04/25/2016
In this wide-ranging sociological and cultural survey, Browning (The Monk and the Skeptic), a former NPR correspondent, raises questions about what gender means in the Western world today (though he includes many references to non-Western cultures). Notions of gender have become “ever more complex” and “how we comprehend what it means to be male or female, or both or neither, appear more and more to be infinitely fluid,” he writes. As Browning touches upon sexuality, family, gender roles, and politics, it often feels like he’s stringing together numerous unrelated threads in order to address an impossibly complex constellation of topics. It’s clear from his experiences and personal anecdotes that he’s struggling to make sense of a fast-changing world, and that he’s searching for answers as much as anyone else. He addresses physiology (excluding intersex traits), the mental and emotional aspects of gender, and the blurred lines that have become more prominent in the West in recent years, but although he’s good at putting the pieces together, the book seems oddly lacking in confidence. As he points out, “Gender is rather experiencing an unprecedented proliferation of meanings, forms, and expression.” This may not be the most authoritative work on gender issues, but Browning certainly touches on and opens up a number of interesting discussions for general audiences. Agent: Jennifer Lyons, Jennifer Lyons Literary. (June)
"A probing, wide-ranging, and illuminating look at society's current ‘gender conundrum.’ . . . To research sex and gender, the author draws on interviews with and published research by biologists, neurologists, psychologists, physicians, parents, teachers, counselors, therapists, and many individuals who define themselves as ‘gender variant.’ . . . A timely, thoughtful contribution to a much-debated issue." —Kirkus Reviews
"Browning has a talent for relating complex topics accessibly . . . This account provides a solid overview of the shifting landscape of gender issues today." —Library Journal
"The Fate of Gender is a fascinating read . . . overall the book will make readers think hard about how, as a society, we have shaped gender identity and are reshaping what it means to be male and female, either and both." - Scientific American MIND
"In this daring examination of the complexities of modern gender, Frank Browning gives the scientific evidence that gender is a construct rather than a biological reality. Our notions of masculinity and femininity are becoming more fluid and not less, as science defers to social reality instead of the other way around. Scholarly, wide-ranging, and deeply imagined, this unsettling book limns the triumph of nuance over a binary that was never based in authenticity." —Andrew Solomon, author of FAR FROM THE TREE
"The Fate of Gender is a valuable addition to the debate on whether genders are multiplying, morphing, mutating, or disappearing entirely. Frank Browning presents a wide-ranging review of the current complexities of gender and sexuality. Engagingly written, this book is an excellent catch-up on what gender is all about today." —Judith Lorber, Professor Emerita, Graduate School and Brooklyn College, CUNY, author of BREAKING THE BOWLS: DEGENDERING AND FEMINIST CHANGE
"Does sex have a future? Well, yes. But everything else is up for grabs. An insightful, important book." —Rita Mae Brown, author of RUBYFRUIT JUNGLE
"Frank Browning is a voracious social, cultural and political observer. He ranges across continents and venues, stopping to inspect circumstances and examples, in this instance relentlessly moving toward an understanding of what gender is coming to mean. Browning makes it perfectly clear that gender these days is not a settled thing, if it ever really was. A persuasive evidence of intellect is the ability to take disparate examples and fashion them into an entirely unexpected but coherent whole. The Fate of Gender is a stunning example." —David Hawpe, former editor, THE COURIER-JOURNAL (Louisville)
"This is an extraordinary book. From the moment of our conception, sex and gender rule our lives. Browning, with incisiveness, insight, and wit, takes us on this journey, combining the latest relevant research with personal stories and his own explorations. He uses the research to highlight the personal, and acknowledges what is rarely said; that sex and gender are a muddle and mystery and we bravely soldier on ‘til the end." —Lynn Meyer, Founder, Women's Emergency Network
"An important book . . . that never sidesteps troubling questions." —The New York Times Book Review on THE CULTURE OF DESIRE
"Absolutely cutting edge—a portrait of modern sexual politics [that] should be required reading." —Armistead Maupin on THE CULTURE OF DESIRE
"Browning challenges us to consider what each of us is willing to risk to live life more fully." —San Francisco Examiner on THE CULTURE OF DESIRE
"[Browning] presents an international and historical overview of homosexuality that is refreshingly broad-minded." —The Washington Post Book World on A QUEER GEOGRAPHY
"Hidden history revealed." —Studs Terkel on THE AMERICAN WAY OF CRIME
04/01/2016
The title of former National Public Radio science reporter Browning's (The Monk and the Skeptic) new work may suggest a forward-looking study, but the majority of the book tends more toward current gender issues and controversies. As a result, it touches on a wide range of subjects including the varied forms of sexuality and relationships, surrogate births, gender issues in the workplace and the work/home balance, and the ways humanity is developing, teaching, and expressing the concepts of "feminine" and "masculine." Browning has a talent for relating complex topics accessibly, though the breadth of material included means that some facets are explored briefly. It's a shame, for example, that transgender concerns occupy only a single chapter. VERDICT Although the author sacrifices depth for range, this account provides a solid overview of the shifting landscape of gender issues today.—Kathleen McCallister, Tulane Univ., New Orleans
2016-03-22
A journalist and cultural critic investigates the "shifting terrain of gender."Former NPR science reporter Browning (The Monk and the Skeptic: Dialogues on Sex, Faith, and Religion, 2013, etc.) offers a probing, wide-ranging, and illuminating look at society's current "gender conundrum." How, he asks, are masculinity and femininity defined, biologically determined, and socially conditioned? He believes that Margaret Sanger's early-20th-century "crusade to separate sex from reproduction" changed both behavior and attitudes. Once sex was not tied to making babies, "the terms of what constituted sex were turned upside down, left to the torpor of the erotic imagination." Browning explores that erotic imagination, asking "whether activities of tongues, fingers…sundry inanimate toys," and twerking qualify as "sex." To research sex and gender, the author draws on interviews with and published research by biologists, neurologists, psychologists, physicians, parents, teachers, counselors, therapists, and many individuals who define themselves as "gender variant." The nurture vs. nature debate, he finds, has not been settled; nor have assumptions about comparative intellectual ability among males and females. In the tech world, Browning finds gender imbalance caused partly by the "male buddy culture" and partly, one researcher concludes, because of "ingrained cultural teaching and training." In Norway, kindergarten teachers look at differences in the ways they reinforce stereotypes in their responses to boys and girls. The author profiles gay couples who use surrogates to bear their children; transsexuals who undergo hormone treatment or surgery; and transvestites. Gendered stereotypes, he was told repeatedly, prevail in the culture, but attention to "trans issues," he believes, has the potential to inspire acknowledgment of "masculine and feminine fluidities" rather than sharply defined categories. "We all exist on what is called a gender spectrum," writes the author, "carrying both ‘masculine' and ‘feminine' traits whether we lust for the opposite sex, our own sex—or no sex." A timely, thoughtful contribution to a much-debated issue.
