My new trade book On Sex and Gender, out today from Simon & Schuster, developed out of an academic project—first in the legal literature with Sex in Sport (2017) and Sex Neutrality (2021), then with scientists and policymakers in the medical research and sports spaces. This interdisciplinary collaboration allowed me a forest-through-the-trees view of three separate storylines from science, law, and progressive advocacy, all with the same basic theme: What is 'Sex'? In this post, I excerpt sections of the book that summarize these separate storylines and conclude with a reflection on how, taken together, they inform the current moment.
Note: In my first post I explained that I use the word sex in its biological sense. In this post I use gender not as a synonym for sex but rather consistent with one or more of the three ways it's otherwise defined: (1) The expectations others attach to us because of our sex, i.e., gender norms. (2) The ways we express ourselves that are coded as gendered, i.e., gender expression. (3) Our inner sense of our sex and/or gender, i.e., gender identity.
