The Mismeasure of Desire: The Science, Theory and Ethics of Sexual Orientation

I recommend this book to everyone I talk to. It's simply outstanding. Scientists will always seek to order the chaos, and philosophers will always seek to say that chaos can never be fully ordered. One may trim a hedge and box it into a container, but it is always alive, ever changing and growing. The best scientists can hope for is to catalog the waypoints.I wrote an essay on this subject for a lesbian and gay studies class back in 1997, knowing nothing of postmodernism, and knowing only that I was bi, and didn't seem to fit gender categories either, and was continually frustrated by people's attempts to label me. At the time, I was considered a radical, and my professor sought to discredit all of my anecdotal evidence by saying I was too young to know what I "really" was yet.That this book exists vindicates me on both a personal and professional level, and I hope will help all the rest of us "freaks" who exist outside the boxes come to terms with the idea that our chaos is the way things are meant to be, and that we should always refuse attempts at being ordered.

How ironic that I finished this book on the same day that a new study came out linking finger length to sexual orientation.This book is one of the most challenging I have ever read ... not only was it slow going at times while I struggled to grasp new ideas and concepts, but challenging in terms of getting me to look at my preconceived notions about sexual orientation in completely new ways.I admit there were times when I almost gave up on The Mismeasure of Desire. First because of the dry, academic style in which it is written. Later I grew frustrated with Mr. Stein taking up pages to explain a concept only to watch him "tear down" that concept in the next chapter. Now that I've finished The Mismeasure of Desire, I'm happy I stuck with the task of reading it. I find myself initiating conversations with friends about the ideas that are presented in the book and I find that I'm thinking about being gay in much different ways than when I first started this book.On the whole, this is a fascinating overview of the issue of sexual orientation and the research to study and define our "desires." My only major complaint with the book is the final section on the ethics of sexual orientation research. The issues raised in the chapters in this section could easily be expanded into an entire book. As it is, it feels like Mr. Stein breezes through some of these issues that could stand more in-depth study.

Edward Stein is a brilliant philosopher and writer in the best traditions of philosophy: he tries to help us make sense of our most deeply held values and interests. On every page of this book I found something to challenge and provoke my thinking. I predict that it will take some time for the controversial hypotheses and arguments about sexual orientation to become fully assimilated in our collective thinking about these topics, but once they do, they will forever change the terms of our conversations about innateness, choice, identity, sexuality, and value. The world needs more books like this.

This book is a serious look at the issues involved in thinking about sexual orientation. For example, while we all have a basic understanding of ideas like "gay" and "straight", coming up with an adequate definition that works for all the different kinds of people in the world is not as easy as it might seem at first glance. The point of this book is to take it beyond first glances to a clearer understanding. Such fundamental definitional questions have implications for any discussions of related issues, such as gay rights legislation (who is actually covered by these protections?) and scientific research on sexual orientation (just what are we trying to measure?). How can we claim to know what causes a person to be "gay" unless we first know which people that term is supposed to describe?There is also a less philosophical discussion of research methodologies and problems that arise specifically in doing research on an aspect of human nature that many people try to keep secret. For example, it's not clear that all the subjects in various experiments were "gay" at all, even by a simple definition. Obviously, if this is true, the results of such research are close to worthless, and yet the popular press generally ignores these crucial problems.Because it is a serious book, it is not light reading; you have to stop and think about what Stein is saying. But he explains the ideas clearly and uses effective examples to guide even the novice through all the hidden assumptions in discussions of sexual orientation. I recommend it to anyone interested in thinking critically about these issues.

It's too bad that the reviewer from Seattle found Stein's book less inspiring than she'd hoped. If she found it tough going, it's because the issues themselves are complex and difficult. Stein writes with exceptional clarity. A chief strength of the book is Stein's analysis of contending scientific theories of sexual orientation. Overall the book is comprehensive, critical, and illuminating.