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Testosterone : an unauthorized biography / Rebecca M. Jordan-Young, Katrina Karkazis.

By: Contributor(s): Material type: TextTextPublisher: Cambridge, Massachusetts : Harvard University Press, 2019Copyright date: ©2019Description: 274 pages : illustrations ; 25 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9780674725324
  • 0674725328
Subject(s):
Contents:
Introduction: T talk -- Multiple Ts -- Ovulation -- Violence -- Power -- Risk-taking -- Parenting -- Athleticism -- Conclusion: The social molecule.
Summary: Testosterone is a familiar villain, a ready explanation for innumerable social ills, from the stock market crash and the overrepresentation of men in prisons to male dominance in business and politics. It's a lot to pin on a simple molecule. Yet your testosterone level doesn't in fact predict your competitive drive or tendency for violence, your appetite for risk or sex, or your strength or athletic prowess. It's neither the biological essence of manliness nor even "the male sex hormone." This unauthorized biography pries T, as it's known, loose from over a century of misconceptions that undermine science even as they make urban legends about this hormone seem scientific. T's story didn't spring from nature: it is a tale that began long before the hormone was even isolated, when nineteenth-century scientists went looking for the chemical essence of masculinity. And so this molecule's outmoded, authorized life story persisted, providing ready cause for countless behaviors--from the boorish and the belligerent to the exemplary and enviable. What we think we know about T has stood in the way of an accurate understanding of its surprising and diverse functions and effects. Rebecca Jordan-Young and Katrina Karkazis focus on what T does in six domains: reproduction, aggression, risk-taking, power, sports, and parenting. At once arresting and deeply informed, Testosterone allows us to see the real T for the first time.-- Provided by publisher.
Fiction notes: Click to open in new window
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Dr. James Carlson Library NonFiction 612.61 J82 Available 33111009429578
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library NonFiction 612.61 J82 Available 33111009604030
Adult Book Adult Book Northport Library NonFiction 612.61 J82 Checked out 07/15/2024 33111008995884
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

An Independent Publisher Book Awards Gold Medal Winner
A Progressive Book of the Year
A TechCrunch Favorite Read of the Year

"This subtle, important book forces rethinking not just about one particular hormone but about the way the scientific process is embedded in social context."
-Robert M. Sapolsky, author of Behave

"A beautifully written and important book. The authors present strong and persuasive arguments that demythologize and defetishize T as a molecule containing quasi-magical properties, or as exclusively related to masculinity and males."
- Los Angeles Review of Books

"A critique of both popular and scientific understandings of the hormone, and how they have been used to explain, or even defend, inequalities of power."
- The Observer

Testosterone is a familiar villain, a ready culprit for everything from stock market crashes to the overrepresentation of men in prisons. But your testosterone level doesn't actually predict your appetite for risk, sex drive, or athletic prowess. It isn't the biological essence of manliness-in fact, it isn't even a male sex hormone. So what is it, and how did we come to endow it with such superhuman powers?

T's story begins when scientists first went looking for the chemical essence of masculinity. Over time, it provided a handy rationale for countless behaviors-from the boorish to the enviable. From heated debates about whether high-testosterone athletes have a natural advantage to disagreements over what it means to be a man or woman, testosterone is always in the news. Arresting and deeply informed, Testosterone focuses on what T does in six domains: reproduction, aggression, risk-taking, power, sports, and parenting.

Testosterone is a familiar villain, a ready explanation for innumerable social ills, from the stock market crash and the overrepresentation of men in prisons to male dominance in business and politics. It's a lot to pin on a simple molecule. Yet your testosterone level doesn't in fact predict your competitive drive or tendency for violence, your appetite for risk or sex, or your strength or athletic prowess. It's neither the biological essence of manliness nor even "the male sex hormone." This unauthorized biography pries T, as it's known, loose from over a century of misconceptions that undermine science even as they make urban legends about this hormone seem scientific. T's story didn't spring from nature: it is a tale that began long before the hormone was even isolated, when nineteenth-century scientists went looking for the chemical essence of masculinity. And so this molecule's outmoded, authorized life story persisted, providing ready cause for countless behaviors--from the boorish and the belligerent to the exemplary and enviable. What we think we know about T has stood in the way of an accurate understanding of its surprising and diverse functions and effects. Rebecca Jordan-Young and Katrina Karkazis focus on what T does in six domains: reproduction, aggression, risk-taking, power, sports, and parenting. At once arresting and deeply informed, Testosterone allows us to see the real T for the first time.-- Provided by publisher.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction: T talk -- Multiple Ts -- Ovulation -- Violence -- Power -- Risk-taking -- Parenting -- Athleticism -- Conclusion: The social molecule.

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