Abstract
AbstractThe new science of epigenetics has raised hopes for an embrace of greater plasticity and variation within the biology of sex, gender, and sexuality than previously appreciated. This essay describes and analyzes the integration of epigenetics research into the scientific study of core biological pathways related to sex, gender, and sexuality in the brain in the post–Human Genome Project era. Through a close reading of the primary scientific literature, it demonstrates that epigenetic approaches in this subfield remain continuous with historically entrenched models of hardwired sexual dimorphism in the brain. Considering the opportunities and dilemmas of feminist engagements with the fast-moving and still-nascent field of epigenetics, it argues that for epigenetics to become a resource for studies of the development and plasticity of gendered-sexed bodies and identities, feminists must contest the ontological and epistemological commitments of mainstream research in this field. Feminist attraction t...
Highlights
The new science of epigenetics has raised hopes of an embrace of greater plasticity and variation within the biology of sex, gender, and sexuality than previously appreciated
“These findings suggest that environmental differences during development are programmed in the brain as a different pattern of epigenetic marks, and that this leads to differences in neuroendocrine and behavioral characteristics after maturity,” writes Matsuda (2014, 4)
From the perspective of feminist science studies, this essay analyzes the integration of epigenetics research into the subfield of scientific study of the core biological pathways related to sex, gender, and sexuality in the brain in the post-Human Genome Project era
Summary
The new science of epigenetics has raised hopes of an embrace of greater plasticity and variation within the biology of sex, gender, and sexuality than previously appreciated. As I demonstrate, in contrast to a broad reigning discourse associating epigenetics with biological plasticity in response to social and environmental context, in current research on sex differences in the mammalian brain, epigenetics serves a mechanism by which genes and hormones produce and maintain sexual dimorphism.
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