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The Fate of Gender: Nature, Nurture, and the Human Future
"A daring examination of the complexities of modern gender." --Andrew Solomon, author of Far from the Tree
Now with a new foreword from the author.
Frank Browning takes us into human gender geographies around the world, from gender-neutral kindergartens in Chicago and Oslo to women's masturbation classes in Shanghai, from conservative Catholics in Paris fearful of God and Nature to transsexual Mormon parents in Utah. As he shares specific and engaging human stories, he also elucidates the neuroscience that distinguishes male and female biology, shows us how all parents' brains change during the first weeks of parenthood, and finally how men's and women's responses to age differ worldwide based not on biology but on their earlier life habits. Starting with Simone de Beauvoir's world-famous observation that one is not born a woman but instead becomes a woman, Browning goes on to show equally that no one is born a man but learns how to perform as a man, and that there is no fixed way of being masculine or feminine.
Increasingly, the categories of "male" and "female" and even "gay" and "straight" seem old-fashioned and reductive. Just visible on the horizon is a world of gender and sexual fluidity that will remake our world in fundamental ways. Linking science to culture and behavior, and delving into the lives of individuals challenging historic notions, Browning questions the traditional division of Nature vs. Nurture in everything from plant science to sexual expression, arguing in the end that life consists of an endless waltz between these two ancient notions.
Now with a new foreword from the author.
Frank Browning takes us into human gender geographies around the world, from gender-neutral kindergartens in Chicago and Oslo to women's masturbation classes in Shanghai, from conservative Catholics in Paris fearful of God and Nature to transsexual Mormon parents in Utah. As he shares specific and engaging human stories, he also elucidates the neuroscience that distinguishes male and female biology, shows us how all parents' brains change during the first weeks of parenthood, and finally how men's and women's responses to age differ worldwide based not on biology but on their earlier life habits. Starting with Simone de Beauvoir's world-famous observation that one is not born a woman but instead becomes a woman, Browning goes on to show equally that no one is born a man but learns how to perform as a man, and that there is no fixed way of being masculine or feminine.
Increasingly, the categories of "male" and "female" and even "gay" and "straight" seem old-fashioned and reductive. Just visible on the horizon is a world of gender and sexual fluidity that will remake our world in fundamental ways. Linking science to culture and behavior, and delving into the lives of individuals challenging historic notions, Browning questions the traditional division of Nature vs. Nurture in everything from plant science to sexual expression, arguing in the end that life consists of an endless waltz between these two ancient notions.
320 pages, Paperback
First published June 7, 2016
24 people are currently reading
1022 people want to read
About the author
Frank Browning
21 books7 followersFrank Browning is an American author and former correspondent for National Public Radio.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 48 reviews
June 10, 2016
This is a series of investigations by an NPR science reporter on what he calls the 'gender conundrum'. To be more specific, it asks how people question what masculinity and femininity are, and how much of that is the result of biology and social conditioning.
In the long view, these social trends were assisted with the separation of sex and reproduction after the widespread introduction of contraceptives, a la Sanger, and the widespread idea of gender as performance, taken from first de Beauvoir and later Butler. Leading off of this, Browning has chapters on sex, sex roles, and the challenging of ingrained teaching and expectations. Likewise, there is also a focus on transgender persons, moving between gender roles, treating gender as a spectrum, and further implications thereof.
All of this means moving away from rigidly defined categories. This is treated by some traditionalists as an existential (metaphysical?) threat and going against 'natural law'. Those who experiment and express in new ways assert that this is not 'natural' at all, and largely the product of social conditioning.
There are some chapters on the recent scientific research, but thankfully Browning spends most of his time letting his subjects tell their own story.
The issues are so rapidly changing, and his treatment has to cover so many of them, that I can hardly call this book definitive or the final word. But the thoughtful retelling of personal experiences and introducing 'the human element' to what the news often treats as abstract ideas makes this a welcome and much-needed treatment of these issues. So much the better.
In the long view, these social trends were assisted with the separation of sex and reproduction after the widespread introduction of contraceptives, a la Sanger, and the widespread idea of gender as performance, taken from first de Beauvoir and later Butler. Leading off of this, Browning has chapters on sex, sex roles, and the challenging of ingrained teaching and expectations. Likewise, there is also a focus on transgender persons, moving between gender roles, treating gender as a spectrum, and further implications thereof.
