The Sex Binary: Discussing Biological Reality in a Culture of Intolerance

What is known about the biological bases of differences between males and females? If merely observing that sex is a binary (i.e., only male and female) leads to accusations of transphobia—which Dr. Carole Hooven experienced before her Harvard resignation—then debating and discovering answers seems impossible.

On November 12, 2024, at 4:30pm, Hooven will join the Buckley Institute in WLH 119 (100 Wall St, New Haven, CT) for a mixed lecture and discussion to share her research on the evolutionary and hormonal origins of sex differences, talk about the risks associated with expressing unpopular views on campus, and advise students on how to navigate a campus culture that is often hostile to diverse viewpoints.

This event is free and open to the public.

Dr. Carole Hooven is a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where she works on issues related to sex and gender, evolutionary biology, health, and academic freedom. She is an associate in Harvard’s department of psychology, in the lab of Steven Pinker, and is an active member of Harvard’s Council on Academic Freedom. Until recently, she was an award-winning educator and co-director of the undergraduate program in Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard, where she also received her PhD. She is the author of T: the Story of Testosterone (which The Wall Street Journal described as “a gorgeous culmination of an odyssey both professional and personal”), and is currently working on her next book on how biology denial harms boys and men. Her popular writing has also addressed topics such as problems with term “sex assigned at birth,” for The New York Times; sex differences in chess, for Quillette; and the culture of DEI and free speech on campus, for The Free Press (links here). Find her recent TED Talk on testosterone and sex differences in play here (on TED.com).