Response to This American Life

I thought that the episode of This American Life on Testosterone was a very interesting addition to our discussion of gender and sexuality, since it is essentially the hormone responsible for the differences between men and women, both biological and socially constructed.  While both men and women produce testosterone, men produce it in much higher quantities, thus contributing to the traits typically seen as masculine, such as aggresiveness and strong desires.  One thing I thought was particularly interesting was the account by the man who, due to an undisclosed medical condition, was temporarily without testosterone.  He described it as the complete loss of desire, which amounted to a sort of emotional blankness which he described as profoundly satisfying.  I liked the way he described it as bringing him closer to God (or god, whichever) because while he was describing his experience I kept thinking about what I, in my limited Western way, know of Buddhism as the attempt to attain spiritual satisfaction by extinguishing desire.  I couldn’t help but imagine a view of testosterone as a force that grounds us in earthly pursuits, preventing us from seeing through to some greater spiritual calm, or something.  Of course, I don’t think I’d want to follow this train of thought through to its natural conclusion.  Also, it seems that this view of testosterone has interesting implications for women as being more spiritually in tune.  Anyway, the description of life without this powerful made me think about testosterone in a way I really never would have expected.

Another important point I took away from this episode was the way in which the contest between members of the show’s staff to see who had the highest testosterone-levels between the men and the women, respectively, illuminated the relationship that men and women have to their own gender and identity within that gender.  While the men expressly hoped to have the highest levels among their group, which would affirm their masculinity (something I’d be willing to bet every male wants, whether or not they’d be willing to admit it), the women had much more mixed feelings.  This illustrated to me the point that, while it is clearly desirable for a man to be more masculine, it is difficult for a woman to determine whether it is better to be more masculine or more feminine.  While men can go full-steam-ahead in one gendered direction, women are put into the position of having to synthesize both their masculinity and their femininity in order to excel at the expectations placed on their sex.

I hope this makes sense, because these are difficult concepts to fully articulate.  At any rate, I would highly recommend following this link if you have an hour to kill and don’t mind nasally voices.