Sexing the Body: Gender Politics and the Construction of Sexuality. By Anne Fausto-Sterling. New York: Basic Books, 2000, 473 pages.

Professor Fausto-Sterling's most recent work, entitled Sexing the Body: Gender Politics and the Construction of Sexuality, was published by Basic Books in February 2000. It examines the social nature of biological knowledge about animal and human sexuality.

Sexing the Body received the Distinguished Publication Award in 2001 by the Association for Women in Psychology. In 2000 it was chosen as one of the Outstanding Academic Books of 2000 by CHOICE Magazine, Published by the American Library Association. It was also co-winner of the Robert K Merton Award of the American Sociological Association Section on Science, Knowledge and Technology.

From the back cover:

"Why do some people prefer heterosexual love while others fancy the same sex? Do women and men have different brains? Is sexual identity biologically determined or a product of social convention? In this brilliant and provocative book, the acclaimed author of Myths of Gender argues that the answers to these thorny questions lie as much in the realm of politics as they do in the world of science. Without pandering to the press or politics, Fausto-Sterling builds an entirely new framework for sexing the body-one that focuses solely on the individual."

r e a c t i o n s

"A fascinating and essential book, at once vigorous, erudite, amiable and sly."
- Natalie Angier

Listen to Professor Fausto-Sterling discuss Sexing the Body on Gender Talk or The Connection.

Sexing the Body: Gender Politics and the Construction of Sexuality.(Review) Journal of Sex Research, Feb, 2001, by William B. Stanley

In the realm of the sexes.(biologist Anne Fausto-Sterling believes there are actually five distinct genders) The Advocate, March 14, 2000, by Michael Bronski

How common is intersex? A response to Anne Fausto-Sterling.
Journal of Sex Research, August, 2002, by Leonard Sax

"A fascinating and essential book, at once vigorous, erudite, amiable and sly. Fausto-Sterling demonstrates beautifully the futility of talking about nature versus nurture, genes versus environment or 'true' sexuality as opposed to 'socially constructed' gender. She shows that it makes no more sense to favor either biology or culture in explaining the roots of human sexuality than it would to give primacy to hydrogen over oxygen when describing the properties of water. An inspiring corrective, from one of our leading scholars of science, history and feminism, to the simplistic notions of maleness and femaleness that we humans seem almost genetically inclined to believe."

- Natalie Angier, Pulitzer-prize winner and author of Woman: An Intimate Geography

Anne Fausto-Sterling's book, Myths of Gender: Biological Theories About Men And Women appeared in a second edition in 1992 which includes two new chapters on brain anatomy, sex differences and homosexuality.

In Myths of Gender, Professor Fausto-Sterling examines numerous scientific claims about biologically-based sex differences between men and women. Is there evidence--biological, genetic, evolutionary or psychological--to support the notion that our brains differ physically and that this, in turn, causes behavioral differences between the sexes? At once a scientific and a political statement, Myths of Gender seeks to reveal the politics involved in science.

"In this book I examine mainstream scientific investigations of gender by looking closely at them through the eyes of a scientist who is also a feminist... This book is a scientific statement and a political statement. It could not be otherwise. Where I differ from some of those I take to task is in not denying my politics. Scientists who do deny their politics--who claim to be objective and unemotional about gender while living in a world where even boats and automobiles are identified by sex--are fooling both themselves and the public at large."

-Anne Fausto-Sterling, "The biological connection: an introduction," Myths of Gender.

Evelyn Fox Keller writes that the book "demonstrates in case after case the inadequacy of the evidence, and the abundance of alternative explanations, and the presence of circular reasoning..." Writing in the New York Review of Books, Stephen Jay Gould called it "A fine contribution to the empirical literature on human gender differences...a courageous book", while Robert Attenborough, in a review of the book for Nature wrote "This book is closely and intelligently argued, well documented factually and carefully referenced..."

Myths of Gender: Biological Theories about Women and Men, 2nd edition (with two new chapters). Basic Books, New York.1992

Myths of Gender: Biological Theories about Women and Men, Basic Books, New York.1985

German translation: Gefangene des Geschlechts? 1988

Japanese translation: 1990