All of this means moving away from rigidly defined categories. This is treated by some traditionalists as an existential (metaphysical?) threat and going against 'natural law'. Those who experiment and express in new ways assert that this is not 'natural' at all, and largely the product of social conditioning.
There are some chapters on the recent scientific research, but thankfully Browning spends most of his time letting his subjects tell their own story.
The issues are so rapidly changing, and his treatment has to cover so many of them, that I can hardly call this book definitive or the final word. But the thoughtful retelling of personal experiences and introducing 'the human element' to what the news often treats as abstract ideas makes this a welcome and much-needed treatment of these issues. So much the better.
November 30, 2016
Either I’m becoming more critical or I’m having mixed luck with non-fiction at the moment; most likely both. Although ‘The Fate of Gender’ thankfully has longer chapters than Imaginary Cities, it shares the same major flaw: a frustrating lack of structure. Browning wants to talk about recent developments and their historical context, just America but then everywhere else in the world too, and topics that include gender essentialism, gender roles, sexual behaviour, nature vs nurture, reproduction and parenthood, sexuality, and sexism. Not only is that far too wide a scope, but he doesn’t even stick to one at a time. Obviously there are interconnections galore, however flitting from one topic, anecdote, or case study to another makes for a confusing and unsatisfactory whole.
In such a situation, I’d expect the author to use their own background and experience as a structuring device. Browning does this sometimes, but not consistently. Moreover, at times his narrative voice is a mite annoying. In the penultimate chapter, he interviews a woman named Wolf, who he refers to as ‘a small, tender brunette’. As a small brunette, I strongly advise men not to refer to us as such, lest we tenderise you. Such a reference seemed particularly out of place given the topic and tone of the book as a whole. When writing about sex and gender, unless the tone is resolutely academic and/or merely reports case studies without any discussion, the writer’s own background and views are going to come out. That’s fine, it just requires a certain delicacy. I think this would have been a better book had Browning stuck to discussing the US, given that he is American (although he lives in Paris) and that’s clearly the cultural context he’s familiar with. It isn’t as if there wouldn’t be enough to say about gender and sexuality in contemporary America! In a world of more than 7 billion people, ‘things vary’ and ‘things are changing’ are about all you can generalise. To get into details, there is a need for radical narrowing down. (Probably the first basic principle of academic research.)
This barrage of criticism is not to say that I didn’t enjoy parts of the book. The sections about attitudes to female masturbation in China and trans issues amongst Mormons were particularly interesting. Browning makes good points about trans people’s treatment in the media reinforcing gender essentialism by creating a new category, rather than encouraging fluidity. I also liked the discussion of how neuroplasticity undermines the strict division between nature and nurture. The feeling that I was left with, though, was that I’d read a series of loosely connected long-read thinkpieces online. Well-written and intriguing thinkpieces that were worth tweeting a link to, but still fragments rather than a coherent book. I don’t want books to replicate the experience of reading the internet, I want them to provide more substance. ‘The Fate of Gender’ could have been much better if it had had a narrower, clearer scope.
In such a situation, I’d expect the author to use their own background and experience as a structuring device. Browning does this sometimes, but not consistently. Moreover, at times his narrative voice is a mite annoying. In the penultimate chapter, he interviews a woman named Wolf, who he refers to as ‘a small, tender brunette’. As a small brunette, I strongly advise men not to refer to us as such, lest we tenderise you. Such a reference seemed particularly out of place given the topic and tone of the book as a whole. When writing about sex and gender, unless the tone is resolutely academic and/or merely reports case studies without any discussion, the writer’s own background and views are going to come out. That’s fine, it just requires a certain delicacy. I think this would have been a better book had Browning stuck to discussing the US, given that he is American (although he lives in Paris) and that’s clearly the cultural context he’s familiar with. It isn’t as if there wouldn’t be enough to say about gender and sexuality in contemporary America! In a world of more than 7 billion people, ‘things vary’ and ‘things are changing’ are about all you can generalise. To get into details, there is a need for radical narrowing down. (Probably the first basic principle of academic research.)
