3. We Gotta Talk About Sex – Feminism, Fascism, and the Future
We have to talk about sex if we are going to talk about the anti-gender movement. You see, the anti-gender movement is rooted in the belief that sex is simple- boys and girls, penises and vaginas. But actually, sex has never been that simple and rather than assuming we know what sex and gender are because they’re “obvious” we talk to one of the world’s foremost authorities on just how messy sex and gender are. In this episode, feminist writer and journalist Judith Levine talks with Rebecca Jordan Young, author of Testosterone: An Unauthorized Biography. We also talk with Julianna Neuhauser about how this right wing belief that sex is easy to understand overlaps with trans-exclusionary feminists’ “gender critical” stance. And how sometimes, the politics of believing sex is a binary can make for really strange bedfellows.
Episode 3 Interviews
Rebecca Jordan-Young
Rebecca Jordan-Young: “I am an interdisciplinary feminist scientist and science studies scholar whose work explores the reciprocal relations between science and the social hierarchies of gender, sexuality, class, and race. My recent book, Testosterone: An Unauthorized Biography, coauthored with Katrina Karkazis (Harvard 2019) upends a lot of entrenched thinking that props up hormone folklore as if it is established fact. So familiar that it can go by a single initial, T is at once a mercurial cultural figure and a specific molecule. We take aim at received wisdom about T in six domains: female reproduction, aggression, risk-taking, power, sports, and parenting. Along the way, we show how “science-y” stories about T are used to recycle stereotypes—not just about gender differences, but also class and racial distinctions. There are also quite a few good stores about how preconceived ideas about this so-called “sex hormone” can sometimes make it hard for scientists to see evidence that’s right under their noses. Testosterone won the Gold Medal in Science from the Independent Publisher Book Awards. This work was supported by the National Science Foundation and the Brocher Foundation, as well as a Guggenheim Fellowship and an American Council of Learned Societies Research Fellowship.
My first book, Brain Storm: The flaws in the science of sex differences (Harvard 2010), was the first systematic analysis of the idea that early hormone exposures “hardwire” sex differences into the human brain. Tracing definitions and measures across hundreds of studies, I found that the research overall doesn’t support the idea that human brains are “organized” for gender and sexuality by early hormone exposures. Brain Storm was awarded a Distinguished Book Award from the Association for Women in Psychology (2011) and has been translated into French (Belin Press, 2016). My essay “Homunculus in the Hormones” summarizes the argument and main findings. You can download it here.
I’m on the Board of the international Neurogenderings Network, and enjoy collaborating with colleagues in fields that range from cognitive and developmental neuroscience, developmental biology, and physical chemistry to cultural anthropology, political science, history, and sociology. I’ve published in a wide range of scholarly journals, such as Feminist Formations, Nature, Science, Neuroethics, BMJ, Trends in Cognitive Sciences, and the American Journal of Public Health, as well as popular outlets like the New York Times, The Guardian, and Discover Magazine.”
Readings by Rebecca Jordan-Young:
Julianna Neuhauser
Julianna Neuhouser is a transfeminine translator and writer. Her texts have been published by Revista Común, Gatopardo, Malvestida and Zona Docs. She was the coordinator of the book Polarization and transphobia: Critical looks at the advance of anti-trans and anti-gender movements in Mexico