Since the late 1990s, a constellation of professional associations, journals and health promotion materials has emerged that has constructed the ‘aging male’ as a medical problem. Central to this construction has been a revival of a hormonal model of the male body in which anti-aging is linked to the restoration of masculinity. In this paper I revisit the association of aging and demasculinization that animated the rejuvenation movement of the early 20th century, and contrast this with the initial mainstream medical (...) interest in testosterone therapy in the mid-20th century. Then I will demonstrate how the association between anti-aging and re-masculinization has been given new life in the remedicalized ‘andropause’, and as a contemporary focus on maintaining life-long virility has emerged as an important indicator of ‘health aging’. (shrink)

This paper discusses essential elements of the philosophical works of Ludwik Fleck and their potential interpretation for the teaching and learning of science. In the early twentieth century, Fleck made substantial contributions to understanding the sociological character of the nature of science and explaining the embedding of science in society. His works have several parallels to the later and very popular work, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, by Thomas S. Kuhn, although Kuhn only indirectly referred to the influence of Fleck (...) on his own theories. Starting from a short review of the life of Ludwik Fleck, his philosophical work and its connections to Kuhn, this paper elaborates upon and illustrates how his theories can be considered for science education in order to provide learners with a better understanding of the nature of scientific endeavor and the bi-directional science-to-society links. (shrink)

Resumen Como resultado de las luchas de las disidencias sexogenéricas se han aprobado leyes en todo el mundo que garantizan el reconocimiento de las identidades generizadas. La Ley de Identidad de Género argentina ofrece una definición de “identidad de género” opuesta a los enfoques biológicos y a la patologización y que respeta la voluntad individual y niega todo lugar a los refrendos de terceros “autorizados”. Esta ley regula el acceso a prácticas médicas para intervenir libremente los cuerpos. Ahora bien, los (...) principios científicos del dimorfismo sexual sobre los cuales descansan esos procedimientos suelen denunciarse por reprimir, normativizar y patologizar en especial los cuerpos intersex. Analizaré la cuestión de las identidades de género a la luz de esta tensión; por último, argumentaré que la identidad es transformativa, relacional y biotecnológicamente producida.As a result of the struggles of sex and gender dissidents, laws that guarantee the recognition of gender-identities have been passed all around the world. The Argentinian Gender Identity Law offers a definition of “gender identity” as opposed to biological anchorages and pathologization, respecting personal will and leaving no room for endorsement by “authorised” third parties. This law regulates the access to medical practices to freely intervene bodies. However, the theoretical scientific principles of sexual dimorphism on which these procedures are based on are usually denounced for repressing, normalizing and pathologizing especially intersex bodies. I will analyse the issue of gender identities in the light of this tension and, finally, I will argue that identity is transformative, relational and biotechnologically produced. (shrink)

Displacing the physiological model that had held sway in 19th-century medical thinking, early 20th-century hormone research promoted an understanding of the body and sexual desires in which variations in sex characteristics and non-reproductive sexual behaviours such as homosexuality were attributed to anomalies in the internal secretions produced by the testes or the ovaries. Biotypology, a new brand of medical science conceived and led by the Italian endocrinologist Nicola Pende, employed hormone research to study human types and hormone treatments to normalise (...) individuals who did not conform to accepted medical norms. Latin American medical doctors, eugenicists, and sexologists took up biotypology with enthusiasm. This article considers the case studies of Italy, Argentina, and Brazil, and analyses the work of medical doctors who adopted a biotypological mode of reasoning and employed to various extents hormone therapies in their practice. By focusing on hormone therapies that aimed to normalise secondary sexual characteristics and the sexual instinct, the article suggests that while the existence of normality was contested to the point that a number of medical scientists argued that no such thing existed, the pursuit of normality was carried out in very practical terms through the new medical technologies hormone research had introduced. (shrink)

Displacing the physiological model that had held sway in 19th-century medical thinking, early 20th-century medical scientists working on hormones promoted a new understanding of the body, psychological reactions, and the sexual instinct, arguing that each were fundamentally malleable. Hormones came to be understood as the chemical messengers that regulated an individual's growth and sexual development, and sexologists interested in this area focused primarily on children and adolescents. Hormone research also promoted a view of the body in which ‘hermaphroditism’, homosexuality, and (...) ‘sexual perversions’ such as masochism and sadism were attributed to anomalies in the internal secretions produced by the testes or the ovaries. This article focuses on Spanish, Italian, Argentinian, and Brazilian sexology shaped by endocrinological research in the interwar period. First, it shows the key role hormone treatments played in the historical development of sexology in Southern Europe and Latin America. Second, it looks at how sexologists employed hormone research to study human sexual development in the early stages of life, and how they set about ‘correcting’ what they viewed as ‘sexual anomalies’. (shrink)