Performance All the Way Down: Genes, Development, and Sexual Difference: science.culture
Autor Richard O. Prumen Limba Engleză Paperback – 16 noi 2023
The idea that gender is a performance—a tenet of queer feminist theory since the nineties—has spread from college classrooms to popular culture. This transformative concept has sparked reappraisals of social expectations as well as debate over not just gender, but sex: what it is, what it means, and how we know it. Most scientific and biomedical research over the past seventy years has assumed and reinforced a binary concept of biological sex, though some scientists point out that male and female are just two outcomes in a world rich in sexual diversity.
In Performance All the Way Down, MacArthur Fellow and Pulitzer Prize finalist Richard O. Prum brings feminist thought into conversation with biology, arguing that the sexual binary is not essential to human genes, chromosomes, or embryos. Our genomes are not blueprints, algorithms, or recipes for the physical representation of our individual sexual essences or fates. In accessible language, Prum shows that when we look closely at the science, we see that gene expression is a material action in the world, a performance through which the individual regulates and achieves its own becoming. A fertilized zygote matures into an organism with tissues and organs, neurological control, immune defenses, psychological mechanisms, and gender and sexual behavior through a performative continuum. This complex hierarchy of self-enactment reflects the evolved agency of individual genes, molecules, cells, and tissues.
Rejecting the notion of an intractable divide between the humanities and the sciences, Prum proves that the contributions of queer and feminist theorists can help scientists understand the human body in new ways, yielding key insights into genetics, developmental biology, physiology. Sure to inspire discussion, Performance All the Way Down is a book about biology for feminists, a book about feminist theory for biologists, and a book for anyone curious about how our sexual bodies grow.
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Specificații
ISBN-13: 9780226829784
ISBN-10: 0226829782
Pagini: 368
Ilustrații: 16 halftones
Dimensiuni: 152 x 229 x 25 mm
Greutate: 0.54 kg
Ediția:First Edition
Editura: University of Chicago Press
Colecția University of Chicago Press
Seria science.culture
ISBN-10: 0226829782
Pagini: 368
Ilustrații: 16 halftones
Dimensiuni: 152 x 229 x 25 mm
Greutate: 0.54 kg
Ediția:First Edition
Editura: University of Chicago Press
Colecția University of Chicago Press
Seria science.culture
Notă biografică
Richard O. Prum is the William Robertson Coe Professor of Ornithology at Yale University, and the head curator of vertebrate zoology at the Yale Peabody Museum. He is the author of The Evolution of Beauty: How Darwin’s Forgotten Theory of Mate Choice Shapes the Animal World—and Us, one of the New York Times’s “10 Best Books of 2017” and a finalist for the 2018 Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction.
Extras
We are living through a time of enormous cultural change involving broad reconsideration of ideas about individual sex and gender, their boundaries, their meanings, and their mutabilities. There is a growing realization of the diversity of lived gender identities and sexual experiences. In many cultures, an ever-larger number of people are declaring transgender, nonbinary, gay, lesbian, bisexual, and other nonnormative identities and orientations.
These cultural changes have not gone unopposed. Having lost the legal battles in the United States to prevent marriage equality and protections against sexual discrimination in the workplace, political and religious conservatives have mounted a new wave of efforts to legally enforce strictly binary definitions of sex and gender in the United States. Under the Trump administration, the United States Department of Health and Human Services adopted a new federal definition of individual sex as “unchangeable and determined on a biologic basis.” New federal rules established that “sex means a person’s status as male or female based on immutable biological traits identifiable by or before birth,” and that “the sex listed on a person’s birth certificate, as originally issued, shall constitute definitive proof of a person’s sex unless rebutted by reliable genetic evidence.”1 This legal change eliminated federal recognition of the over 1.4 million transgender Americans, which could have dramatic impact on their access to health care, legal protections, and civil protections in schools, jails, shelters, and other public institutions. This legal definition of sex has since been rescinded by the Biden administration, but the political challenges continue.
