annethology
  • Home
    • About Annethology
    • About me >
      • A little more about me
    • About my books
    • Author talks
    • Contact me
    • Forthcoming events
    • World Mental Health Day
    • Privacy
    • Sign up for my newsletter
  • Sugar and Snails
    • Acknowledgements
    • Blog tour, Q&A's and feature articles >
      • Birthday blog tour
      • S&S on tour 2022
    • Early endorsements
    • Events >
      • Launch photos
      • Launch party videos
    • in pictures
    • Media
    • If you've read the book
    • Polari
    • Reading group questions
    • Reviews
    • In the media
  • Underneath
    • Endorsements and reviews
    • Launch party and events
    • Pictures
    • Questions for book groups
    • The stories underneath the novel
  • Matilda Windsor series
    • Matilda Windsor >
      • What readers say
      • For book groups
      • Interviews, articles and features
      • Matty on the move
      • Who were you in 1990?
      • Asylum lit
      • Matilda Windsor media
    • Stolen Summers >
      • Stolen Summers reviews
  • Short stories
    • Somebody’s Daughter
    • Becoming Someone (anthology) >
      • Becoming Someone (video readings)
      • Becoming Someone reviews
      • Becoming Someone online book chat
    • Print and downloads
    • Read it online
    • Quick reads
  • Free ebook
  • Annecdotal
    • Annecdotal blog
    • Annecdotal Press
    • Articles >
      • Print journalism
      • Where psychology meets fiction
    • Fictional therapists
    • Reading and reviews >
      • Reviews A to H
      • Reviews I to M
      • Reviews N to Z
      • Nonfiction
      • Themed quotes
      • Reading around the world
  • Shop
    • Inspired Quill (my publisher)
    • Bookshop.org (affiliate link)
    • Amazon UK
    • Amazon US
    • books2read

About the author and blogger ...

Anne Goodwin’s drive to understand what makes people tick led to a career in clinical psychology. That same curiosity now powers her fiction.
A prize-winning short-story writer, she has published three novels and a short story collection with small independent press, Inspired Quill. Her debut novel, Sugar and Snails, was shortlisted for the 2016 Polari First Book Prize.
Away from her desk, Anne guides book-loving walkers through the Derbyshire landscape that inspired Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre.
Subscribers to her newsletter can download a free e-book of award-winning short stories.

TELL ME MORE

Debunking the gendered myths: Testosterone Rex by Cordelia Fine

8/3/2017

8 Comments

 
Picture

Having written a novel about
the enigma of gender, I remain fascinated and baffled that something so vague and ill-defined should impact so strongly on our social structures and beliefs about ourselves. Fortunately, Cordelia Fine, psychologist and Associate Professor at the Melbourne Business School, is somewhat sharper in demolishing the dodgy science surrounding sex and gender and International Women’s Day seems the perfect time to review her new (non-fiction) book.

In my debut novel, Sugar and Snails, my narrator, an academic psychologist, is rather put out to find herself “out-psychologised by a bunch of mathematicians” when she’s unable to explain “the defining difference between the male and female mind”. Poor Diana, relentlessly teased by her forthright best friend Venus (p118-9):
“In fact, it’s perfectly simple.” Venus stroked the sleeve of Mohammed’s fine-knit turquoise cardigan. “We women are genetically programmed to obsess over our appearance”
… “Maybe it’s largely how we think,” Venus continued. “The way, when a woman gets home from work, it never enters her head her to crack open a beer and lounge on the sofa like a man does. The way she instinctively rolls up her sleeves and starts cooking supper while helping the kids with their homework and ironing her husband’s shirt for the next day.”

Picture
How she wishes she were “more up-to-date on neuroscience”. Yet if, at the time of this discussion in 2004, she’d been exposed to the arguments of Cordelia Fine, and other feminist researchers, as I had when I was writing and revising this scene, she’d have known that the biological differences between men and women are insufficient to account for the societal differences in gender roles and expectations. Unfortunately, the belief that biology determines destiny is so pervasive, even in cultures that have outlawed gender discrimination, the facts have to be continually restated. Fortunately, Cordelia Fine does this so eloquently it’s a pleasure to read, even for a non-fiction-averse reader like me.

