Rethinking Sex, Brain, and Gender: Beyond the Binary
Rethinking Sex, Brain, and Gender: Beyond the Binary
The sex binary is not simply one of several competing theories regarding human brain and behavior within science. Rather, it is a taken-for-granted starting point that biases the scientific exploration of the relations between sex and brain and behavior. Using the case of the brain, Prof. Daphna Joel describes how data from animal studies challenge the binary framework and open a new way – the mosaic hypothesis – of thinking about ‘sex itself’ and its relations with brain and behavior. Applying varied analytical methods to the structure of over 5,000 human brains, her research found that most brains comprise of unique ‘mosaics’ of both features that are more common in women and features that are more common in men; the brain architectures typical of women are also typical of men; and sex category provides little information on human brain structure
