Testosterone Rex

Testosterone Rex, written by Cordelia Fine, is all about the female and male brain. Cordelia is a psychologist who has spent a lot of time study the human brain. Her goal with this book is to prove that the only difference between men and women is biological. Society has created these characteristics that men must be, and characteristics of what women must be. She uses the research that she has found to debunk myths about sex, science and society that have become very popular and believed over the years.

Chapter 1 was a very good starting chapter in this book. It debunked a few of the myths about men and women. One that it was focused on was mating. Society and culture has taught us that men are more superior when it comes to mating and reproducing. Angus Bateman came us up with this theory that males are more promiscuous then female and that makes them better at finding a partner. This is not true though. Through research, it is believed the women are just as good at finding a partner to mate with as men are. They are just as selective and will actually compete with other females to get the best man. Society took this believe, and it has become so popular that people all over believe that men are better at mating and reproducing.

Chapter 2 was probably my favorite. This chapter on focused on the differences between men and women when it came to reproducing offspring. For men, they can produce way more sperm then women can produce eggs. Because of this, is it believed that women should be in monogamous relationships. But because the men can produce more sperm, it is ok for them to mate with several women. With research, this was proven to not be true. A man that tries to get 100 women pregnant, will actually have a very low chance. Another topic discussed in this chapter was that women don’t really want to have one stands like men do. A study was conducted that proved that this is not true. Unfortunately for women, if they have a one-night stand, they are looked at as if they have done something very wrong and shamed for it. For men, they are praised for the more women they sleep with. It is a very messed up idea.

Another really interesting chapter was chapter 3. This focused on how men and women try to secure a mate. Both sexes will try to use gifts or flashy items to make themselves seem better. For men, they use flowers, jewelry and expensive dates to make themselves seem more superior to other men. This can also be to make themselves seem more attractive than they really are. Women tend to use their bodies to secure a mate. In this case, they will make themselves look better with makeup, wear revealing clothes and high heal to make the men more attracted to them. A study was done to see if people were more likely to pick a mate that was attractive like them or that had the same interest as them. The study showed that people were more likely to pick someone that had the same interest and values as them. I found it interesting that men and women try all these different ways to seem more attractive to the other, but really it comes down to if they have the same values.

This book was a really good read. It had a lot of great information in it that actually makes a lot of sense when you think about it. Society has made us believe that we have to act a certain way if we are men and a certain way if we are women. With Cordelia’s and others research, she was able to debunk these myths and believes. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone but specifically men and older generations. I feel like the older generations truly think this is how women are and that is how it has to be so I would be really interested in hearing how they react to this book. Overall, I really enjoyed.