In 2020, Idaho became the first US state to permanently define an individual’s sex as the sex on their birth certificate, and to prevent transgender girls from participating in scholastic sports.2 Since 2021, a tsunami of state legislation defining sex as a binary fact established at birth, prohibiting transgender girls from participating in sports, and restricting or prohibiting medical treatments for transgender minors have been proposed or adopted in dozens of American states. In February 2022, the Texas governor instructed the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services to say that gender-affirming medical treatments, including puberty-blocking drugs and hormone therapies, constitute child abuse under Texas law. These political efforts to constrain the rights of transgender youth, transgender adults, and their families are moving so fast that it is impossible to accurately summarize them here.
In February 2021, in response to a trans pride flag hung across the hallway outside the office of another congresswoman, Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Republican representative of Georgia’s Fourteenth Congressional District, placed a large sign outside her office door in the United States Capital building stating: There are only TWO Genders: MALE & FEMALE “Trust the Science!”.
Putting aside Greene’s refusal to trust the science on global climate change, evolution, the prevention of gun violence, vaccination, epidemiology, and a host of other vital issues, we have to ask ourselves, “To what science is Greene referring?” What is science communicating to the public about sex and gender that gives Greene the impression that science unequivocally supports her views?
These cultural changes have not gone unopposed. Having lost the legal battles in the United States to prevent marriage equality and protections against sexual discrimination in the workplace, political and religious conservatives have mounted a new wave of efforts to legally enforce strictly binary definitions of sex and gender in the United States. Under the Trump administration, the United States Department of Health and Human Services adopted a new federal definition of individual sex as “unchangeable and determined on a biologic basis.” New federal rules established that “sex means a person’s status as male or female based on immutable biological traits identifiable by or before birth,” and that “the sex listed on a person’s birth certificate, as originally issued, shall constitute definitive proof of a person’s sex unless rebutted by reliable genetic evidence.”1 This legal change eliminated federal recognition of the over 1.4 million transgender Americans, which could have dramatic impact on their access to health care, legal protections, and civil protections in schools, jails, shelters, and other public institutions. This legal definition of sex has since been rescinded by the Biden administration, but the political challenges continue.
In 2020, Idaho became the first US state to permanently define an individual’s sex as the sex on their birth certificate, and to prevent transgender girls from participating in scholastic sports.2 Since 2021, a tsunami of state legislation defining sex as a binary fact established at birth, prohibiting transgender girls from participating in sports, and restricting or prohibiting medical treatments for transgender minors have been proposed or adopted in dozens of American states. In February 2022, the Texas governor instructed the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services to say that gender-affirming medical treatments, including puberty-blocking drugs and hormone therapies, constitute child abuse under Texas law. These political efforts to constrain the rights of transgender youth, transgender adults, and their families are moving so fast that it is impossible to accurately summarize them here.
In February 2021, in response to a trans pride flag hung across the hallway outside the office of another congresswoman, Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Republican representative of Georgia’s Fourteenth Congressional District, placed a large sign outside her office door in the United States Capital building stating: There are only TWO Genders: MALE & FEMALE “Trust the Science!”.
Putting aside Greene’s refusal to trust the science on global climate change, evolution, the prevention of gun violence, vaccination, epidemiology, and a host of other vital issues, we have to ask ourselves, “To what science is Greene referring?” What is science communicating to the public about sex and gender that gives Greene the impression that science unequivocally supports her views?
Cuprins
List of Illustrations
Prologue
Appendixes
Bibliography
Index
Prologue
Taking Birds Seriously
A Humanistic Turn
An Ornithologist for Intersectionality
1. Performance All the Way DownAn Ornithologist for Intersectionality
Material Feminisms
A Performative Continuum
What Is the Role of Metaphor in Biology?
What Is at Stake?
The Stakes for Evolutionary Biology
Mind the Gap
Why Queer Biology?
