XClose

UCL Campaign

Home
Menu

Cordelia Fine and the Testosterone Rex

26 June 2018

‘Testosterone Rex – that familiar, plausible, pervasive and powerful story of sex and society.’

Cordelia Fine (MPhil Psychology 2001) - author of Testosterone Rex

That is how author and UCL alumna, Cordelia Fine (MPhil Psychology 2001) describes the belief by some that inequality of the sexes is natural, not cultural.

In her book of the same name, shortlisted for the Orwell Book Prize 2018, Cordelia argues that the concept of Testosterone Rex is a fiction. Although it is a fiction that shapes society, she says it is one that deserves to be dethroned.

In her compelling and engaging book, Cordelia lays out examples of scientific bias. She argues that this mistreatment of data has led to a modern misunderstanding of measurable gender roles.

She says that being male or female is not enough to make you into society’s version of a man or a woman. Instead, it is the recognition of your maleness or femaleness that structures how society treats you. 

She concludes ‘It’s time to be less polite and more disruptive; like the first- and second-wave feminists.’ Testosterone Rex ‘is a debunking rumble that ought to inspire a roar’ (The Guardian), and ‘a provocative and often fascinating book’ (Economist).

The Orwell Prize is Britain’s most prestigious prize for political writing. It awards prizes for work which comes closest to George Orwell’s ambition to ‘make political writing into art.’

Testosterone Rex is published by Icon Books.