Testosterone Rex: Myths of Sex, Science, and Society

Written by Cordelia Fine

Narrated by Cat Gould

Many people believe that, at its core, biological sex is a fundamental, diverging force in our development. According to this familiar story, differences between the sexes are shaped by past evolutionary pressures—women are more cautious and parenting-focused, men seek status to attract more mates—re-created in each generation by sex hormones and male and female brains. This, in turn, is the basis of supposedly entrenched inequalities in our modern societies. But in this entertaining and rigorous exploration of the latest research, Cordelia Fine draws on evolutionary science, psychology, neuroscience, endocrinology, and philosophy to reveal a much more dynamic situation. Testosterone, for instance, is not the potent hormonal essence of masculinity, and received wisdoms about differences between the sexes, from toy preferences to financial risk taking, are turned on their heads. Moving beyond the old "nature" versus "nurture" debates, Testosterone Rex reinvigorates hope and determination for a more equal future.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Highbridge Company
• Release date: Jan 24, 2017
• ISBN: 9781681684185

Reviews for Testosterone Rex

[arosoff-513117 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Like Delusions of Gender, this is a look at how sex differences are exaggerated in pop science and the media. Her biggest target here is evolutionary psychology and how it portrays sex differences as rigid.

It's an interesting, opinionated, pretty quick read, but not as interesting as Delusions of Gender. 3.5/5, rounded up.

[reader1009-863136 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

audiobook nonfiction; science of gender (2017)

summary: gender stereotypes aren't accurate--at best, it is a lot more complicated than people may assume. If you are feminist, you likely don't subscribe to them anyway. If you are anti-feminist, you aren't going to be reading this book. If you fall somewhere in between, you might pick this up, but then get bored with it pretty quickly. I wanted the author to talk at least a little about trans people and non-binary people (at least to acknowledge their existence, even if there aren't a lot of studies about trans and non-binary folks to discuss, but was sorely disappointed in this aspect.

first 1/3 discusses/deconstructs theories about sexual promiscuity (in humans and in animals); second part (the bulk of the book) focuses on stereotypical gender traits (risk taking, nurturing, etc.); there is a shorter "the future" section at the end which basically says, "let's try not to stereotype." Overall, I found the presentation totally boring, though the author succeeded in interjecting occasional moments of levity.

[dmturner · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A fairly scholarly discussion, and worth a read. Some things I'm going to remember:
People assume that properties of gender are always linked as adaptive, fixed, and typical, but the link doesn't exist. A property can be typical without being an adaptation or fixed, for instance. Consider the preference for pink in girls. There is no reason the typical color choice is either adaptive or fixed, in fact, it is typical only in one specific society at one particular time in history.
Another interesting fact is that though testosterone does trigger genital differentiation and physical differences, there are indications that status affects testosterone levels more than the other way around. Also, the differences in hormone levels between the genders, while marked, seem not to produce as much difference physically as they should; it is as if the structures in female and male work to express the different hormones more similarly than differently.
And the reason I picked up the book was the chapter on preference for risk. The author makes the point that human beings, on the whole, are risk-averse. Both male and female human beings take risks of equal threat. What differs is the perception of how risky a behavior is; for a white male, the world on the whole seems like a much safer place.
Years of teaching only boys, playing a sport that was once for males only, and growing up in a society where gender roles in life, literature, and entertainment have transformed before my eyes, I am inclined to think that the variability and overlap between males and females is much more interesting than the conventional polarized view.

[pdcread · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The gender issue is a hot topic at the moment, for decades we have been led to believe that ‘boys will be boys’, that pink and blue toys are entirely suitable for the appropriate sex and that men have evolved to take risks because of the extra testosterone swishing about and that the female brain is utterly different to the male brain.

Psychologist, Cordelia Fine, is having none of it.

The ‘nature versus nurture’ argument is dragged up frequently, but by using arguments from social history, psychology, neuroscience and evolutionary science, Fine takes apart all the old, entrenched evidence and goes a long way to explaining how what is between your legs doesn’t create male and female natures, but the elements that actually defines us is a complicated mix of evolution, hormones, culture and sex.

