culturelab
He/she/them
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Feigned equality
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n White Privilege: The myth of a post-racial society, Kalwant Bhopal, Professor of Education and Social Justice at the University of Birmingham, shows that despite the impression that we live in a post-racial society where ethnicity, gender and class no longer matter, the opposite is true. It is still the case that people from ethnic minority groups are disadvantaged compared to their fellow white citizens. And even white people are subdivided, with certain white groups such as Roma and travellers being systematically discriminated against in society. The cause? Neoliberal policymaking, which has increased rather than reduced discrimination towards non-white people over the years. In White Privilege, Bhopal uses socio-scientific research, political and economic analyses to show how white individuals can benefit from sometimes invisible privileges and, therefore, how ethnicity impacts on inequality in society. –IP
White Privilege: The myth of a post-racial society Kalwant Bhopal Policy Press € 19.99
Subjective science
n Trans*, Jack Halberstam, Professor of Gender Studies at Columbia University New York, takes you on a journey into the world of transgender studies in a little under 200 pages. He addresses two topics in that field in particular. Firstly, Halberstam zooms in on the importance and the pitfalls of names and labels. What are the correct terms for transgender individuals? How important is a suitable pronoun? And how does language form identity? Halberstam champions an expansion of the current gender categories with more diverse labels. The second topic addressed by the author is that of physical bodies. Using a number of examples, Halberstam identifies the medical and biological aspects and challenges of being transgender. Trans* is an academic review of various insights into gender variability. It is clearly written by an academic, but also includes some personal touches from the author, who goes through life as both Judith and Jack. –AH
For centuries, the scientific community was convinced that women were intellectually inferior to men. Such sexist assumptions affected research methods and, even worse, research outcomes.
I Inferior: How science got women wrong – and the new research that’s rewriting the story Angela Saini Beacon Press € 21.99
n Inferior, British-Indian journalist Angela Saini shows that even today, scientific research into gender differences is far from objective. Present-day scientists are also full of prejudices about gender. Saini studies the scientific body of evidence to separate the chaff from the wheat. Which studies are robust and which are built on unstable foundations based on prejudices? Where are the pitfalls in the various studies? Which
30 | New Scientist | special diversity matters
research outcomes can we trust? And how has science short-changed women all these years? Based on a large number of studies across biology, neuroscience, anthropology and psychology, Saini concludes that differences between the genders are mainly determined culturally. Armed with hard figures, she makes a plea that it is time that we embrace this infomation. In 2017, Physics World declared Inferior the book of the year. –AH
Trans*: A quick and quirky account of gender variability Jack Halberstam University of California € 17.99
