Delusions of Gender: The Real Science Behind Sex Differences
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £0.25
Get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade in Delusions of Gender: The Real Science Behind Sex Differences for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £0.25, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Review
'Impeccably researched and bitingly funny - both sexes should rejoice at [this] vitriolic attack on - sexism masquerading as psychology.' Evening Standard 'Bold ... Timely and provocative ... [Fine's] well-stocked armoury ... includes extensive research, sharp wit and a probing intelligence, and refuses to be satisfied with the delusional myth-making that often passes for popular science.' Metro 'Fine writes with bravura. She takes no hostages. She rejoices in demystifying the compellingly seductive false colour images provided by the MRI scanners ... a book that sparkles with wit, which is easy to read but underpinned by substantial scholarship and a formidable 100-page bibliography ... every page of Fine's brilliant, spiky book reminds us that science is part of culture and that the struggle against sexism in the neurosciences and the struggle against sexism in society are intimately linked.' Hilary Rose, Times Higher Education Supplement 'Fine invites her readers into a passionate, insightful and often funny discussion about how gender identity is all in the mind, not the brain.' Globe & Mail, Canada 'As Fine argues in this forceful, funny new book, the notion that gender accounts for differences in minds and behavior through some biological, brain-based process is an idea as popular as it is unproven.' Boston Globe 'An irreverent and important book' Washington Post 'Read this book and see how complex and fascinating the whole issue is.' New York Times 'A timely warning against taking too seriously the deluge of books and articles that would have us believe that men are biologically advantaged when it comes to mathematics, racing driving or map reading - and that women are naturally more intuitive and nurturing, so better at childcare and multitasking.' Guardian 'Dr Fine is a brilliant tour guide - making light, fun and engaging work of the research. By debunking the rubbish, this book opens up possibilities for a (slightly) clearer vision of the future. Not to be missed.' www.fat-quarter.co.uk 'Men may be from Mars and women from Venus but if you put blokes and sheilas on each other's planet they will work out how to manage - An excellent book that puts the old nature-or-nurture debate in the context of the new science on the way our brains work.' The Australian 'For two millennia women have heard how our brains are too small, our wombs too big, our blood too thin or too cold, or how we are too weak/excitable/nervous (supply your own adjective) to do whatever it is we were thinking of doing. Since the 1970s we have been getting even and getting equal, but just when you thought it was OK to do rocket science, along comes neuroscience to tell us it's all in the hardwiring of our brains, and really, women don't have the connections - and I don't mean the ones in the boardroom. Cordelia Fine's brilliant book Delusions of Gender (Icon) debunks the likes of Simon Baron-Cohen, dressed up in one of his brother's outfits as a mad scientist, waving mobiles at newborn babies to see if the boys are more "interested" than the girls.' Jeanette Winterson, Books of the Year, Guardian
Product Description
A vehement attack on the latest pseudo-scientific claims about the differences between the sexes. Sex discrimination is supposedly a distant memory. Yet popular books, magazines and even scientific articles increasingly defend inequalities by citing immutable biological differences between the male and female brain. That's the reason, we're told, that there are so few women in science and engineering, so few men in the laundry room - different brains are just better suited to different things. Drawing on the latest research in developmental psychology, neuroscience, and social psychology, Delusions of Gender powerfully rebuts these claims, showing how old myths, dressed up in new scientific finery, are helping perpetuate the sexist status quo. Cordelia Fine, 'a cognitive neuroscientist with a sharp sense of humour and an intelligent sense of reality' (The Times) reveals the mind's remarkable plasticity, shows how profoundly culture influences the way we think about ourselves and, ultimately, exposes just how much of what we consider 'hardwired' is actually malleable. This startling, original and witty book shows the surprising extent to which boys and girls, men and women are made - and not born, empowering us to break free of the supposed predestination of our sex chromosomes.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
61 of 71 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I found this book stunning. All around you see all this stuff about 'Men's brains' and 'Women's brains', and it always struck me as odd that a sex that has, for example, written so much brilliant literature should be deemed semi-autistic, etc etc. So here comes this brilliantly researched book (just take a look at the pages and pages of notes at the end - this author knows her onions backwards and forwards and sideways) - and she points out how shoddy it all is.
And she's funny!
No one will ever again have to sit through a dinner party with some parent going on about how 'I thought that too, but you only have to LOOK at my ttwo children to see there are innate differences...bleh bleh'. She unpickes it all and shows how social pressures are so important and the brain differences that are so often claimed are, essentially, neurotosh, aka neurosexism. I think I shall carry a copy round with me.
And she's funny!
No one will ever again have to sit through a dinner party with some parent going on about how 'I thought that too, but you only have to LOOK at my ttwo children to see there are innate differences...bleh bleh'. She unpickes it all and shows how social pressures are so important and the brain differences that are so often claimed are, essentially, neurotosh, aka neurosexism. I think I shall carry a copy round with me.
12 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This book should be required reading for all women - and men, and especially all those who would wish to be enlightened parents.
The author reviews and explains neuroscience studies, real and spurious, in the area of gender that are genuinely surprising to read about. Assumptions I've made over the years are taken apart and revealed as 'tricks of the mind'. Studies are analyzed and shown to be 'bad science'. It is genuinely eye-opening, even for those of us who have always thought themselves fairly 'gender aware'. Thankfully the hardiest detractor of Cordelia Fine's work (and I'll just bet there are many - this area is always one in which you light the blue touchpaper and retire!)would have trouble finding her rabid or partisan. The wry - and overt - humour in the text is wonderful.
I heartily recommend this book - for it's balanced, scientific approach, its good humour and it's well-written prose.
