The Stronger Sex
What Science Tells Us about the Power of the Female Body
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4.0 • 1 Rating
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- $18.99
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- $18.99
Publisher Description
A myth-busting vindication of women’s physical strengths that's "fun, rooted in science, and a strong pitch for a stronger sex" (Cat Bohannon)
A Library Journal Best Book of the Year
For decades, Starre Vartan—like most women—was told that having a woman’s body meant being weaker than men. Like many women, she mostly believed it.
Not anymore.
Following a half decade of research into the newest science, Vartan shows in The Stronger Sex that women’s bodies are incredibly powerful, flexible, and resilient in ways men’s bodies aren’t. Tossing aside the narrow notion of a fully ripped man as the measure of strength, Vartan reveals the ways that women surpass men in endurance, flexibility, immunity, pain tolerance, and the ultimate test of any human body: longevity. Vartan—a deadeye shot since her grandmother showed her how to aim a .22—debunks myth after myth like so many tin cans at two hundred yards and reveals why, if anyone wins in a battle of the sexes, it’s women.
In interviews with dozens of researchers from biology, anthropology, physiology, and sports science, plus in-depth conversations with runners, swimmers, wrestlers, woodchoppers, thru-hikers, firefighters, and more, The Stronger Sex squashes outdated ideas about women’s bodies. It’s a celebration of female strength that doesn’t argue “down with men” but “up with us all.”
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
"Female bodies are far stronger and more capable than most of us have been taught," according to this myth-busting report. Science writer Vartan (The Eco-Chick Guide to Life) argues that understanding strength as moving "the heaviest weight one can manage in a single effort" valorizes activities at which men excel while downplaying the endurance feats in which women often outperform men. She explains that estrogen helps women store fat that's later transformed into long-lasting energy while men rely on relatively inefficient carbohydrates, giving women an edge in many endurance sports. For instance, she notes that the 10 fastest women to swim around Manhattan were about 13% faster than the top 10 men. Vartan skillfully debunks outdated beliefs, as when she points out that contrary to long-standing medical guidance to "minimize exercise and exertion while pregnant," research has shown that pregnant people who worked out regularly enjoyed shorter labors. Bringing a thought-provoking outlook to debates around segregating sports by gender, Vartan wonders why testosterone is considered an unfair advantage, but Usain Bolt's unusually long legs, for example, aren't, and suggests that separating individuals by height and weight would be more logical. This brings valuable perspective to a much debated topic.
