The Justice

Brown University Prof. Anne Fausto-Sterling spoke at the Women's and Gender Studies. Photo courtesy of Keith Cheveralls.

According to Brown University Prof. Anne Fausto-Sterling, the belief that genetics alone can determine a person's sexual orientation is a "poor and misleading account of what genes do and how they affect us."

Instead, Fausto-Sterling explained that genetic factors interact with other social and environmental influences in people's lives to determine their sexual identities.

"Genes are not at the bottom of the pyramid," she said, "but they are in the middle of the sandwich."

Fausto-Sterling, professor of biology and gender studies, challenged common misconceptions about sexual development in the Women's and Gender Studies department's annual Eleanor Roosevelt presentation last Wednesday, "Nature, Nurture, Neither: Reconceptualizing Gender and Sexuality."

Fausto-Sterling claimed that sexuality and developmental differences between genders are based on systems in which both nature and nurture interact.

"Rather than being determined by genes or experiences, [sexuality] results from complex interactions between system components."

As opposed to a commonly held view that nature and nurture are completely isolated factors, Fausto-Sterling explained that "nature and nurture are components of a single dynamic system."

Using the example of someone learning to walk, Fausto-Sterling described the nature-nurture interaction.

Walking "can be disrupted in different ways depending on the system," she said.

"You are going to be walking differently on sand than on a peat bog or hard concrete. The muscles which you use will be different and the way you stabilize yourself will be different."

Similarly, a person's sexual identity will develop differently because of his or her interactions with a specific environment.

Fausto-Sterling emphasized that scientists shouldn't consider DNA alone in discussing the development of sexuality.

She explained that genetic factors act in conjunction with environmental components.

"The major point here is that DNA is an inert, uninteresting substance," she said during the Q-and-A period, eliciting laughter from the audience.

"What's really interesting is not so much what genes you have, but what genes are expressed."

Continued...

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