This barrage of criticism is not to say that I didn’t enjoy parts of the book. The sections about attitudes to female masturbation in China and trans issues amongst Mormons were particularly interesting. Browning makes good points about trans people’s treatment in the media reinforcing gender essentialism by creating a new category, rather than encouraging fluidity. I also liked the discussion of how neuroplasticity undermines the strict division between nature and nurture. The feeling that I was left with, though, was that I’d read a series of loosely connected long-read thinkpieces online. Well-written and intriguing thinkpieces that were worth tweeting a link to, but still fragments rather than a coherent book. I don’t want books to replicate the experience of reading the internet, I want them to provide more substance. ‘The Fate of Gender’ could have been much better if it had had a narrower, clearer scope.
February 5, 2017
Billed as a brave and groundbreaking exploration of scientific and sociological findings into gender, I found this to be a meandering, even rambling, and unsatisfying series of essays that sometimes had interesting or coherent things to say about gender in today's society.
In the end, I struggled to finish it, and my main feeling once I did was relief. If I had to sum up my problems with this book, the conclusions of which I largely agreed with, just for the record, I guess these would be among them:
* Substituting anecdotes for data. Sure, anecdotes can illustrate data, and leading every chapter with an anecdote is a good way to draw in the reader. But with 18 chapters, some of the anecdotes had very little to do with the chapter's subject. Yes, some of them did helpfully illustrate some of the science Browning summarized, but overall, the anecdotes seemed more to highlight Browning's own love of interviewing and telling stories than to highlight the arguments he was supposed to be making.
* Lack of cohesion. The book has an overlong introduction, followed by a first chapter that also serves as an introduction. Bruce Jenner's transition to becoming Caitlyn Jenner is referenced no fewer than four times in almost exactly the same way. The 20 chapters (18 plus introduction and epilogue) read as 20 separate essays, which would be fine if this had been a collection of essays, but it wasn't, and the result was redundancy and rambling. Also, some of the chapters only barely had anything really to do with "the fate of gender" as a concept, as opposed to simply talking about, for example, how men and women age differently – which, sure, clearly has to do with gender, as all subjects in the entire world do, but do we need multiple pages on the formation of senior-care facilities in Boston and San Francisco? Browning seemed first to accept then to question the idea that sex (physical/biological) and gender (internal/social) are different concepts; perhaps he should have stuck to his first instinct because it could have helped him remove parts of the book that focused purely on the former so as to better focus on the latter.
Further, Browning insisted on referring to transgender men and women as transsexuals, which might have been technically accurate but was an odd discordant note in a work that's supposed to be on the cutting edge of modern gender discussion (where transgender is the preferred term even for those who have indeed changed their sex to match their gender) and, along with a bit of pronoun confusion in places, led to the feeling of disjointedness.
* Finally, the book felt drawn out and too long, yet it somehow completely failed to seriously engage with Cordelia Fine's Delusions of Gender: How Our Minds, Society, and Neurosexism Create Difference, perhaps the single most compelling recently published argument rejecting the notion that physical differences in male and female brains explain perceived social differences in men and women. Browning, like Fine, rejects the idea that hard-wired biological differences explain the tendency for men to dominate fields like math and computer science, but he also seems to resist the notion that the social differences we see in men and women are mostly explained by social factors. He may be right, but since he failed to even note the significant amount of evidence Fine and others have brought to bear on the subject, the result is that it felt like we were "treated" to 300 pages of Browning's rambling discourse on gender with a nonrandom sampling of various LGBT people, surrogate mothers and university professors who happened to be his old friends and acquaintances. Some of them had interesting things to say, many of them did not, and Browning did none of them any favors by quoting them for paragraphs at a time, regardless of how relevant those blocks of text actually were to the thesis of the chapter or of the book.
I think I've rambled on enough in this review. There were parts of The Fate of Gender that were interesting, and none of it was poorly written or hard to read. There was just too much of it, and not enough of that felt relevant to what Browning was wanting to argue. This book needed more science and less storytelling if it was to really make an argument. 1.5 stars.
In the end, I struggled to finish it, and my main feeling once I did was relief. If I had to sum up my problems with this book, the conclusions of which I largely agreed with, just for the record, I guess these would be among them:
* Substituting anecdotes for data. Sure, anecdotes can illustrate data, and leading every chapter with an anecdote is a good way to draw in the reader. But with 18 chapters, some of the anecdotes had very little to do with the chapter's subject. Yes, some of them did helpfully illustrate some of the science Browning summarized, but overall, the anecdotes seemed more to highlight Browning's own love of interviewing and telling stories than to highlight the arguments he was supposed to be making.
