Accueil
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Fausto-Sterling
"What do we know ? What do we think we know ? What might we be able to find out in the future ? What questions might be impossible to answer ?" (p.XII)
"The biologists and psychologists will have to be patient with the fact that I sometimes use popular language rather than precise scientific terminology. This is the privilege of the popular science writer. Of course, sociologists will want more sociology in this book, anthropologists more anthropology, and psychologists more psychology." (p.XII)
"In the 1950s psychologist John Money and his colleagues at Johns Hopkins University pioneered the study of sexually ambiguous patients. As he worked with children and some adults born into the world with unusual combinations of sex markers (testes and a vagina, ovaries and a penis, two X chromosomes and a scrotum, and more) Money developed a layered model of sex and gender (Figure 2.2). He started with fertilization. Human males produce two kinds of sperm—one with an X chromosome plus one each of so-called autosomes, and the other with a Y chromosome and one each of the so-called autosomes. Later [...] I will discuss what we know about how the X, the Y, and the autosomes contribute to the development of sex. But for now, let’s stay focused on the bigger framework. At the same time that the male produces X- or Y-bearing sperm, females, having two X chromosomes, produce only one kind of egg—X-bearing with a full set of autosomes. Egg and sperm join forces. The result is a double set of autosomes plus an X and a Y or a double set of autosomes plus two Xs. Voilà ! We have what Money called chromosomal sex-layer 1 in the multilayered phyllo dough (or for those of Germanic extraction—strüdel) pastry we call sex-gender.
Usually, about 8 weeks after conception, embryos with a Y chromosome develop an embryonic testis and by 12 weeks, those with two Xs form embryonic ovaries. Once a developing fetus has gonads (the general term for testes or ovaries) it has, by definition acquired fetal gonadal sex. The fetal gonads quickly get down to business and start making hormones important to the embryo’s progress. Again, I will circle back with details in the next chapter. But for now, all we need to know is that once the fetal gonadal hormones appear we can say that the fetus has acquired a fetal hormonal sex. Fetal hormonal sex contributes to the formation of the internal reproductive sex (the uterus, cervix, and Fallopian tubes in females and the vas deferens, prostate, and epididymis in males). As the fetus nears the end of its fourth month of development, fetal hormones complete their job of shaping the external genitalia ( genital sex)—penis and scrotum in males, vagina and clitoris in females. By birth, then, baby has five layers of sex. And, as we shall see, these layers do not always agree with one another." (pp.3-5)
-Anne Fausto-Sterling, Sex/Gender. Biology in a Social World, Routledge, 2012, 142 pages.
"What do we know ? What do we think we know ? What might we be able to find out in the future ? What questions might be impossible to answer ?" (p.XII)
"The biologists and psychologists will have to be patient with the fact that I sometimes use popular language rather than precise scientific terminology. This is the privilege of the popular science writer. Of course, sociologists will want more sociology in this book, anthropologists more anthropology, and psychologists more psychology." (p.XII)
"In the 1950s psychologist John Money and his colleagues at Johns Hopkins University pioneered the study of sexually ambiguous patients. As he worked with children and some adults born into the world with unusual combinations of sex markers (testes and a vagina, ovaries and a penis, two X chromosomes and a scrotum, and more) Money developed a layered model of sex and gender (Figure 2.2). He started with fertilization. Human males produce two kinds of sperm—one with an X chromosome plus one each of so-called autosomes, and the other with a Y chromosome and one each of the so-called autosomes. Later [...] I will discuss what we know about how the X, the Y, and the autosomes contribute to the development of sex. But for now, let’s stay focused on the bigger framework. At the same time that the male produces X- or Y-bearing sperm, females, having two X chromosomes, produce only one kind of egg—X-bearing with a full set of autosomes. Egg and sperm join forces. The result is a double set of autosomes plus an X and a Y or a double set of autosomes plus two Xs. Voilà ! We have what Money called chromosomal sex-layer 1 in the multilayered phyllo dough (or for those of Germanic extraction—strüdel) pastry we call sex-gender.
Usually, about 8 weeks after conception, embryos with a Y chromosome develop an embryonic testis and by 12 weeks, those with two Xs form embryonic ovaries. Once a developing fetus has gonads (the general term for testes or ovaries) it has, by definition acquired fetal gonadal sex. The fetal gonads quickly get down to business and start making hormones important to the embryo’s progress. Again, I will circle back with details in the next chapter. But for now, all we need to know is that once the fetal gonadal hormones appear we can say that the fetus has acquired a fetal hormonal sex. Fetal hormonal sex contributes to the formation of the internal reproductive sex (the uterus, cervix, and Fallopian tubes in females and the vas deferens, prostate, and epididymis in males). As the fetus nears the end of its fourth month of development, fetal hormones complete their job of shaping the external genitalia ( genital sex)—penis and scrotum in males, vagina and clitoris in females. By birth, then, baby has five layers of sex. And, as we shall see, these layers do not always agree with one another." (pp.3-5)
-Anne Fausto-Sterling, Sex/Gender. Biology in a Social World, Routledge, 2012, 142 pages.
