No. 15 (2015): La construction scientifique des sexes

Coordinated by Cécile Charlap, Stéphanie Pache and Laura Piccand. Edited by (for Émulations) Ghaliya Djelloul.

The naturalization of sexes, i.e. their understanding as a phenomenon of nature rather than nurture, is probably both constructivism’s most necessary target and its most difficult subject. The obviousness of the existence of categories of sexes and of gendered bodies appears to be so tangible that their social production is not easily conceived. The difficulty of this task is reinforced by the fact that science is generally marked by this essentialist conception of sexes. Therefore, social and historical studies on science and medicine play an essential role in understanding naturalization processes. Our contemporary period commonly conceives nature as the purest object of the most exact sciences, thus providing naturalist stances with a greater sense of truth, an authority to claim more objectivity than constructivist programs. A dichotomy opposing objectivity and subjectivity has long been applied with the idea that nature, being outside of social considerations, would constitute a “good object” of this objectivity, while the subjetcs of social sciences would be too complex to be rigorously objectivated, mainly because we are part of this social entanglement. We thus chose to title this issue “La construction scientifique des sexes”, to reflect our project of directly addressing these oppositions, by focusing on the categories of sex, following the works pursued on this theme by feminist studies of science and medicine (Fausto-Sterling, 2000 ; Gardey & Löwy, 2000 ; Rouch et al., 2005).