Delusions of gender è uno dei quei libri che tutti dovrebbero leggere, se non altro per difendersi dalla mole di informazioni scientifiche (o pseudo tali) che rimbalzano da tutti i media. Quante volte vi è capitato di sentire o leggere di una nuova scoperta che mette in evidenza una differenza tra il cervello dei maschi e quello delle femmine? Tante.

Cordelia Fine, l'autrice di questo libro, ci mette in guardia dal credere ciecamente a questi annunci: ad oggi, è pretenzioso ipotizzare che le differenze neurologiche tra i sessi possano ripercuotersi in differenze di comportamento. In primis, perché potrebbero semplicemente essere due modi diversi di giungere allo stesso risultato. Poi, non abbiamo conoscenze sufficientemente approfondite da poter sapere con certezza che l'utilizzo di una certa area del cervello porti invariabilmente a un certo comportamento psicologico.

Inoltre, e su questo Cordelia Fine si concentra, molti dei comportamenti, delle differenze tra i due generi che sembrano aver origine neurologiche, e quindi genetiche, in realtà sarebbero la conseguenza della straordinaria adattabilità del nostro cervello all'ambiente esterno.

L'autrice, attraverso numerosi studi, ci porta alla scoperta di vecchi pregiudizi subdolamente sostenuti da nuove scoperte che di scientifico e razionale hanno ben poco. ( )

I did not read this whole book, I jumped around a lot looking for a new thought, or a mention of trans people or even like one they/them pronoun. Released only a decade ago and painfully outdated already. I regret spending money on this.

Excellent, well-researched overview of the ways in which society reinforces gender stereotypes and erroneously blames those stereotypes on nonexistent neurological differences.

Thoroughly enjoyed it, and I'm not usually a nonfiction person (ok, once in a while.)

If the author were to do a new edition, it would be nice to have some more details about how all of this affects trans people. ( )

There are many, many books and scientific studies out there that support the idea that established social gender roles are due to biological differences between the two sexes. And not just the obvious differences but subtle and even constructed one as well – intuition, capacity for empathy, decisiveness, mechanical aptitude – the list is endless. In this book author Cordelia Fine points out how much of the neuroscience that supports this idea is the result of shoddy research or misinterpreted data. She also cites studies that show how social cues and self‑stereotyping contribute as well. This was fascinating even though the writing was a little dry, luckily the author’s snarky sense of humor helped here. ( )

This book needs to be renamed now that a bunch of alt-right people who are anti-LGBT and can't tell the difference between gender and gender norms have started calling themselves "gender critical". I really doubt that Cordelia Fine is a radical who wants to exclude trans people, and at the moment i think the book title suggests that. Anyway even if she is, the book is excellent and doesn't have any warped ideology evident in its pages and contains lots of information that is very supportive of cis and trans men and women and non-binary folk.

GENDER NORMS ARE BULL AND THIS WAS NOT A BOOK REVIEW. DOWN WITH THE PATRIARCHY ( )