talk then this book won't be a problem for you, But I like a little entertainment with my education, . . or at least more philosophical and easier language to swallow, I didn't have any "aha!" moment because this book was just fact after fact, I think Malcolm Gladwell always manages to make science fascinating, . . but FaustoSterling Not so much with this one, Excellent! coming soon Written by a medical doctor, Myths of Gender explores studies on 'gender', focusing on the medical aspects, FaustoSterling discusses genes, hormones, brain differences, animal behavior, homosexuality, and how science affects society, Succinct, objective, and fascinating. An excellent overview and deconstruction of several often cited studies, Beyond the specific studies cited, it offers great extensive analysis on how the methodology of experiments can be both purposefully and unknowingly biased if they are not carefully designed, Citation of older studies especially is problematic when the language and words used have different intrinsic definitions, Although this book is a little older, and has some outdated ideas in the area of neuroscience which has recently exploded with data and new models, it is still well worth the read.
This dialogue continues in sitelinkDelusions of Gender: How Our Minds, Society, and Neurosexism Create Difference and sitelinkBrainstorm: The Flaws in the Science of Sex Differences, which have more uptodate, but slightly different, discussions.
It was an interesting read and the author made many good points about research and methods used to enforce our "age old" myths about gender, My only complaint is the Myths of Gender's age some of the content is outdated, I'd be very interested to read an updated version with commentary regarding new research, Tons of evidence, plus some sharp insight into the weakness of many "studies" on gender difference, FaustoSterling dissects commonly held beliefs, neatly comparing what's produced as evidence, but also things that "experts" on gender difference spout from their perches in academia and media,

The writing is frequently dry and didactic, but readable, Occasionally, however, FaustoSterling shifts into a more conversational or even sardonic tone, and that's when the book comes alive, By carefully examining the biological, genetic, evolutionary, and psychological evidence, a noted biologist finds a shocking lack of substance behind ideas about biologically based sex differences, Features a new chapter and afterward on recent biological breakthroughs, More FaustoSterlings in this world, please Anne Fausto Sterling is the Nancy Duke Lewis Professor of Biology and Gender Studies at Brown University, She participates actively in the field of sexology and has written extensively on the biology of gender, sexual identity, gender identity, gender roles, and intersexuality, .