Is it nature or nurture? Yes! In this lecture I offer a different perspective on the nature/nurture debate, using striking and often amusing evidence for the influences of society on our biology. Ranging across the biological sciences — genetics, hormones, and neuroscience — I discuss the newest research on society-biology interactions, paying special attention to the implications for understanding gender differences and similarities. The article closes with an argument that embracing these developments can enhance rather than harm ongoing efforts to reduce social inequalities of all kinds.
16. Genes
“…the organism has choices… If a
problem is encountered, the thing has to
figure out a solution. Sometimes the
solution is fantastic, other times it is less
so… If we didn’t have extensive overlap
and redundancy in our genome, we
wouldn’t be here at all.”
- geneticist Mario Capecchi
17. Genes
• 5% = the story
• 95% = the storyteller
18. Genes
• 5% = the story
• 95% = the storyteller
“What is written in our genes… is a very
open-ended story.”
- sociomedicist Rebecca Jordan-Young
19. Genes
• 5% = the story
• 95% = the storyteller
“The sheer possibility of outcomes is
“transcalculational, a mathematical term
for mind boggling.”
- geneticist Richard Strohman
20. Genes
• 5% = the story
• 95% = the storyteller
Epigenetic tags: chemical changes to
DNA that tell genes what to do.
21. Genes
• 5% = the story
• 95% = the storyteller
24. “…any living cell carries with it the
experience of a billion years of
experimentation by its ancestors. You
cannot expect to explain so wise an old
bird in a few simple words.”
- biologist Max Delbrück
Genes
37. Brains
• Brain plasticity: our brain’s ability to
respond to the environment.
38.
39. Brains
• Functional plasticity: producing the same
outcome in different ways.
40. Brains
Brains might produce male- and female-typical
outcomes, but they may “just as
well do the exact opposite, that is, they
may prevent sex differences in overt
functions and behaviors by compensating
for sex differences in physiology.”
- neuroendocrinologist Geert De Vries
41. Brains
The difference between people w/ and
with/out training > than that between men +
women.
45. TAKE HOME POINTS
• We now know how social difference
and inequality become embodied.
46. TAKE HOME POINTS
• We now know how social difference
and inequality become embodied.
“Biology is, literally, the flesh and
blood of society.”
- Me
47. TAKE HOME POINTS
• We now know how social difference
and inequality become embodied.
• So we can make powerful arguments
against the naturalization of biological
states.
48. TAKE HOME POINTS
• We now know how social difference
and inequality become embodied.
• So we can make powerful arguments
against the naturalization of biological
states.
• We can better understand how
difference and inequality emerge,
persist, and are changed.
49. TAKE HOME POINTS
• We now know how social difference
and inequality become embodied.
• So we can make powerful arguments
against the naturalization of biological
states.
• We can better understand how
difference and inequality emerge,
persist, and are changed.
• Helps explain why sex differences
research has been so… anticlimatic.
50. TAKE HOME POINTS
• Now we can use biological research to
add urgency to feminist efforts…
51. TAKE HOME POINTS
• Now we can use biological research to
add urgency to feminist efforts…
• … by showing just how deep oppression
goes and how very unjust it is.
