Fausto-Sterling's Methods and Our Issues

My initial reaction to Anne Fausto-Sterling is that she is on the right track. She mentions several times about the subjective position she is writing in, and I think this is important to keep in mind. She really is attempting to synthesize certain domains of knowledge and discourse that do not necessarily go together. Sure, biology and feminism do both talk about gender and body politics, but not at all in the same way. I think this is one of the main take away points from her first chapter. She is also touching on so many of the issues that we have already discussed/tried to work through, and I think she is a straightforward writer. An attempt at a book like this would be incredibly difficult, and I think she holds every complex issue together pretty well.

That being said, I made sure and looked for her methods of justification pertaining to the issues she was trying to sort out. She uses footnotes. A lot of them. In the preface she states the need for a system like this and I can understand that. She makes sure to root her arguments in circles of knowledge outside of her own text. I think the question of if she is getting closer to the "truth" or "facts", or "knowledge" is an interesting one. Sterling draws from many different disciplines and her own life experience to help justify her claims, and the synthesis that results is definitely some form of knowledge. Knowledge, truth, and facts all intertwine, but I am not sure how close she really gets to any of them.

This book is definitely an intervention. Its an intervention into the little world that we have built and all of these issues we have been learning about. I think Sterling does a good job with these issues and am excited to see what else she has in store.