Fine is not afraid to be controversial in some of her conclusions in this book, looking at the facts and assessing the evidence; pointing out the errors is not going to endear her to some readers. She has written an interesting and enlightened take on the role that testosterone has to play in both male and female bodies, and the effects that it has. She does not hold back as she obliterates the myths and cultural norms in society that still surround the gender issue. She is not afraid to get stuck into the science and statistics and evaluate the studies that have been done. It is a really good popular science, one of the few where I have actually laughed out loud at certain points of the book. Worth reading.

[maquina_lectora · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

"Testosterone Rex” writes Cordelia Fine, an excellent writer with a sharp sense of humour, “is the myth that squashes hopes of sex equality. Testosterone Rex is the name she gives to “that familiar, plausible, pervasive and powerful story of sex and society”, which holds that inequality of the sexes is natural, not cultural.

There is a widely shared assumption that the effect of testosterone on the male brain chemistry is what makes boys the stereotypical males, and of course its absence, is what makes girls the stereotypical women. The story goes like this: Women are better at “empathizing and communicating”, while men are better at “systematising” which means understanding and building systems – not just computers and machinery, but also abstract systems such as politics and music. Higher testosterone levels make men intrinsically competitive, goal-oriented, and sometimes socially insensitive, while lower testosterone levels provide women with the hard-wired talent for communality, collaboration, intuition and empathy. Testosterone makes men to naturally prefer higher and riskier jobs, make boys and girls prefer to play with different kind of toys. Shouldn’t then we just accept that boys and girls brains have evolved to be different?

Not so, says Cordelia Fine. In the Testosterone Rex she attempts to dismiss the biological differences between the sexes. She delves deep into science and finds that rejecting the testosterone rex view does not require the denial of evolution or differences in the evolution of sex. Fine addresses the flexibility and the dynamism of sex, the plasticity of the brain, and the gender constructions that penetrate just about every aspect and our society and form the core part of our developmental system. These gender constructions is the key to understand the complex interrelations among sex, gender, and society and they provide a potential explanation for how robust sex differences in preferences, such as toy preferences or the colour coding in toys, for example, “develop around the age that children develop a firm understanding of which side of critical social divide of gender they belong.”

Rearranging gender in the human development system it is not easy, writes Fine, it “involves the reconstruction of the social structures, values, norms, expectations, schemas, and beliefs that penetrate our minds, interactions, and institutions”, all that that influence, interact and become entangled with our biology.

If we want a society that geniously values equal opportunity for development, employment, economic scrutiny, safety, respect, regardless of sex, then we need to change our values not science. We need to be a bit more loud and disruptive. And “stop blaming Testosterone Rex, because that kind is dead.”

[kk1_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is written by a female psychologist and it shows! (recursive logic). It is funny, smart and shows an understanding of female behaviour. But it doesn't really tell me what I want to know - the fault line or the advances in gender science seems to be around transgender issues. I thought we had put to bed all the double standards/myths about sex/drive/ambition etc, although scratch any surface and the same old prejudices are still there influencing behaviour and society.

[sonorandreamer-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is an excellent book for anyone who wants to learn about the effects of testosterone on men. Cordelia Fine is hilarious. I expected this to be a dry educational book but it was entertaining. It seems to me that men want testosterone to make them into strong and powerful people, but the truth is that socialization makes them that way, and socialization effects testosterone levels. An excellent book that clarifies the role of testosterone in creating sex differences.

[devil_llama · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Author looks at the history of testosterone as a causative hormone - causative of what? Nearly every sexual difference believed to exist between men and women. The king hormone. She examines the research on whether men are in charge because of testosterone, and whether women are unable to progress further because of not enough testosterone, and comes away unimpressed. She writes clearly, lucidly, and with a sense of humor that helps to crack a smile even as you are grimly reflecting on how screwed up our perceptions really are. Without denying the basic biological differences between men and women, she challenges many sincerely held assumptions and tips a few sacred cows in terms of psychological differences and mental differences between men and women. A must read.