This path-breaking study of gender and sexuality is the first to go beyond the nature/nurture debate to offer an alternate framework for considering questions of sex and sexuality.. }Why do some people prefer heterosexual love while others fancy the same sex? Is sexual identity biologically determined or a product of convention? In this brilliant and provocative book, the acclaimed author of Myths of Gender argues that even the most fundamental knowledge about sex is shaped by the culture in which scientific knowledge is produced.Drawing on astonishing real-life cases and a probing analysis of centuries of scientific research, Fausto-Sterling demonstrates how scientists have historically politicized the body. In lively and impassioned prose, she breaks down three key dualisms - sex/gender, nature/nurture, and real/constructed - and asserts that individuals born as mixtures of male and female exist as one of five natural human variants and, as such, should not be forced to compromise their differences to fit a flawed societal definition of normality. }
- ISBN10 0613706315
- ISBN13 9780613706315
- Publish Date 1 January 2001 (first published 10 February 2000)
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 3 March 2021
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Econo-Clad Books, Div. of American Cos., Inc.
- Edition Turtleback School & Library ed.
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 473
- Language English