Sexing the Body
Gender Politics and the Construction of Sexuality

There’s a popular misconception that even though gender might be socially created, sex is fixed and firmly rooted in biology. This is not true. Biologist Dr. Anne Fausto-Sterling reminds us: “labeling someone a man or a woman is a social decision. We may use scientific knowledge to help us make the......more

Great book, as long as you know nothing about race and racism. I would suggest reading it alongside Mary K. Bloodsworth-Lugo's "In-between Bodies: Sexual Difference, Race and Sexuality," which does a much better job of racially contextualizing our notions of the sexed body. Fausto-Sterling writes in......more

It's remarkable how quickly some things can become dated in eleven years (transsexuals have a website!), but the scientific history given here still holds. Fausto-Sterling gives a remarkably thorough look at how our current ideas about sex, gender, identity and orientation all came to exist. The mos......more

Professor Boyd-Kramer recommended this to me after the Lierre Keith transphobia fiasco at Lawrence. I wanted to dive deeper into feminist theories of gender and the biological background of sex and gender. The book started looking like it was going to scratch those itches, but in retrospect it was k......more

This book is a thought-provoking and insightful examination of the ways in which gender and sexuality are constructed in our society. Anne Fausto-Sterling presents a wealth of research and analysis to support her arguments, making a compelling case for the need to rethink traditional notions of gend......more