Richardson, Sarah S. (Author)
Human genomes are 99.9 percent identical---with one prominent exception. Instead of a matching pair of X chromosomes, men carry a single X, coupled with a tiny chromosome called the Y. Tracking the emergence of a new and distinctive way of thinking about sex represented by the unalterable, simple, and visually compelling binary of the X and Y chromosomes, Sex Itself examines the interaction between cultural gender norms and genetic theories of sex from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present, postgenomic age. Using methods from history, philosophy, and gender studies of science, Sarah S. Richardson uncovers how gender has helped to shape the research practices, questions asked, theories and models, and descriptive language used in sex chromosome research. From the earliest theories of chromosomal sex determination, to the mid-century hypothesis of the aggressive XYY supermale, to the debate about Y chromosome degeneration, to the recent claim that male and female genomes are more different than those of humans and chimpanzees, Richardson shows how cultural gender conceptions influence the genetic science of sex. Richardson shows how sexual science of the past continues to resonate, in ways both subtle and explicit, in contemporary research on the genetics of sex and gender. With the completion of the Human Genome Project, genes and chromosomes are moving to the center of the biology of sex. Sex Itself offers a compelling argument for the importance of ongoing critical dialogue on how cultural conceptions of gender operate within the science of sex.
...MoreReview Howard Chiang (2017) Review of "Sex Itself: The Search for Male and Female in the Human Genome". History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences (p. 7).
Review Friedman, Judith E. (2014) Review of "Sex Itself: The Search for Male and Female in the Human Genome". Canadian Journal of History (pp. 458-460).
Review Richmond, Marsha L. (2015) Review of "Sex Itself: The Search for Male and Female in the Human Genome". Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences (pp. 496-497).
Review Milam, Erika Lorraine (2014) Review of "Sex Itself: The Search for Male and Female in the Human Genome". Journal of the History of Biology (pp. 329-331).
Article
Richardson, Sarah S.;
(2012)
Sexing the X: How the X Became the “Female Chromosome”
(/isis/citation/CBB001200847/)
Book
Jordan-Young, Rebecca M.;
(2010)
Brain Storm: The Flaws in the Science of Sex Differences
(/isis/citation/CBB001220966/)
Thesis
Ha, Nathan Q.;
(2011)
Marking Bodies: A History of Genetic Sex in the Twentieth Century
(/isis/citation/CBB001567282/)
Book
Everson, Ted;
(2007)
The Gene: A Historical Perspective
(/isis/citation/CBB000700846/)
Article
Ha, Nathan Q.;
(2011)
The Riddle of Sex: Biological Theories of Sexual Difference in the Early Twentieth-Century
(/isis/citation/CBB001220951/)
Chapter
Satzinger, Helga;
(2009)
Racial Purity, Stable Genes, and Sex Difference: Gender in the Making of Genetic Concepts by Richard Goldschmidt and Fritz Lenz, 1916 to 1936
(/isis/citation/CBB001020012/)
Article
Gannett, Lisa;
(2003)
The Normal Genome in Twentieth-Century Evolutionary Thought
(/isis/citation/CBB000300619/)
Essay Review
Wolfe, Audra J.;
(2001)
ELSI's Revenge
(/isis/citation/CBB000100499/)
Thesis
Richardson, Sarah S.;
(2009)
Gendering the Genome: Sex Chromosomes in Twentieth Century Genetics
(/isis/citation/CBB001561065/)
Article
Miller, Fiona Alice;
(2006)
“Your True and Proper Gender”: The Barr Body as a Good Enough Science of Sex
(/isis/citation/CBB000770735/)
Article
McKnight, Steven;
Beyer, Ann;
Gall, Joseph;
(2012)
Oscar Miller (1925--2012)
(/isis/citation/CBB001320463/)
Article
Philippe Huneman;
(2019)
The Multifaceted Legacy of the Human Genome Program for Evolutionary Biology: An Epistemological Perspective
(/isis/citation/CBB904878427/)
Book
Delgado Echeverría, Isabel;
(2007)
El descubrimiento de los cromosomas sexuales. Un hito en la historia de la Biología
(/isis/citation/CBB001022345/)
Article
Michael R. Dietrich;
Oren Harman;
Ehud Lamm;
(2021)
Richard Lewontin and the “Complications of Linkage”
(/isis/citation/CBB129054901/)
Book
Wapner, Jessica;
(2013)
The Philadelphia Chromosome: A Mutant Gene and the Quest to Cure Cancer at the Genetic Level
(/isis/citation/CBB001213249/)
Book
Davies, Kevin;
(2002)
Cracking the Genome: Inside the Race to Unlock Human DNA
(/isis/citation/CBB000301613/)
Book
Ridley, Matt;
(1999)
Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters
(/isis/citation/CBB000358319/)
Article
Santesmases, María Jesús;
(2013)
The Biological Landscape of Polyploidy: Chromosomes under Glass in the 1950s
(/isis/citation/CBB001211941/)
Chapter
Chadarevian, Soraya de;
(2013)
Putting Human Genetics on a Solid Basis: Human Chromosome Research, 1950s--1970s
(/isis/citation/CBB001500058/)
Article
Deichmann, Ute;
(2014)
The Concept of the Causal Role of Chromosomes and Genes in Heredity and Development: Opponents from Darwin to Lysenko
(/isis/citation/CBB001552681/)
Be the first to comment!