Sex, Gender and Science

✍ Scribed by Myra J. Hird

• Year: 2005
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 210
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

In Sex, Gender and Science, Myra Hird outlines the social study of science and nature, specifically in relation to sex, sex differences, and sexuality. She examines how Western understandings of sex are based less upon understanding material sex differences than on a discourse that emphasizes sex dichotomy over sex diversity and argues for a feminist engagement with scientific debate that embraces the diversity and complexity of nature.

✦ Table of Contents

Cover......Page 1
Contents......Page 6
List of Illustrations......Page 10
Acknowledgments......Page 11
Introduction......Page 14
The culture of matter......Page 16
The matter of culture......Page 19
Conceptions of matter......Page 20
Science and patriarchy......Page 25
Signposting the narrative......Page 26
Suggested readings......Page 29
Pre-Enlightenment and the discourse of "one sex"......Page 30
The Enlightenment and the discourse of "two-sexes"......Page 33
The contemporary sex/gender binary......Page 37
The missing link – heteronormativity......Page 39
Suggested readings......Page 41
3 The Body of Sexual Difference......Page 42
Introduction......Page 43
The "essence" of sexual difference......Page 46
Skeletons......Page 47
Gametes......Page 49
Hormones......Page 51
Genes......Page 56
Suggested readings......Page 62
Introduction......Page 63
Evolutionary theory......Page 65
Sociobiology and sexual selection......Page 68
New materialism and nonlinear biology......Page 69
Nonlinearity and self-organization......Page 70
Contingency......Page 72
Variation and diversity......Page 75
Feminists intra-acting with matter......Page 76
Conclusions......Page 83
Suggested readings......Page 84
Introduction......Page 85
Interacting bodies......Page 87
Evolving bodies......Page 88
Reproducing bodies......Page 91
Sexual reproduction and kinship......Page 92
All in the family......Page 93
Boundaries – inclusion and exclusion......Page 97
Conclusions......Page 101
Suggested readings......Page 102
Introduction......Page 103
Sex complementarity......Page 106
Intersex......Page 112
Transsex......Page 113
Sexual diversity......Page 114
Family values......Page 115
Homosexuality......Page 117
Transspecies sexuality......Page 129
Conclusions......Page 130
Suggested readings......Page 133
Introduction......Page 135
The variability of sex......Page 136
A short history of intersex......Page 139
Monsters and society......Page 141
Rendering sex diversity harmless: the development of medicine and the reconstitution of monsters......Page 143
Medicine, psychiatry, and new forms of discipline......Page 144
Defining "Truth"......Page 149
Resisting sex complementarity......Page 150
Suggested readings......Page 155
One long argument......Page 156
A bacterial ontology?......Page 161
How to have sex without women or men......Page 164
Suggested readings......Page 165
Glossary of Terms......Page 166
Notes......Page 168
Bibliography......Page 178
B......Page 196
C......Page 197
D......Page 198
F......Page 199
G......Page 200
H......Page 201
I......Page 202
L......Page 203
M......Page 204
N......Page 205
P......Page 206
S......Page 207
T......Page 209
Z......Page 210