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Testosterone Rex: Unmaking the Myths of Our Gendered Minds

Testosterone Rex: Unmaking the Myths of Our Gendered Minds

by Cordelia Fine (Author)

  • Used

    Hardcover 2017

    $3.25
Synopsis

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 cliche, 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.

$3.25

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Quantity

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More Information

Format: Hardcover
 Pages: 256
 Publisher: Icon Books
Published: 02 Mar 2017
ISBN 10: 1785781618
ISBN 13: 9781785781612

Media Reviews
'Every man and woman should read this book on gender bias. Testosterone Rex is an important, yet wickedly witty, book about the 21st century which touches on the current debates around identity and turns everything on its head. Pressingly contemporary, it's the ideal companion read to sit alongside The Handmaid's Tale and The Power.' -- Judges, 2017 Royal Society Insight Investment Science Book Prize

`Fine's gift for rendering complex neurological concepts comprehensible is one of the many reasons why her book is so brilliant. She writes like a dream, not just by the lifelessly humble standards of most scientific prose, but by any literary measure, and her book sparkles with pithy wit.'

-- Decca Aitkenhead, Guardian

`If you've ever thought that men are from Mars and women are from Venus, or that men don't listen and women can't read maps, this book is for you. The expression essential reading for everyone is usually untrue as well as a cliche, but if there were a book deserving of that description this might just be it.'

-- Antonia Macaro, Financial Times
'Testosterone Rex is packed with convincing evidence and astonishing facts, all of which seem so important that everybody should be made to read all of it immediately, or at least before typing another word on Twitter about political correctness gone mad.' -- Katy Guest, The Pool
`Testosterone Rex is one of those rare books that manages to effortlessly mix science, social commentary and a call to arms. It is witty, robust and angry but provides a new take - and new evidence - that helps us answer the age old question of where women stand in the world.' -- Kit de Waal
'Fine knocks it out of the park with her smart and eye-opening Testosterone Rex ... After reading it, my new resolution is to never say Boys will be boys again. Because while boys are, of course, boys, we owe it to them-and to girls-to understand that they are not defined by this single hormone.'
-- Adrian Laing, The Amazon Book Review Editor
`Testosterone Rex is an important book. It helps us think about the kind of society we expect to see or hope to build. It questions whether we have to accept existing gendered norms about male and female behaviour.' -- Sian Norris, Open Democracy

'Watching Fine take these gendered claims painstakingly, methodically, devastatingly to pieces should rank among the great works of art that humanity has ever produced. Buy a box set of this and Delusions of Gender. Buy twelve. Distribute them to your loved ones. Absolutely everyone in the world should read it. You'll thank me later.'

-- Reading the End
Author Bio
Cordelia Fine is a Professor of the History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Melbourne. In 2018 she was awarded the Edinburgh Medal for her work on challenging gender perceptions in science and her contributions to society's understanding of gender stereotypes. She is the author of the much-acclaimed A Mind of Its Own (Icon, 2006) and Delusions of Gender (Icon, 2010), described as `a truly startling book' by the Independent, `fun, droll yet deeply serious' by New Scientist and an `important book ... as enjoyable as it is timely and interesting' by the West Australian.