Where Are We Going?
2. Critical ConceptsA Performative Continuum
What Is the Role of Metaphor in Biology?
What Is at Stake?
The Stakes for Evolutionary Biology
Mind the Gap
Why Queer Biology?
Where Are We Going?
What Are Male and Female?
Historical Ontology
Sex Is a History
Sex Difference versus Sexual Difference
Sex and Race
Sexual Development and Differentiation
The Sexual Phenotype
Sex Determination and Sex Reversal
Discourse
Agency
Queer and Queering
3. Gender PerformativityHistorical Ontology
Sex Is a History
Sex Difference versus Sexual Difference
Sex and Race
Sexual Development and Differentiation
The Sexual Phenotype
Sex Determination and Sex Reversal
Discourse
Agency
Queer and Queering
What Is Performativity?
Elements of Performativity
Performativity and Trans Experience
Between Butler and Barad
4. The Enactment of the Biological SelfElements of Performativity
Performativity and Trans Experience
Between Butler and Barad
Genes and Development
What Is Molecular Discourse?
Want to Go to the Movies on Friday?
How Discourse Becomes Genetic Action within Cells
The Choreography of Gene Expression
The Performative Phenotypic Landscape
Canonical versus Performative Pathways
How Does the Body Regulate Growth over Space?
What Is the Role of Physical Forces in Development?
Performativity of Cellular Discourse
Are Genes Causes?
Agency in Developmental Biology
Citationality and Homology
Posthuman Power
Physiology and Immunity
Neurobiology and Psychology
Sexual Selection
What Is Not Performative in Biology?
Why Performative Biology Now?
5. How Do Our Sexual Bodies Develop?What Is Molecular Discourse?
Want to Go to the Movies on Friday?
How Discourse Becomes Genetic Action within Cells
The Choreography of Gene Expression
The Performative Phenotypic Landscape
Canonical versus Performative Pathways
How Does the Body Regulate Growth over Space?
What Is the Role of Physical Forces in Development?
Performativity of Cellular Discourse
Are Genes Causes?
Agency in Developmental Biology
Citationality and Homology
Posthuman Power
Physiology and Immunity
Neurobiology and Psychology
Sexual Selection
What Is Not Performative in Biology?
Why Performative Biology Now?
The Role of Chromosomes
On Gene Nomenclature
How Do Gonads Differentiate?
Reproductive Tract Development
Genital Development
Post-embryonic Sexual Development
Sexual Development Summary
6. Variations in Our Sexual DevelopmentOn Gene Nomenclature
How Do Gonads Differentiate?
Reproductive Tract Development
Genital Development
Post-embryonic Sexual Development
Sexual Development Summary
Terminology and the Framing of Embodied Sexual Variation
Moving beyond Pathology
Chromosomal Contributions to Differences in Sexual Development
Genetic Variations in Gonad Development
X Chromosome Inactivation
Genital and Reproductive Tract Development
Noncoding Genetic Variation
How Does the Environment Affect Sexual Development?
Queer Science
7. How Evolution Generates Sexual VariabilityMoving beyond Pathology
Chromosomal Contributions to Differences in Sexual Development
Genetic Variations in Gonad Development
X Chromosome Inactivation
Genital and Reproductive Tract Development
Noncoding Genetic Variation
How Does the Environment Affect Sexual Development?
Queer Science
The Evolution of Sex
Evolutionary Variability of Sexual Development Initiation
Why Sexual Differentiation Mechanisms Are Generatively Queering
Sexually Disruptive Selection
Evolution of the Molecular Discourse of Sexual Development
Evolution of Sexual Transition
Evolution Is Incompatible with Sexual Essences
Norms and Innovation
Placental Performativity
Limits of the Binary Bottleneck
8. The Future of Performative BiologyEvolutionary Variability of Sexual Development Initiation
Why Sexual Differentiation Mechanisms Are Generatively Queering
Sexually Disruptive Selection
Evolution of the Molecular Discourse of Sexual Development
Evolution of Sexual Transition
Evolution Is Incompatible with Sexual Essences
Norms and Innovation
Placental Performativity
Limits of the Binary Bottleneck
Performative Scientific Hypotheses
Performativity of Illness and Disability
Recalibrating Causality
Biology Is Ready to Think Performatively
Pluralism and the Phenotype
What Is Evolutionary Biology About?
