Sexe, genre, sexualités - Nos corps, entre nature et culture - EN Version anglaise

Gender/Sex, Sexual Orientation, and Identity are in the Body: How Did They Get There?

How do sex, gender and sexualities develop? Usually people construct their answer in terms of oppositions: social vs non-social, nature vs nurture, biology versus culture. Anne Fausto-Sterling, Professor Emerita of biology and gender studies, wants to introduce a new vision, in which we view sex, gender, and sexual orientation as intertwined features of both bodies and cultures, without demanding that we choose one over the other.

As the leading expert in biology and gender development, Anne Fausto-Sterling views the features of human existence as ongoing processes rather than fixed traits. She introduces some of the processes by which traits such as gender and orientation become physical parts of the body, weaving together ideas and insights from the fields of phenomenology, the dynamic systems of infant development, and embodied cognition. By focusing on infancy and toddlerhood, she emphasizes development, or coming into being.

Anne Fausto-Sterling is the Nancy Duke Lewis Professor Emerita of Biology and Gender Studies in the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology and Biochemistry at Brown University. Her works include: Sex/gender: biology in a social world (2012); Sexing the body: gender politics and the construction of sexuality (2000); Myths of gender: biological theories about women and men (1992).

This conference is held as part of “Sciences, sex, identity” (SSI), a project promoting scientific and health literacy in adolescents and adults, including parents, teachers and health professionals, and as part of University of Geneva's Gender Equality week 2019.