“The Proof Is in the Pudding”: How Mental Health Practitioners View the Power of “Sex Hormones” in the Process of Transition

[...]she urges scientists to "break out of the sex hormone straightjacket" and to look at steroids as just one of a number of components that are important to the creation of sex and gender, including environment and experience.4 Scholars also point to an inextricable link between the chem...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Feminist studies 2015-09, Vol.41 (3), p.623-650
Main Authors: Whitehead, Jaye Cee, Bassett, Kath, Franchini, Leia, Iacolucci, Michael
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Behavior
Biological gender
Brain
Brain research
Clinical medicine
Constructionism
Endocrine therapy
Essentialism
Femininity
Gender construction
Gender differences
Gender differentiation
Gender identity
Hormone therapy
Hormones
Hormones, Sex
Ideology
Meaning
Medical personnel
Mental health
Mental health professionals
Narratives
Nutrition
Organization theory
Physiological aspects
Pointing
Political aspects
Power
Psychological aspects
R&D
Research & development
Scientists
Semiotics
Sex differences
Sex hormones
Sex roles
Sexual behavior
Social aspects
Social interaction
Social meaning
Steroids
Stress
Transgender people
Transgenderism
Women
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Summary:[...]she urges scientists to "break out of the sex hormone straightjacket" and to look at steroids as just one of a number of components that are important to the creation of sex and gender, including environment and experience.4 Scholars also point to an inextricable link between the chemical operation of hormones and the social process of constructing meaning, both at the level of social interaction and macrocultural constructions of sex categories and gender ideologies.5 While brain organization/activation theory attributes sex and gender differences to hormonal interactions within the developing brain, Fausto-Sterling questions the distinction between activation and organization by pointing out how "the brain can respond to hormonal stimuli with anatomical changes...hormonal systems, after all, respond exquisitely to experience, be it in the form of nutrition, stress, or sexual activity (to name but a few possibilities).
ISSN:0046-3663
2153-3873
2153-3873
DOI:10.1353/fem.2015.0043