* Lack of cohesion. The book has an overlong introduction, followed by a first chapter that also serves as an introduction. Bruce Jenner's transition to becoming Caitlyn Jenner is referenced no fewer than four times in almost exactly the same way. The 20 chapters (18 plus introduction and epilogue) read as 20 separate essays, which would be fine if this had been a collection of essays, but it wasn't, and the result was redundancy and rambling. Also, some of the chapters only barely had anything really to do with "the fate of gender" as a concept, as opposed to simply talking about, for example, how men and women age differently – which, sure, clearly has to do with gender, as all subjects in the entire world do, but do we need multiple pages on the formation of senior-care facilities in Boston and San Francisco? Browning seemed first to accept then to question the idea that sex (physical/biological) and gender (internal/social) are different concepts; perhaps he should have stuck to his first instinct because it could have helped him remove parts of the book that focused purely on the former so as to better focus on the latter.
Further, Browning insisted on referring to transgender men and women as transsexuals, which might have been technically accurate but was an odd discordant note in a work that's supposed to be on the cutting edge of modern gender discussion (where transgender is the preferred term even for those who have indeed changed their sex to match their gender) and, along with a bit of pronoun confusion in places, led to the feeling of disjointedness.
* Finally, the book felt drawn out and too long, yet it somehow completely failed to seriously engage with Cordelia Fine's Delusions of Gender: How Our Minds, Society, and Neurosexism Create Difference, perhaps the single most compelling recently published argument rejecting the notion that physical differences in male and female brains explain perceived social differences in men and women. Browning, like Fine, rejects the idea that hard-wired biological differences explain the tendency for men to dominate fields like math and computer science, but he also seems to resist the notion that the social differences we see in men and women are mostly explained by social factors. He may be right, but since he failed to even note the significant amount of evidence Fine and others have brought to bear on the subject, the result is that it felt like we were "treated" to 300 pages of Browning's rambling discourse on gender with a nonrandom sampling of various LGBT people, surrogate mothers and university professors who happened to be his old friends and acquaintances. Some of them had interesting things to say, many of them did not, and Browning did none of them any favors by quoting them for paragraphs at a time, regardless of how relevant those blocks of text actually were to the thesis of the chapter or of the book.
I think I've rambled on enough in this review. There were parts of The Fate of Gender that were interesting, and none of it was poorly written or hard to read. There was just too much of it, and not enough of that felt relevant to what Browning was wanting to argue. This book needed more science and less storytelling if it was to really make an argument. 1.5 stars.
December 11, 2016
Stole this from my mom's book pile, read some, paged through the rest reading the beginnings and endings of chapters, ultimately had to put it aside because the author's misinformed-ness on the trans community was too annoying. For instance, he conflated the terms "asexual" and "agender," and defined transgender as men that dress in women's clothes and women that dress in men's clothes. (Ugh!!??) Yes, it can be difficult for people outside the LGBTQ+ community, or even outside just one letter of it, to keep up with all the terminology, but if you're going to publish a book on it you have the responsibility to get it right.
May 2, 2016
This is a hot topic right now, everything gender related. This was very engaging and had me asking myself a lot of questions. There are ways we behave and things we do that certainly step outside the the lines of gender identity. There is so much to chew on and turn over in your mind that I spent time thinking 'huh, I never thought of it that way.' The gender roles have morphed through different times, I can think back on my own grandparents ideas of what little ladies didn't do and of course how boys (soon to be men) should behave in great uncles opinions. Anyone who has gone to school quickly understood the division between male and female and the alienation by peers towards anyone who blurred the lines. Regardless of what you feel should be, no 'ideal' can truly change the variations in human beings anymore than we can force someone to feel exactly as we do about everything under the sun. I can imagine heated conversations and debates about this book. Nothing puts people more on guard than gender these days. One of the most surprising things to me is how open some of the older generation is and though it appears these are new topics, in truth the gender issue has been it's own creature for all time. It's not something 'new' so much as people have stopped hiding. But bring this up and see how hot people get in their opinions. Perfect pick in fact for a book club. I have to admit I examined my own preconceived ideas. Very interesting.