Picture
With lively humour, Cordelia Fine debunks the myths that have powered the belief that men are natural competitors and risk-takers, while women are the nurturers and homebuilders. She starts by examining the tenets of evolutionary psychology, unpicking some influential mid 20th-century research on fruit flies that purported to show that the males were significantly more promiscuous than the females. Even before we question how far we can generalise from studies of insects to human beings, it turns out that the original data, when re-analysed without bias, actually suggest the opposite, while later research demonstrates “the incredible diversity of sex roles across the animal kingdom” and “even within a species, biological sex doesn’t necessarily inscribe a fixed template for how the important business of reproduction should be achieved” (p43).
Moving on to human research, she demolishes the arithmetic behind the notion that promiscuity is more evolutionarily adaptive for men. It turns out that the odds of a man being killed by a meteorite in his lifetime are significantly higher than his chances of producing a mythical 100 offspring in a year via indiscriminate mating. Meanwhile, asking people about the number of other-sex partners they have leads to the logical impossibility of men reporting a higher mean number than women. Then there’s the somewhat creepy “real-life” research where an attractive young man or woman approaches people of the other sex to ask “Would you go to bed with me tonight?” Fortunately, even on a university campus, not a single woman accepted the invitation.

The chapter on brain and behavioural differences, Why Can’t a Woman Be More like a Man, could be summarised in two words: she can. A large-scale brain imaging study designed to maximise the opportunities for finding sex differences in the sample found that under 8% of people had only female or only male brain features. Most comprised unique mosaics of features suggesting (p92):

a neuroscientist certainly might be able to correctly guess your sex from your brain, but she wouldn’t be able to guess the structure of your brain from your sex.


A similar mosaic has been found for psychological measures, with less than 1% of respondents having solely “masculine” or “feminine” characteristics. Additionally, a synthesis of forty-six meta-analyses of sex difference studies found small effect sizes (p101):

meaning that about forty percent of the time,
at least, if you chose a woman and a man at random, the woman’s score would be more “masculine” than the man’s, or vice versa.

If that’s not enough to conquer Testosterone Rex, she cites fascinating research on birdsong showing that, while in most species the males’ superiors singing is attributable to the larger and denser “song-control” region in the brain, in a species where males and females sing in unison females compensate for “their smaller neural real estate” by producing brain-altering proteins at a much higher rate. There’s no logical reason why, in humans too, neurobiological sex differences, rather than functioning to create differences in behaviour, might serve to iron them out.

In the following chapter the notion of inherent male competitiveness and risk-taking is similarly deconstructed, showing it’s not a stable or unified personality trait and that gendered assumptions of what risk-taking is (for example, overlooking the enormous risk taken by women in pregnancy) dominate assessment and research procedures. Furthermore, since preferences depend on a cost-benefit analysis for the individual, this research overlooks the genuine real-world differences in consequences for certain behaviours among men versus women. A study addressing ethnicity as well as sex differences found, unsurprisingly, that the world seemed a significantly safer place for powerful white males than for any other groups.

That’s a lot of science before we even get to hormones. With males in general having more testosterone circulating in their bloodstreams than women, surely Cordelia Fine can’t argue that’s a social construction? Well, to a degree, she can. Firstly, there’s a complex biological system mediating between testosterone and brain activity, including the existence of a biological catalyst that can convert testosterone to oestrogen, so that the variable that’s easiest to measure – absolute testosterone levels in the blood or saliva – becomes at best a guestimate of testosterone’s effect on the brain. Secondly, in humans as in other creatures (most colourfully in a species of cichlid fish), social circumstances have been shown to impact on testosterone levels, rather than the other way round. For example, fatherhood reduces testosterone levels in men, especially men physically caring for their children, and both women and men on the lookout for a new partner have higher testosterone than the “happily coupled”.

