Cordelia Fine

Testosterone Rex

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WINNER OF THE 2017 ROYAL SOCIETY INSIGHT INVESTMENT SCIENCE BOOK PRIZE

What the judges said: 'Every man and woman should read this book on gender bias … an important, yet wickedly witty, book.' 

'Fine's entertaining and thoughtful book is a valuable addition to the discussion about gender.' Ian Critchley, Sunday Times

 'In addition to being hopeful, Fine is also angry. We should all be angry. Testosterone Rex is a debunking rumble that ought to inspire a roar.' Guardian

'A densely packed, spirited book, with an unusual combination of academic rigour and readability… The expression “essential reading for everyone” is usually untrue as well as a cliché, but if there were a book deserving of that description this might just be it.' Antonia Macaro, Financial Times

Testosterone Rex is the powerful myth that squashes hopes of sex equality by telling us that men and women have evolved different natures. Fixed in an ancestral past that rewarded competitive men and caring women, these differences are supposedly re-created in each generation by sex hormones and male and female brains.

Testosterone, so we’re told, is the very essence of masculinity, and biological sex is a fundamental force in our development. Not so, says psychologist Cordelia Fine, who shows, with wit and panache, that sex doesn’t create male and female natures. Instead, sex, hormones, culture and evolution work together in ways that make past and present gender dynamics only a serving suggestion for the future — not a recipe.

Testosterone Rex brings together evolutionary science, psychology, neuroscience and social history to move beyond old ‘nature versus nurture’ debates, and to explain why it’s time to unmake the tyrannical myth of Testosterone Rex.

For fans of Fine — whose Delusions of Gender ‘could have far-reaching consequences as significant as The Female Eunuch’ (Viv Groskop, Guardian) — and thousands of new readers, this is an upbeat, timely and important contribution to the debate about gender in society.
This book is currently unavailable
348 printed pages
Original publication
2017
Publication year
2017
Have you already read it? How did you like it?
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Impressions

  • Sergioshared an impression3 years ago
    👍Worth reading
    🔮Hidden Depths
    💡Learnt A Lot

    Es un libro que aborda de manera seria y fundamentada el mito de “Testosterona Rex”, y sus implicaciones históricas y evolutivas. Es un texto de nuestros tiempos que sigue empujándonos a comprender nuestro sexo/género desde una perspectiva distinta, más contemporánea y que nos debe impulsar a que las cosas cambien.

    Hay que leer este libro con una postura crítica y, especialmente, con la disposición a tener una perspectiva distinta.

    Creo que la siguiente cita es un buen ejemplo de este libro:
    And, regardless of our biological sex, life will likely demand we all, at some point, cherish and care for others; take risks; and compete for status, resources, and lovers.

  • Caleb Gonzálezshared an impression5 years ago
    👍Worth reading
    💡Learnt A Lot
    🎯Worthwhile

Quotes

  • Sergiohas quoted3 years ago
    Which of these directions we prefer is up to us: it’s a question for our values, not science. But that evolving science is showing that one time-honoured option is no longer available to us. It’s time to stop blaming Testosterone Rex, because that king is dead
  • Sergiohas quoted3 years ago
    That’s why everything—a doll packaged in pink, a sexist joke, a male-only expert panel—can seem trivial, of intangible effect. But that’s exactly why calling out even seemingly minor points of sexism matters.
  • Sergiohas quoted3 years ago
    These gender stereotypes operate throughout life both as expectations about the characteristics men and women have, and as gender norms dictating double standards for how women and men should behave, influencing people’s interests, self-concept, performance, and beliefs about capabilities in gendered domains. These gender stereotypes and norms are also the foundation of both conscious and unconscious forms of sex discrimination, like biased evaluations of performance and potential, and social and economic backlash against people whose behaviour isn’t in line with them.65 Gender stereotypes and norms can certainly harm and constrain boys and men too. But gender is a hierarchy. The higher prestige of males and masculinity is, some have speculated, why significant numbers of girls in middle childhood start to shun the “girl” toys and activities they have supposedly evolved to prefer, in order to become “one of the boys,” while there is a conspicuous absence of boys hoping to become “one of the girls.”66

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