Life and Career
Fausto-Sterling received her bachelor of arts degree in zoology from University of Wisconsin in 1965 and her Ph.D. in developmental genetics from Brown University in 1970. She has taught at Brown since earning her Ph.D.
She has written two books intended for the general audience. The second edition of the first of those books, Myths of Gender, was published in 1992.
Her second book for the general public is Sexing the Body, published in 2000. She stated that in it she sets out to "convince readers of the need for theories that allow for a good deal of human variation and that integrate the analytical powers of the biological and the social into the systematic analysis of human development."
In a paper entitled "The Five Sexes", in which, according to her, "I had intended to be provocative, but I had also written with tongue firmly in cheek,", Fausto-Sterling laid out a thought experiment considering an alternative model of gender containing five sexes: male, female, merm, ferm, and herm. This thought experiment was interpreted by some as a serious proposal or even a theory; advocates for intersexual people stated that this theory was wrong, confusing and unhelpful to the interests of intersexual people. In a later paper ("The Five Sexes, Revisited") she has acknowledged these objections.
Fausto-Sterling also takes an interest in how flatworms (more precisely planaria) manage to reproduce themselves asexually.
Fausto-Sterling is married to Paula Vogel, a Yale professor and Pulitzer-winning playwright.
Read more about this topic: Anne Fausto-Sterling
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