With the financial crisis repeatedly credited to the “testosterone-fuelled” atmosphere of the stock exchange, Cordelia Fine also analyses the scientific literature relating specifically to financial risk-taking. Here, once again, she finds no strong evidence of a fundamental difference between men and women, with social context seemingly impacting more strongly than hormones on financial decision-making.

In the final chapter Cordelia Fine reviews the aggressive marketing of gendered toys for children, and the equally aggressive backlash against those who seek to change this. Although young children under three years of age showed no particular preference for toys traditionally associated with their own sex, they do when they reach the age at which they become conscious of social norms, including their own gender, and choose to conform. Perhaps beyond the scope of this book, but it’s surely not insignificant that separate toys for boys and girls means that shops and manufacturers can sell more of them.

In summary, gender roles are too diverse across time and cultures to be determined in advance by genes or hormones. The book concludes with a call to action: “maybe it’s time [for feminists] to be less polite and more destructive” as change is “a question for values, not science” (p195). Thanks to Icon books for my proof copy. What will you do to slay the phantom of Testosterone Rex? Meanwhile, for a fictional slant on international women, check out my previous post on bloody revolutions.

Picture
Thanks for reading. I'd love to know what you think. If you've enjoyed this post, you might like to sign up via the sidebar for regular email updates and/or my quarterly Newsletter.
8 Comments
Charli Mills
9/3/2017 01:01:16 am

Interesting task, to slay testosterone rex! Today is not only International Women's Day but also a call for US women to walk out in A Day Without Women. I enjoy what I choose to do too much to stage a protest so I'll ponder slaying testosterone rex by embracing more diverse reads or podcasts.

Reply
Annecdotist
10/3/2017 05:41:30 pm

Thanks for reading, Charli. I did see that somewhere about A Day without Women but, like you, if I walked out I’d only be hurting myself. It’s such a shame that so many women genuinely don’t have that freedom.

Reply
Norah Colvin link
23/3/2017 11:28:04 am

Hi Anne,
Thanks for sending me over to this post. I'm pleased you did. Please draw my attention to any you think I'll enjoy. I'm ordering a paper copy of this one. I may consider giving it to my son and his partner to read. They are very keen on ensuring their daughter is not disadvantaged by her gender; but it seems their son is all boy. My son was/is the stay at home parent. It was a choice they made to not disadvantage her career-wise, thinking it would be easier for him to slot back in. It will be interesting to see. They are both PhD academics. She is a lawyer and very much into feminism and the role of women in her work. Her father is a neuroscientist, and I know he has studied fruitflies (among other things). Since Fine is a Melbournite, (they originated from Melbourne) it may be interesting to hear their opinions, if I'm brave enough to share the book. Maybe I need to build up some testosterone to do so. Actually I've just checked a book of essays that DIL edited "Australian Feminist Judgments" and Cordelia Fine is not a contributor. DIL's articles are about gender stereotyping.
One chapter of Fine's book that I didn't like the title of was "Why can't a woman be more like a man?" We would she want to be? Why can't a man be more like a woman?" Why can't we all just be?

Reply
Annecdotist
24/3/2017 10:55:47 am

Norah, you should be congratulating yourself on having raised a feminist. It’s great that your son was man enough to take on the childcare. And someone who knows about fruit flies – well!
Pity Cordelia Fine doesn’t have a place like compilation so you could check out her writing style. I think she’s British originally, however, and her mother is the children’s writer Anne Fine. I think that chapter title was meant ironically – isn’t there a song about that? Anyway, I’m sure you’ll have more to say if you read/listen to the book.

