Sexing the Body: How Biologists Construct Human Sexuality

A. Fausto-Sterling

This article is a version of Chapter One: Sexing the Body: Gender Politics and the Construction of Sexuality. In it is argued that science is often thought of as being beyond the reach of social and political debates. In fact, it is precisely such debates that have dictated the course of scientific research, ranging from the very questions scientists pose to the experimental methods they employ. And this is highly pertinent to the ongoing debate concerning the biological versus social nature of gender and sexuality. In most public and in most scientific discussions, sex and nature, are thought to be real, while gender and culture are seen as constructed. But these are false dichotomies. In fact, it is argued, there is a complex and subtle interaction that exists between the biological and the social/political that must be understood and reexamined.