August 15, 2016
Quite a mess of a book. It jumped all over the place without any coherent structure. The content seemed to involve anything even slightly related to sex, gender, or sexuality, with sex and gender often confused for one another. Very light on science and facts (though it claimed to be), mostly random interviews and anecdotes that only sometimes connected to one another.
December 2, 2016
4 stars. First of all, this book covers very hot topics right now. There's sex vs gender, feminism, nature vs nurture, gender roles, the gender spectrum, and a chapter on transitioning which was very interesting to read since it consisted of a bunch of interviews Browning had with people and you had to keep up with the pronoun and name changes. What I really like about this book is its easy ability to be understood. Clearly Browning did his research but the content is approachable and I didn't feel like I was slogging through a textbook. This book has given me even more articles and books to read concerning these topics. And what's more, Browning presented the information in an unbiased manner. He made sure to include multiple points and views and really just leaves it up to you to come to your own personal understanding of the fate of gender.
One quote that really stood out to me was by former president of the American Psychological Association, Diane Halpern: "The question is not whether female and male brains are similar or different, because they are both. The questions we need to answer are: How can we understand the ways in which we are similar and different? And how can we use that knowledge to help everyone achieve their fullest potential?" I think people have forgotten that it's okay that there are differences between genders and just people in general. Sometimes I feel like westernization is pushing too hard to prove that everyone is the same, that I can do things just as well as you. But I don't think that's true. I am me and you are you and maybe we can do the same things and think similarly and score in the same range on a test but we shouldn't feel pressured to constantly compare ourselves to each other. We're all different somehow and making strides to only emphasize our sameness could prove to be more detrimental than helpful. And that's just my opinion.
July 14, 2021
A fascinating book, full of anecdote and data, opinion and fact. A rare example of apparently neutral writing. My criticism would be that sometimes the reporting style means its not obvious what's true or what the author thinks. One to return to in the future, I think, and will certainly be a useful piece of reference.
December 25, 2016
Eh.... This one just didn't grab me.
I didn't much care for the author's style. He juxtaposes long-winded commentary on gender relations with occasional stories and interview with pioneers and others. Most of the stories are not that gripping and some sound quite repetitive. Also, it's curious what areas of gender studies he chooses to focus on.
He makes mostly tentatively statements about fundamentalism, violence, and gender discrimination. Although much of his book is about the "fate of gender" he has interspersed enough modern challenges that are far more interesting than his book's premise. Even if he wanted to stay with his central topic of defining gender, it seems very remiss to leave out the omnipresence of internet trolls, women in video games, and persecution by social media. This challenge to the boy's club (women gamers) and the backlash fits so very well into his central theme. Instead he has a few mentions of women in comp sci (not really a full bodied exploration of STEM in general) and corporations. It is really odd that he also rarely mentions attempts at legislation and movements toward gender equality.
Lastly for a book that is broaching a sensitive topic (gender discrimination, LGBTQ rights, gender roles), there's sometimes demeaning language thrown in. Like referencing his aunts as 'spinsters' and using a passing reference to 'angry atheists'... could you get away with throwing around that generalized adjective toward believers like 'angry Muslims and Christians'? Probably not. Lame.
But I don't like to leave a book unfinished so I pushed through it. I'm not sure I'm better off for doing so in this case...
I didn't much care for the author's style. He juxtaposes long-winded commentary on gender relations with occasional stories and interview with pioneers and others. Most of the stories are not that gripping and some sound quite repetitive. Also, it's curious what areas of gender studies he chooses to focus on.
He makes mostly tentatively statements about fundamentalism, violence, and gender discrimination. Although much of his book is about the "fate of gender" he has interspersed enough modern challenges that are far more interesting than his book's premise. Even if he wanted to stay with his central topic of defining gender, it seems very remiss to leave out the omnipresence of internet trolls, women in video games, and persecution by social media. This challenge to the boy's club (women gamers) and the backlash fits so very well into his central theme. Instead he has a few mentions of women in comp sci (not really a full bodied exploration of STEM in general) and corporations. It is really odd that he also rarely mentions attempts at legislation and movements toward gender equality.
Lastly for a book that is broaching a sensitive topic (gender discrimination, LGBTQ rights, gender roles), there's sometimes demeaning language thrown in. Like referencing his aunts as 'spinsters' and using a passing reference to 'angry atheists'... could you get away with throwing around that generalized adjective toward believers like 'angry Muslims and Christians'? Probably not. Lame.
