Testosterone: An Unauthorized Biography

Critical scrutiny of the culture of science grounds this eye-opening, original argument from Barnard gender studies professor Jordan-Young (Brain Storm) and cultural anthropologist Karkazis (Fixing Sex) against testosterone’s popular identity as the driver behind male libido and aggression. Homing in on six core domains in which testosterone is commonly seen as highly involved—reproduction, aggression, risk taking, power, sports, and parenting—the authors find rampant flaws in the available research. Such problems include inconsistent methodology, “pastiche science” that links data with tangentially related anecdotes, and reliance upon well-known but now discredited studies. Jordan-Young and Karkazis are especially critical of how the supposedly insurmountable effects of testosterone have been used to scapegoat young black men or support white supremacy, while allowing ideologues to ignore institutional factors. Though the authors’ primary aim is to debunk, they do provide updates on recent research and point to underdiscussed topics such as the role of testosterone in egg follicle development. Readers interested in the messiness of the relationship between hormones and behavior, and willing to consider that science can be far from neutral and objective, will find high-density food for thought in Jordan-Young and Karkazis’s stimulating work. (Oct.)