The author reviews and explains neuroscience studies, real and spurious, in the area of gender that are genuinely surprising to read about. Assumptions I've made over the years are taken apart and revealed as 'tricks of the mind'. Studies are analyzed and shown to be 'bad science'. It is genuinely eye-opening, even for those of us who have always thought themselves fairly 'gender aware'. Thankfully the hardiest detractor of Cordelia Fine's work (and I'll just bet there are many - this area is always one in which you light the blue touchpaper and retire!)would have trouble finding her rabid or partisan. The wry - and overt - humour in the text is wonderful.
I heartily recommend this book - for it's balanced, scientific approach, its good humour and it's well-written prose.
21 of 25 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Oh my LORD! You will never feel the same way about using a simple pronoun again.
This book highlights all sorts of ways in which male and female stereotypes affect the way people think about themselves and others. In TERRIFYING ways. We are given a layperson's synopsis of a number of experiments and their alarming results. Cordelia Fine recounts how simply reminding yourself what gender you are (by ticking a box on a form, unbelievably) has been shown to affect how you go on to perform in a maths test: girls score lower than control groups when reminded that they are female, since the all-pervasive stereotype is that boys are better at maths. This is just one horrifying example of the way stereotypes can affect all of us for the worse.
We are shown the many ways that we all treat boys and girls differently, even subconsciously. Fine doesn't prove that there are no differences between male and female brains but she provides a fantastically sarcastic commentary on the literature which aims to prove the opposite. She articulates her concern that some teachers and parents are deliberately treating boys and girls differently, because of bad-science claims in pop-culture books that suggest that the sexes must be treated differently to achieve equality. She urges caution in making assumptions about different abilities or preferences in boys and girls, demonstrating there is not enough evidence to warrant it.
The first part of the book shows us the damage that can be done by our different treatment of girls and boys, and the last part proves to readers that they too do this themselves, even though they don't mean to. Fine has added a valuable contribution to this debate. You may agree with her, or you may disagree, but I guarantee you will be shocked at some of the issues she highlights. She speaks with a passionate voice in an extremely funny and enjoyable book, and has galvanised me, for one: this book has changed the way I speak and act towards children and adults of both sexes.
This book highlights all sorts of ways in which male and female stereotypes affect the way people think about themselves and others. In TERRIFYING ways. We are given a layperson's synopsis of a number of experiments and their alarming results. Cordelia Fine recounts how simply reminding yourself what gender you are (by ticking a box on a form, unbelievably) has been shown to affect how you go on to perform in a maths test: girls score lower than control groups when reminded that they are female, since the all-pervasive stereotype is that boys are better at maths. This is just one horrifying example of the way stereotypes can affect all of us for the worse.
We are shown the many ways that we all treat boys and girls differently, even subconsciously. Fine doesn't prove that there are no differences between male and female brains but she provides a fantastically sarcastic commentary on the literature which aims to prove the opposite. She articulates her concern that some teachers and parents are deliberately treating boys and girls differently, because of bad-science claims in pop-culture books that suggest that the sexes must be treated differently to achieve equality. She urges caution in making assumptions about different abilities or preferences in boys and girls, demonstrating there is not enough evidence to warrant it.
The first part of the book shows us the damage that can be done by our different treatment of girls and boys, and the last part proves to readers that they too do this themselves, even though they don't mean to. Fine has added a valuable contribution to this debate. You may agree with her, or you may disagree, but I guarantee you will be shocked at some of the issues she highlights. She speaks with a passionate voice in an extremely funny and enjoyable book, and has galvanised me, for one: this book has changed the way I speak and act towards children and adults of both sexes.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Amazing
Don't quote anything you "know" about gender brain differences again until you have read this book. Fascinating, amusing, illuminating. Read more
Published 1 month ago by sally forster
excellent book
This book is well written and organised. Some critics have said it is "witty", I prefer to say that some part of it, mostly near the end, is "tongue in cheek" kind of humour. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Jane
Delusions of Gender: Teh Real Science Behind Sex differences
This critical review on stereotype gender research - mostly brain and cognitive research - is giving an important and highly valuable lesson in decoding manipulative research... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Marianne
great fun for all of us who do not want to be misleaded by simplistic...
Fortunately a lot of us already know that the popular idea of men and women being fundamentally different is something largely created by ourselves (and somethimes despirately kept... Read more
Published 10 months ago by vp
Thought provoking
Well written, amusing, and thought provoking. Debunks many of the myths around gender (almost all of which seem to show women as possessors of inferior brains / capabilities). Read more
Published 12 months ago by bookworm
pop journalism with an axe to grind
author presents herself as a scientist but behaves like a journalist. she has already decided that there is no difference between men and women. Read more
Published 13 months ago by asp
Brilliant critique of neurosexism and Evo Psych
Cordelia Fine's "Delusions of Gender" has been making the rounds among the literati and the general public interested in popular science alike, and with good reason. Read more
Published 14 months ago by M. A. Krul
Gender science: phrenology for today
In the nineteenth century they thought bumps on your head showed what your personality was like. They thought that a university education damaged female fertility. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Dorothy Roth
Delusions of science: a question of scientific validity
There is an implicit oxymoron in the notion of anything referred to as 'real science'. If science has taught us one thing throughout history, it ought to be that we know very... Read more
Published 17 months ago by A. Drummond
Misleading critique
I admit that when I bought the book I already knew it was no good. The reviews (Hilary Rose) and blurbs were very informative in this respect. Read more
Published 18 months ago by Jippu
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
- Books > Health, Family & Lifestyle > Psychology & Psychiatry > Neuropsychology
- Books > Science & Nature > Biological Sciences > Human Biology > Neuroscience
- Books > Science & Nature > Popular Science > Human Biology > The Brain
- Books > Scientific, Technical & Medical
- Books > Society, Politics & Philosophy > Social Sciences > Gender Studies
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
