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Testosterone Rex
Testosterone Rex: Unmaking the Myths of Our Gendered Minds | Cordelia Fine
11 posts | 16 read | 13 to read
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 Rexbrings 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.
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encinarus
Pickpick

Gender differences are often framed as nature vs nurture, boys will be boys etc, with testosterone bearing much of the nature side. Cordelia Fine debunks much of this with science, highlighting that there are few universal truths, and everything is more complicated than popsci makes it out to be. And yet, simpler. Culture >> biological differences. Well worth reading, and it was especially good to read in parallel with The Power.

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Alexx.Harperr
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One word - Wow. This book takes a very well researched and psychologically 'backed up' approach to our modern gendered mindsets, concisely giving feedback as to how they harm not only women (althought mostly women) but also the men of today. This is an amazing and necessary read for literally anyone, whether you identify as a feminist or not.

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charl08
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Just brilliant.

Jaimelire 😂 6y
batsy That's a great anecdote! I've had one of her books on my TBR for so long, I should get to it. 6y
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charl08
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Looking forward to reading this book: won a science prize this week.

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sandra888
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just one of many important points that Fine highlights in hilarious ways.
"None of which is to say..." ?

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kiminreverse
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Well that's quite the opening!

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Heather_Reads
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Pickpick

I learnt so much from this book about the brain, hormones, evolution and how it all works together to make us what we are, and about how the differences between women and men (including the supposed existence of a male and female brain) are more of a social construct rather than fixed differences. It challenges what we perceive as "natural" and I'd definitely recommend it to those interested in gender politics and the science of the body.

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Heather_Reads
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😂

mcipher Too funny! 🤣 7y
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Kkhalifeh
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This is a much needed review of the outdated scientific interpretations of the roll of testosterone on behavior. From the earliest experiments Fine shows how value laden and culturally reinforcing many of these "scientific" experiments are. This book should be required reading for parents, teachers, politicians, religious leaders (honestly everybody) or anybody who has a roll in legislating or shaping the gendered experiences of people.