But I don't like to leave a book unfinished so I pushed through it. I'm not sure I'm better off for doing so in this case...
April 14, 2020
The Fate of Gender is an insightful look at the changes that are happening in our society about sex and gender and the boundaries between the two. Browning tackles a lot of complicated topics, but he does it in a surprisingly down-to-earth way, picking apart at the assumptions we all have about gender.
The world is heading in new directions with its thoughts on gender, whether you agree with it or not. Change is inevitable. Browning gives as a peek at what some of those changes might look like. He also clarifies the fallacy of the nature/nurture debate and shows the increasing evidence that biology and environment are so intricately intertwined that they can't be separated. Gender will never be as clear-cut as many people would like it to be, but that's the most fascinating thing about it.
For anyone looking for some more information on how gender is shaping up in modern society, this is a delight of a book. Although the language occasionally gets technical, Browning always takes care to break down the conclusions into easily understood layman's terms. It's time to rethink the way we look at the people around us.
[I received this book for free through First Reads and was not required to write a positive or any other type of review. All opinions stated herein are solely my own.]
The world is heading in new directions with its thoughts on gender, whether you agree with it or not. Change is inevitable. Browning gives as a peek at what some of those changes might look like. He also clarifies the fallacy of the nature/nurture debate and shows the increasing evidence that biology and environment are so intricately intertwined that they can't be separated. Gender will never be as clear-cut as many people would like it to be, but that's the most fascinating thing about it.
For anyone looking for some more information on how gender is shaping up in modern society, this is a delight of a book. Although the language occasionally gets technical, Browning always takes care to break down the conclusions into easily understood layman's terms. It's time to rethink the way we look at the people around us.
[I received this book for free through First Reads and was not required to write a positive or any other type of review. All opinions stated herein are solely my own.]
August 9, 2016
This was an interesting book, but it wasn't quite what I was expecting. I thought it would deal more with emerging science about how the brain influences gender expression, and of the body of research on gender fluidity. This book does cite studies from both the scientific community and the sociological community, but it's more of a mediation on a variety of topics relevant to gender, covering everything from sexuality to LGBTQ issues to the difference between how men and women age. A lot of it is very thought-provoking and worth contemplating, but I was looking for some more definitive scientific information.
August 30, 2018
This was an interesting read, right up my alley as far as my interest in evolutionary biology is concerned. Understanding the difference and similarities between nature and nurture is far from a case closed conclusion, but that is the beauty and mystery of life and our evolving presence in it. Delving into the deep waters of neuroscience and the fascinating landscape of anthropology is always a feast for the hungry brain eager to expand their knowledge. Highly recommended.
July 11, 2019
It rambled way too much for me to really get anything out of this beyond what I already knew and understood about what this book was all about . . . so I ended up heavily skimming this.
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May 1, 2019Interesting book for the hot button issue of gender expression and sexuality. Very relevant with what is going on in today's society. All different perspectives are issued.
July 8, 2017
I would recommend this book for anyone who likes nonfiction and has an interest in gender studies or sociology. Browning, while not the most captivating storyteller, is a remarkable social scientist and has forms intersting connections across MANY cultures, time periods, and social movements--ranging from his experience growing up on an apple orchard/tobacco farm in Kentucky where he first saw "gender deviance" in the burly spinster farmer who lived up the road with her female companion to pondering if our current social "gender revolution" brings us full circle with the ancient Egyptians/Greeks when the gods of their people displayed powerful gender transitions including Zues giving birth to Dionysus and Tiresias (male Egyptian god) transferring to Hera (female Greek goddess).
Browning masterfully addressed gender and its evolution with both breadth and conciseness that I really appreciated. No points were belabored (so I didn't feel spoon-fed or patronized), and he included some very interested personal vignettes that make me wish I could meet this man in person just to chat about his experiences travelling and interviewing individuals for his research. I am impressed with his ability to organize such a diverse topic as gender and would definitely consider reading any of his other works.
Browning masterfully addressed gender and its evolution with both breadth and conciseness that I really appreciated. No points were belabored (so I didn't feel spoon-fed or patronized), and he included some very interested personal vignettes that make me wish I could meet this man in person just to chat about his experiences travelling and interviewing individuals for his research. I am impressed with his ability to organize such a diverse topic as gender and would definitely consider reading any of his other works.
