Thursday, May 10, 2018

Testosterone Rex

Book Jacket for: Testosterone rex : myths of sex, science, and societyIn Testosterone Rex Cordelia Fine takes on the argument that there is an innate difference between the way men live, work, & think and the way women do and that difference is caused by testosterone.  The book is divided up into three sections.  The first, Past, explores and refutes “old assumptions that universal principles of sexual selection inexorably gave rise to the evolution of two kinds of human nature, male and female.”  The second, Present, shows that while sex certainly influences brain development and function it is just one of many interacting factors.  Finally in, Future, Fine looks at the world and the society that might result with the overturning of the simplistic “boys will be boys” attitude brought to us by a reliance on a story that says testosterone explains the way things are.

All in all the book was interesting, made a quite believable case, and was very readable.  I would recommend it to anyone.