Reply
Norah Colvin link
25/3/2017 10:34:57 am

Yes, I've raised a couple of feminists and they have also partnered with feminists. I cop a beating sometimes for attitudes developed in a far from feminist household. They help me see where I need to catch up. As a society we have far to go. There was a dreadful incident here during the week. A teenage boy videoed another boy raping a girl at a party (I can't remember if she was drugged or drunk). They were all private school children. The photographer put the video on social media (maybe only to school friends, I'm not sure). Those interviewed by the media seemed to be more concerned about teaching children about social media than the plight of the poor girl who had suffered such abuse. And they were women!!! I couldn't believe it. We have a long way to go. Social media my ... Social respect and decency might be a better lesson.
The only thing of Anne Fine's I read was an introduction to a book about teaching philosophy to children. She was the Children's Laureate at the time. Perhaps I should check her out.
I hadn't thought about getting her daughter's audiobook for myself. Perhaps I'll do that next. I'm thoroughly enjoying listening to Elizabeth Gilbert read her book about creativity at the moment. It's a lovely light, thought-provoking read. Just right for me. :)

Reply
Annecdotist
27/3/2017 12:39:00 pm

That story is chilling. There’s still a pseudo-acceptance of rape as inevitable, and women can be the worst offenders.
And, of course, it’s your children’s job to criticise you because of course they don’t see how far you’ve come from the attitudes you grew up with.

Reply
Norah Colvin link
30/3/2017 11:32:24 am

Thanks Anne. I do always say that my children are my best teachers. But sometimes it goes to their heads. :)

Reply
Annecdotist
30/3/2017 01:16:46 pm

Indeed, don’t let it get to their heads, but you should also acknowledge that you are a good learner in allowing them to teach you.




Leave a Reply.

    Picture
    Free ebook: click the image to claim yours.
    Picture
    OUT NOW: The poignant prequel to Matilda Windsor Is Coming Home
    Picture
    Find a review
    Picture
    Fictional therapists
    Picture
    Picture
    About Anne Goodwin
    Picture
    My published books
    entertaining fiction about identity, mental health and social justice
    Picture
    My latest novel, published May 2021
    Picture
    My debut novel shortlisted for the 2016 Polari First Book Prize
    Picture
    Picture
    My second novel published May 2017.
    Picture
    Short stories on the theme of identity published 2018
    Anne Goodwin's books on Goodreads
    Sugar and Snails Sugar and Snails
    reviews: 32
    ratings: 52 (avg rating 4.21)

    Underneath Underneath
    reviews: 24
    ratings: 60 (avg rating 3.17)

    Becoming Someone Becoming Someone
    reviews: 8
    ratings: 9 (avg rating 4.56)

    GUD: Greatest Uncommon Denominator, Issue 4 GUD: Greatest Uncommon Denominator, Issue 4
    reviews: 4
    ratings: 9 (avg rating 4.44)

    The Best of Fiction on the Web The Best of Fiction on the Web
    reviews: 3
    ratings: 3 (avg rating 4.67)

    2022 Reading Challenge

    2022 Reading Challenge
    Anne has read 2 books toward their goal of 100 books.
    hide
    2 of 100 (2%)
    view books
    Picture
    Annecdotal is where real life brushes up against the fictional.  
    Picture
    Annecdotist is the blogging persona of Anne Goodwin: 
    reader, writer,

    slug-slayer, tramper of moors, 
    recovering psychologist, 
    struggling soprano, 
    author of three fiction books.

    LATEST POSTS HERE
    I don't post to a schedule, but average  around ten reviews a month (see here for an alphabetical list), 
    some linked to a weekly flash fiction, plus posts on my WIPs and published books.  

    Your comments are welcome any time any where.

    Get new posts direct to your inbox ...

    Enter your email address:

    or click here …

    RSS Feed


    Picture

    Tweets by @Annecdotist
    Picture
    New short story, “My Dirty Weekend”
    Picture
    Let’s keep in touch – subscribe to my newsletter
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture

    Popular posts

    • Compassion: something we all need
    • Do spoilers spoil?
    • How to create a convincing fictional therapist
    • Instructions for a novel
    • Looking at difference, embracing diversity
    • Never let me go: the dilemma of lending books
    • On loving, hating and writers’ block
      On Pop, Pirates and Plagiarism
    • READIN' for HER reviews
    • Relishing the cuts
    • The fast first draft
    • The tragedy of obedience
    • Writers and therapy: a love-hate relationship?

