Transgender Prof Defends Female Scientists

AP ^ | 7/12/6 | Lisa Leff

[SmithL]

SAN FRANCISCO -- As someone who studies brain development and regeneration, Stanford University neurobiologist Ben Barres feels qualified to comment on whether nature or nurture explains the shortage of women working in the sciences.

But it wasn't just his medical degree from Dartmouth, his Ph.D from Harvard and his research that inspired him to write an article blaming the persistent gender gap on institutional bias.

Rather, it was that for most of his academic life, the 50-year-old professor who now wears a beard was once known as Dr. Barbara Barres, a woman who excelled in math and science.

"I have this perspective," said Barres, who switched sexes when he started taking hormones in 1997. "I've lived in the shoes of a woman and I've lived in the shoes of a man. It's caused me to reflect on the barriers women face."

Barres' opinion piece, published in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature, was a response to the debate former Harvard president Lawrence Summers reignited last year when he said innate sexual differences might explain why comparatively few women excelled in scientific careers.

Summers' clashes with faculty — including over women in science — led to his resignation, though not before he committed $50 million on childcare and other initiatives to help advance the careers of women and minority employees.

Even so, Barres thinks a meaningful discussion of what he calls the "Larry Summers Hypothesis" ended too soon, leaving missed opportunities and a bad message for young female scientists.

"I feel like I have a responsibility to speak out," he said.

[SmithL]

Isn't that special?

[ECM]

"I feel like I have a responsibility to speak out," he said.

No, sorry, you are still female.

[L98Fiero]

Repeat a lie often enough...

[NonValueAdded]

"Whose side are you on?" s/he was asked.

"I don't know" came back the planitive wail.

[GAB-1955]

Depends on what you mean by female. Genetic code? Hormone level? Brain function? Socially? It's not all strictly polarized.

[RegulatorCountry]

""I've lived in the shoes of a woman and I've lived in the shoes of a man."

No, you haven't, Babs. You're living in the shoes of a very hairy woman, thanks to hormones purchased by you for that purpose. Your chromosomes are XX, and always will be.

[trisham]

"I have this perspective," said Barres

*****************

Is that what you call it?

[ECM]

You're joking, right? Please tell me you're joking. If you are genetically a woman, you are a woman, period. No amount of 'renovating' is going to change you into an actual man: hormonally, brain fuctionally, or socially. You lack the chromosome, you are a woman--period.

[Tokra]

Dr. Barres?

First in with the obligatory Helen Thomas photo.

[xpertskir]

Before you start letting loose on transgendered people please realize that there is a differences between someone such as (barbara/ben) who chose to switch their birth sex and someone who is born with an underdeveloped genitalia and no determined sex.

[GAB-1955]

I'm not joking. Unfortunately, the lines are blurred for some; there are those who are born intersexed, for example.

[GAB-1955]

Of course, I don't believe in a lot of this politicized nonsense.

[GAB-1955]

Of course, I don't believe in a lot of this politicized nonsense.

[DarthVader]

This picture we see is the result of nuclear mutation.

[VOA]

bump

[Labyrinthos]

First in with the obligatory Helen Thomas photo.

In the future, please try to give us a warning before posting a Helen Thomas photo. I was eating my lunch as I was scrolling throught the thread, and after seeing her photo, I lost my lunch, lost my appetite, and lost my keyboard.

[martin_fierro]

[Teacher317]

Your chromosomes are XX, and always will be.

Just to be a pain in the butt...

Jamie Lee Curtis is an XY female, and always will be. Does that mean that she's male?

[Mack the knife]

"You lack the chromosome, you are a woman--period."

---

If it were only that simple. A number of things can go wrong during the fetus development process, and when hundreds of millions of babies are born every year, a number of rare things happen.

For example, there are chimeras -- people who resulted from the developing fraternal twins merging into a single body -- so that the person actually has two different sets of chromosomes (e.g., liver, lungs one DNA, blood and skin a different DNA). There was a case presented on Discover in which law enforcement almost took children away from a woman because their DNA was incompatible -- she was accused of kidnapping the children that she bore. It turned out her ovaries had a different DNA than her skin and blood!

For example, when hormones trigger late or early during development, the result can be a hermaphrodite, or a "woman" with a severly enlarged clitoris, or a woman who has no vagina, or a man with XY chromosomes which has the physical genitalia of a woman.

This is not a belief -- it is documented fact, if you care to look for it. It has been also presented on Discover.

If you believe that the brain is wired differently for men than women, it is a result of hormones occurring at a specific time. If the hormones are delayed or if other hormones somehow occur, you could very well have a physical woman with a brain wired as a man, or vice versa.

[samtheman]

LOL!

As ugly as that hag is, she always makes me laugh.