Alice Domurat Dreger

An advocate for victims of unethical research who also defends the rights of scientists to pursue challenging research into human identities defends intellectual freedom, in this thought-provoking volume told though the ordeals of modern scientists who have been attacked for exploring controversial ideas.

Heretics, Activists, and the Search for Justice in Science

Galileo's Middle Finger

One of Us views conjoined twinning and other "abnormalities" from the point of view of people living with such anatomies, and considers these issues within the larger historical context of anatomical politics. This deeply thought-provoking and compassionate work exposes the extent of the social frame upon which we construct the "normal."

Conjoined Twins and the Future of Normal

One of Us

Intersex in the Age of Ethics

Alice Dreger,

Are you having a hard time talking to your kid about sex? Join the club. Alice Dreger, Ph.D., brings her unique sense of humor and refreshing directness to bear on this landmine-of-a-subject, laying out clear methods that emphasize respect, health, and happiness.After Dreger's live-tweeting of her son's abstinence sex ed class went viral, Dreger was asked by many parents how she had managed to raise a fourteen-year-old so comfortable talking about sex-comfortable enough even to challenge sex ed teachers when they presented misinformation. The Talk is a response to those questions. In it, Dreger explains how you can engage your children in productive conversations about sexual anatomy, sexual behaviors, sexual responsibility, and sexual pleasure, and how you can do it in a non-shaming fashion that will support not only your child's well-being, but also your long-term relationship with your child. Using the humor and clarity for which she is known, Dreger provides the basic information you need to understand sex development, gender identity, and erotic feelings and behaviors, while also giving you a clear method for talking with children about difficult subjects like sex. The Talk gives you examples of how to answer children's questions, and even explains how to recover if you screw up a conversation about sex. Whether your child is a preschooler or a teenager, The Talk will help you go forward with more information and less fear.Alice Dreger, PhD, is an historian of medicine, science, and sexuality, and an award-winning writer. Her essays on sex have appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, WIRED, Slate, The L.A. Times, The Chicago Tribune, Pacific Standard, Fathering Magazine, and Psychology Today, and she has appeared as a sex expert on dozens of broadcast programs, including Oprah, CNN International, NPR's All Things Considered, and the Savage Lovecast. Her consultancy work includes editing a handbook for parents of children born with relatively uncommon forms of sex anatomy (intersex) and co-editing a teaching guide on LGBT patient care for the Association of American Medical Colleges. She has been on the faculty of several universities, most recently at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine. Her last book, "Galileo's Middle Finger: Heretics, Activists, and One Scholar's Search for Justice" has been named an Editors' Choice by The New York Times. It has received praise in The New Yorker, Salon, Forbes, and New York Magazine and has just been released in paperback with a new afterword.

Helping Your Kids Navigate Sex in the Real World

The Talk

Alice Domurat DREGER

Punctuated with remarkable case studies, this book explores extraordinary encounters between hermaphrodites--people born with ambiguous sexual anatomy--and the medical and scientific professionals who grappled with them. Alice Dreger focuses on events in France and Britain in the late nineteenth century, a moment of great tension for questions of sex roles. While feminists, homosexuals, and anthropological explorers openly questioned the natures and purposes of the two sexes, anatomical hermaphrodites suggested a deeper question: just how many human sexes are there? Ultimately hermaphrodites led doctors and scientists to another surprisingly difficult question: what is sex, really? Hermaphrodites and the Medical Invention of Sex takes us inside the doctors' chambers to see how and why medical and scientific men constructed sex, gender, and sexuality as they did, and especially how the material conformation of hermaphroditic bodies--when combined with social exigencies--forced peculiar constructions. Throughout the book Dreger indicates how this history can help us to understand present-day conceptualizations of sex, gender, and sexuality. This leads to an epilogue, where the author discusses and questions the protocols employed today in the treatment of intersexuals (people born hermaphroditic). Given the history she has recounted, should these protocols be reconsidered and revised? A meticulously researched account of a fascinating problem in the history of medicine, this book will compel the attention of historians, physicians, medical ethicists, intersexuals themselves, and anyone interested in the meanings and foundations of sexual identity.

Alice Domurat Dreger

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