    Categories/Tags

    All
    Animals
    Annecdotist Hosts
    Annecdotist On Tour
    Articles
    Attachment Theory
    Author Interviews
    Becoming Someone
    Being A Writer
    Blogging
    Bodies
    Body
    Bookbirthday
    Books For Writers
    Bookshops
    CB Book Group
    Character
    Childhood
    Christmas
    Classics
    Climate Crisis
    Coming Of Age
    Counsellors Cafe
    Creative Writing Industry
    Creativity
    Cumbria
    Debut Novels
    Disability
    Editing
    Emotion
    Ethics
    Ethis
    Family
    Feedback And Critiques
    Fictional Psychologists & Therapists
    Food
    Friendship
    Futuristic
    Gender
    Genre
    Getting Published
    Giveaways
    Good Enough
    Grammar
    Gratitude
    Group/organisational Dynamics
    Hero’s Journey
    History
    Humour
    Identity
    Illness
    Independent Presses
    Institutions
    International Commemorative Day
    Jane Eyre
    Kidney Disease
    Language
    LGBTQ
    Libraries
    Live Events
    Lyrics For The Loved Ones
    Marketing
    Matilda Windsor
    Memoir
    Memory
    Mental Health
    Microfiction
    Motivation
    Music
    MW Prequel
    Names
    Narrative Voice
    Nature / Gardening
    Networking
    Newcastle
    Nonfiction
    Nottingham
    Novels
    Pandemic
    Peak District
    Perfect Match
    Poetry
    Point Of View
    Politics
    Politics Current Affairs
    Presentation
    Privacy
    Prizes
    Psychoanalytic Theory
    Psychology
    Psycholoists Write
    Psychotherapy
    Race
    Racism
    Rants
    Reading
    Real Vs Imaginary
    Religion
    Repetitive Strain Injury
    Research
    Reviewing
    Romance
    Satire
    Second Novels
    Settings
    Sex
    Shakespeare
    Short Stories General
    Short Stories My Published
    Short Stories Others'
    Siblings
    Snowflake
    Somebody's Daughter
    Stolen Summers
    Storytelling
    Structure
    Sugar And Snails
    Technology
    The
    The Guestlist
    Therapy
    TikTok
    TNTB
    Toiletday
    Tourism
    Toxic Positivity
    Transfiction
    Translation
    Trauma
    Unconscious
    Unconscious, The
    Underneath
    Voice Recognition Software
    War
    WaSBihC
    Weather
    Work
    Writing Process
    Writing Technique

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013

    Picture
    BLOGGING COMMUNITIES
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
Photos used under Creative Commons from havens.michael34, romana klee, mrsdkrebs, Kyle Taylor, Dream It. Do It., adam & lucy, dluders, Joybot, Hammer51012, jorgempf, Sherif Salama, eyspahn, raniel diaz, E. E. Piphanies, scaredofbabies, Nomadic Lass, paulternate, Tony Fischer Photography, archer10 (Dennis), slightly everything, impbox, jonwick04, country_boy_shane, dok1, Out.of.Focus, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service - Midwest Region, Elvert Barnes, guillenperez, Richard Perry, jamesnaruke, Juan Carlos Arniz Sanz, El Tuerto, kona99, maveric2003, !anaughty!, Patrick Denker, David Davies, hamilcar_south, idleformat, Dave Goodman, Sharon Mollerus, photosteve101, La Citta Vita, A Girl With Tea, striatic, carlosfpardo, Damork, Elvert Barnes, UNE Photos, jurvetson, quinn.anya, BChristensen93, Joelk75, ashesmonroe, albertogp123, >littleyiye<, mudgalbharat, Swami Stream, Dicemanic, lovelihood, anyjazz65, Tjeerd, albastrica mititica, jimmiehomeschoolmom