Myths Of Gender: Biological Theories About Women And Men, Revised Edition [Paperback]

Anne Fausto-Sterling (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0465047920 | ISBN-13: 978-0465047925 | Publication Date: September 30, 1992 | Edition: Revised

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.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Are men smarter than women, better at math, inherently more aggressive? Are women verbal, subject to monthly emotional storms, and doomed without hormone intervention to a sexless deteriorating old age? Do studies by sociobiologists shed light on gender behavior in humans? Fausto-Sterling, an associate professor of medical science at Brown University, considers all these questions, concentrating on the scientific studies on which popular assumptions are often based. She presents complicated ideas clearly and knowledgeably and is devastatingly critical of the scientific validity of much of the work she cites. Her own opinions unavoidably (and admittedly) color her judgment subtly, but she does great service in exposing the faultiness of many gender studies and presenting the complexity of this important topic. Margery C. Coombs, Zoology Dept., Univ. of Massachusetts, Amherst
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Anne Fausto-Sterling is professor of biology and medicine at Brown University.

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books; Revised edition (September 30, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0465047920
• ISBN-13: 978-0465047925
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #83,731 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #22 in Books > Gay & Lesbian > Nonfiction > Philosophy

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

52 of 57 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book is a gem among the gender rubble, September 27, 2000

By 

Ame Hunter - See all my reviews

This review is from: Myths Of Gender: Biological Theories About Women And Men, Revised Edition (Paperback)

I'm not surprized that more people haven't read this book,because it gives the human being a maze of possiblities and HUMAN potential not limited by gender,which maybe to frightening for the Mars and Venused public to accept,since it leaves the door wide open for limitless potential and variations among persons atributed to individuality and not gender. I found other gender related books to be very limiting,which lead me to take some tests on spatial and verbal ability,let's just say,under the narrow Brain Sex mode,I would have a completely male brain in a female body!..after my test,my suspicions increased and I did some further reading and found this book. The writer explains how researchers may not be entirely ojective, how you cannot in any way base all gender behavior on a limited amount of subjects,since we of course have over a billion persons roaming the planet with many different individual abilites,and how there is an agenda against women's advancement in science and math,which of course demand sound logic and spatial reasoning. Expand your possibities,get the gender limits off your minds, and soar!

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars myths exposed, April 6, 2005

By 

Rachel (Chatsworth) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Myths Of Gender: Biological Theories About Women And Men, Revised Edition (Paperback)

I was always puzzled when it came to these gender studies.
Anee Fausto Sterling tells us about how these studies are
subjective and misleading.How and why we find a continual stapple of books proclaiming 'innate sex differences".
From my own experiences,none of the sex difference books hold
water when it comes to the reality of everyday life.We see
such differences in individuals as to say it's not sex which
is the cause behind them.Everyone should read her book.It is
time to stop reinforcing sterotypes on people.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 4.5 Stars for Exposing the Flaws of the Constructs of Sex Differences, June 11, 2009

By 

Bonam Pak (Berlin) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Myths Of Gender: Biological Theories About Women And Men, Revised Edition (Paperback)

I read the second edition of 1992. It includes 48 additional pages to the 1985 original: a preface; a new chapter on brain anatomy concerning sex differences and homosexuality; an afterword. The author explains that the book is imcomplete in so far as it does NOT include the topics women and depression, mothering instincts and transsexuality.

Instead she tackles most of all the questions of wether men are really smarter, genes and gender, hormonal hurricanes (menstruation, menopause, female behavior) and how women are put in their evolutionary place (by patriarchy).

The central theme is wether there is any scientific merit to the popular perceptions of the myriad sex differences. Anne Fausto-Sterling exposes various past sexist theories by patriarchal scientists, which the latter dropped as soon as they found out that on a closer, updated look, they would actually FAVOR women. Only to be replaced by new misogynous theories. The entire field of sociobiology is unmasked as an illusion.

I would like to mention though that races among humans are yet another illusion, as she uses this term all too often according to the times she was writing in.

You may be interested in the more elaborate complementing Mismeasure of Women: Why Women Are Not the Better Sex, the Inferior Sex, or the Opposite Sex. Also of interest are The Meanings of Sex Difference in the Middle Ages: Medicine, Science, and Culture (Cambridge Studies in the History of Medicine) and Nature's Body: Gender In The Making Of Modern Science.

PS: On societies with fathers doing a bulk of the child care read for example Intimate Fathers: The Nature and Context of Aka Pygmy Paternal Infant Care, for current lack of knowledge about a book of a (lost?) South American people, in which fathers do/did even more of the child care.