9. Performance All the Way UpPerformativity of Illness and Disability
Recalibrating Causality
Biology Is Ready to Think Performatively
Pluralism and the Phenotype
What Is Evolutionary Biology About?
Sexual Reproduction Is an Intra-action
A Posthuman Genealogy of Performative Discourse
Is There Gender in Nature?
“What Is Sex?” Revisited
Toward a Scientific/Cultural Concept of Gender/Sex
Performative Perspectives on Transsexual Experience
Sex and Race as Scientific Apparatuses
Sex and Race Categories in Biomedical Research
Post-disciplinary Material Feminisms
An Intellectually Queer Space in Science
AcknowledgmentsA Posthuman Genealogy of Performative Discourse
Is There Gender in Nature?
“What Is Sex?” Revisited
Toward a Scientific/Cultural Concept of Gender/Sex
Performative Perspectives on Transsexual Experience
Sex and Race as Scientific Apparatuses
Sex and Race Categories in Biomedical Research
Post-disciplinary Material Feminisms
An Intellectually Queer Space in Science
Appendixes
Appendix 1. Material Feminisms
Appendix 2. Acquired Immunity
Appendix 3. Current Models of the Genotype-Phenotype Relationship
Appendix 4. Modularity
Appendix 5. Genetic Assimilation
Appendix 6. Why Gene-Level Selection Is Insufficient
Appendix 7. Internal Selection
NotesAppendix 2. Acquired Immunity
Appendix 3. Current Models of the Genotype-Phenotype Relationship
Appendix 4. Modularity
Appendix 5. Genetic Assimilation
Appendix 6. Why Gene-Level Selection Is Insufficient
Appendix 7. Internal Selection
Bibliography
Index
Recenzii
“Readers of [Prum’s] earlier work, including his 2017 book, The Evolution of Beauty, will find themselves intrigued by his continued engagement with feminist science studies—and he has done his homework. . . . Performance All the Way Down contains a lot of big ideas, both because of the biological content Prum strives to convey to his readers and because of the sophisticated nature of the feminist theory he mobilizes. . . . To understand the full scope of Prum’s vision, I encourage you to read it in full.”
“Prum offers a meticulous tour of the molecular pathways that underlie stereotypical sexual development in humans, as well as the myriad ways that any individual person’s development might differ. . . . If you read Performance All the Way Down, you’ll be presented with an abundance of interesting stories drawn from developmental biology, ecology, cultural anthropology, and more. My own copy is replete with dog-eared pages that had information I’m excited to think more about.”
“A renowned biologist meets queer theory, and creativity takes flight. A joyful and expansive celebration of the complexity and contingency of sex.”
"Highly recommended."
“A powerful appeal for an intersectional rethinking of the science, materiality, and culture of human sex, Performance All the Way Down undoes the scientific justifications for categories of a sex and gender binary that have contributed scientific support to sexual oppression. Discussing biology, queer theory, and feminism together—in a shared vocabulary—Prum successfully expands intellectual space for queer feminist analysis and research within genetics, evolutionary biology, and developmental biology. This book will be discussed across the humanities, social sciences, and hard sciences for years to come.”
“An ambitious, deeply interdisciplinary, and profound effort to grapple with the biological meanings of ‘sex.’ Prum tackles a set of crucial questions in a rigorous, thoughtful, and playful way, with implications that open up a landscape of transformative possibilities for the consideration of sex in biological research and scholarship.”