By Matthew Gutmann
We place unreasonable confidence in biological explanations for male behavior. Nowhere is this more true than with testosterone. Contemporary experts invoke the hormone nicknamed ‘T’ to prove points about masculinity, to show how different men and women are, and to explain why some men (presumably those with more testosterone) have higher libido. However, despite the mythical properties that are popularly associated with this hormone, in all studies carried out to date there is no significant correlation between testosterone levels and sexual desire in healthy men.
Starting in the 1990s and gaining momentum in the 2000s, sales of testosterone replacement therapies (TRT) went from virtually zero to more than $5 billion annually in 2018. This was because there were a sudden outbreak of ‘low testosterone’ when a major medical epidemic was finally recognized or because testosterone was marketed as a wonder drug for men who panicked when they found out their testosterone levels dropped after reaching age 30.
The answer is not that men’s bodies changed or that low testosterone was horribly underdiagnosed before, but that, in the minds of many, testosterone became nothing less than a magical male molecule that could cure men, even As they age, energy and sexual desire decline.
What’s more, many have been taught that if you want to know what causes some men to be aggressive, you just have to test their testosterone levels, right? Not really: the study does not support this conclusion either. Some of the first famous work linking testosterone and aggression was done in prison populations and was used to ‘prove’ that higher levels of testosterone were found in some men (read: darker-skinned men), which explained why They were more violent and why they should be imprisoned. The methodological flaws in these studies took decades to unravel, and the one showing between testosterone and aggression (except at very high or very low levels) is now reaching the general public.
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Furthermore, it turns out that testosterone is not just a thing (a sex hormone) with a purpose (male reproduction). Testosterone is also essential in the development of embryos, muscles, female and male brains, and red blood cells. Depending on a variety of biological, environmental and social factors. Its influence is varied or insignificant.
, neuroscientist at Stanford University in California, a table showing that there were only 24 scientific articles on testosterone and aggression between 1970 and 1980, but there were more than 1,000 in the 2010s. New discoveries on aggression and testosterone? No, actually, although there were new ones in this period showing the importance of testosterone in generating ovulation. There is also a difference between correlation and cause (testosterone levels and aggression, for example, provide a classic challenge to the chicken-and-egg debate). As leading hormone experts have shown us for years, for the vast majority of men, it is impossible to predict who will be aggressive based on their testosterone level, just like if you encounter an aggressive man (or woman, for that matter). ), you cannot predict your testosterone level.
Testosterone is a molecule that was labeled almost 100 years ago as a “sex hormone,” because (some things never change) scientists were looking for definitive biological differences between men and women, and testosterone was supposed to unlock the mysteries of innate masculinity. . Testosterone is important for men’s brains, biceps, testicles, and is essential for female bodies. And, for the record, testosterone level doesn’t necessarily mean anything: sometimes the mere presence of testosterone. Kind of like starting a car, you only need fuel, whether it’s two liters or 200. Testosterone doesn’t always create differences between men and women, or between men. To make matters worse, men who report changes after taking testosterone supplements are just as likely to report placebo effects as anything else.
Still, we continue to attribute testosterone with supernatural powers. In 2018, a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court hung in the balance. The issues in the confirmation hearings came to focus on male sexual violence against women. A thorough description and analysis were needed. Writers for and against casually added the word “testosterone” to describe, denounce, or defend the judge’s past behavior: one commenter on Forbes wrote of “testosterone-induced gang rapes”; another, interviewed on CNN, asked: “But we’re talking about a 17-year-old in high school with high testosterone.” Tell me, what kid hasn’t done this in high school?’; and a third, in a column in The New York Timeswrote: “That’s him riding a wave of testosterone and alcohol…”
And it is unlikely that many readers would question the hormonal logic of , then president of , when she claimed that the 2008 economic collapse was due in part to too many men in charge of the financial sector: “I honestly believe that there should never be too much testosterone in a woman.” room.
You can find every day, in articles and speeches, that testosterone is used as a biomarker to explain (and sometimes excuse) male behavior. Some would say it is a “poetic license” or a figure of speech when describing the behavior of the men in charge. However, when we hold up testosterone as a significant example to explain male behavior, we may inadvertently excuse male behavior as something that is beyond men’s ability to control. Casual explanations for biological masculinity imply that patriarchal relationships are rooted in nature.
When we normalize the idea that testosterone runs through all high school boys and that explains why rape occurs, we move from euphemism to offering men impunity for sexually assaulting women by offering them the defense ‘not guilty, because of hormones’.
Invoking men’s biology to explain their behavior too often ends with absolution for their actions. When the terms testosterone and Y chromosome are interchanged, the idea that men are controlled by their bodies spreads. Thinking that hormones and genes can explain why men are men frees them from all kinds of sin. You’re kidding yourself if you think testosterone says anything significant about how men act and think. Men behave the way they do because culture allows it, not because biology requires it.
No one could seriously argue that biology is solely responsible for determining what it means to be a man. But words like testosterone and Y chromosomes slip into our descriptions of men’s activities, as if they explain more than they actually do. Testosterone does not govern men’s aggression and sexuality. And it’s a shame we don’t hear as much about the one showing that higher testosterone levels correlate as easily with generosity as they do with aggression. But generosity is less of a stereotypically masculine virtue, and this would spoil the narrative about the inherent aggressiveness of men, especially the aggressiveness of manly men. And this has a profound impact on what men and women think about men’s natural inclinations.
We have to keep talking about toxic masculinity and patriarchy. They are real and they are harmful. We also need new ways of talking about men, masculinity, and masculinity that get us out of the trap of thinking that men’s biology is their destiny. It turns out that, when we examine placebo effects and biochatter, testosterone is not a magical male molecule at all, but rather, as researchers Rebecca Jordan-Young and Katrina Karkazis argue in their excellent new Testosterone (2019), a social molecule.
Regardless of what you call it, testosterone is too often used as an excuse to let men off the hook and justify male privilege.
Matthew Gutmann is professor emeritus of anthropology at Brown University in Rhode Island. His latest book is Are Men Animals? How Modern Masculinity Sells Men Short (2019).
Article published in and translated and adapted to Spanish by .