October 25, 2017
I bought this book at the Science Center in London and I was very excited to start reading. However, 30 pages i found myself pretty aggravated by a few things. His definition of transgender in which he said it meant “men who dress and ‘behave’ like women” which gave me one of the first indications that Brownings might have outdated views on the subject. It would be inaccurate and disrespectful to insist a transgender person was actually a man who behaved like a woman, or a woman who behaved like a man. Would we then say a tomboy was transgender?
While his book talked so much about nature vs nurture I think its fair to point out that browning is white, cis male, and middle aged (completely effecting his nurture), and it showed in places in this book.
However, it becomes clear throughout the book that Browning did much more research on his later chapters, and if you’re willing to deal with his insistence in using incorrect gender pronouns there are so many amazing stories and facts.
All in all I thought the book was amazing and I label it as a must read for everyone. It would definitely deserve 5 stars if it weren't for the things mentioned above.
While his book talked so much about nature vs nurture I think its fair to point out that browning is white, cis male, and middle aged (completely effecting his nurture), and it showed in places in this book.
However, it becomes clear throughout the book that Browning did much more research on his later chapters, and if you’re willing to deal with his insistence in using incorrect gender pronouns there are so many amazing stories and facts.
All in all I thought the book was amazing and I label it as a must read for everyone. It would definitely deserve 5 stars if it weren't for the things mentioned above.
October 5, 2018
So this book was more like a rambling conversation about gender and it did have some interesting information in it and gave me lots of things to think about. I has hoping that it would go deeper into what gender actually means and have more science to back up the claims that it did make. I feel like it also made a lot of assumptions, but didn't always do enough to back it up (like saying men and women are different, not questioning it or exploring if they really are different, or it's just a product of how we are treated in society). It is a good start, but I was left with wanting more.
July 13, 2017
Not as much structure as I would have liked; mostly a hodge-podge of different facts with no clear trajectory. Lots of repetition (but without the author's seeming awareness of the repetition). There were a lot of gaping holes in what was presented that would be important for a complete understanding of the current state and future of gender.
February 16, 2018
This was my first book on gender that I have read. It did have a fair amount of analogies in it, that I didn't understand. Mainly to due to life experience and my Aspergers. It was very insightful and was a welcome addition to the documentaries I had watched on the subject. It did ramble in some bits, mainly with the analogies I didn't understand.
December 23, 2019
despit the very interesting title, this book is to a large extent unintelligible for non americans. There are far too many cultural references which it is impossible to understand. And then, it is rather on the side of nature, dismissing those who posit nurture as 'old-fashioned lefties'. So be it, and the one star is all he is going to get from me then
December 1, 2017
A wonderfully comprehensive overview of the changing social understanding of gender and sexuality in the past few decades. Definitely recommend this one if you’re interested in learning more about this topic, it’s a good starting point.
June 16, 2018
A fascinating and complex subject, though it would've been better served by a more coherently structured work that doesn't keep haphazardly jumping from one thing to another and at times veering off topic completely while in other instances repeating previously discussed issues.
September 6, 2018
Intriguing read. So many interesting ideas and facts introduced and explained. I really enjoyed this book and the way it challenged me to think about things in different ways. I really liked this book.
December 7, 2018
While some information challenged my perspective of our societies views on genders, as other reviewers mentioned, there is no flow between chapters. Each one could easily be a standalone article instead of a book. I wish he had figured out a way to better connect each chapter.
January 2, 2019
Disorganized but very interesting information about current research in gender identity, including scientific and sociological perspectives. Can get a bit repetitive and includes a lot of anecdotes that don’t all add much to the discussion.
September 30, 2017
Great data, but lack of structure.
Very educational however. Changed the way I look at life.
Probably won't re-read
Very educational however. Changed the way I look at life.
Probably won't re-read
January 13, 2019
The book gives a good perspective on the nature and nurture debate and gives a lot o examples. The book goes further tan just de difference between men and women.
Want to read
April 18, 2021Note: I received a digital review copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley.
June 9, 2024
2.5 stars. Started well and engaging enough, which made it a somewhat interesting read. It lacked a bit of structure and flow, which made it easy to get bored and distracted.
March 6, 2017
Well-intentioned but super out of touch.
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