Popular in Sociology

Culture and Society

The City as a Growth Machine: Toward a Political Economy of Place

New York University Harvey Moltoch

Culture and Society

Carceral Entrapments: Views from the Prison/Street Interface in India

Indian Institute of Technology Delhi Mahuya Bandyopadhya

Culture and Society

Pre-problem families: predictive analytics and the future as the present

University of Southampton Rosalind Edwards

Ethnicity and Racism

Were Muslim Barbarians Really Knocking On the Gates of Ontario?

University of Ottawa Natasha Bakht

Culture and Society

Poor People’s Survival Strategies

The University of Texas at Austin Javier Auyero

Ethnicity and Racism

Sociology of Whiteness

Arizona State University Monica McDermott

Ethnicity and Racism

Narratives of Harm and the case for detention abolition

Queen's University Sharry Aiken

What Biological Stories are Americans Telling About the Egg and the Sperm?

View more insights in Social Sciences - Sociology - Gender and Feminism

View more figures from Yale University

View the page of Rene Almeling

Read the Study

Rene Almeling’s qualitative interviews reveal the persistence of the traditional active sperm/passive egg metaphor alongside a newer perspective emphasizing gametes’ similarity.

Image courtesy of interviewee. March 8, 2024

Generating Workspace

Export as PDF

This video video discusses the influential work of anthropologist Emily Martin and her study on gendered metaphors in scientific descriptions of human fertilization. About 30 years ago, Martin observed biologists at Johns Hopkins and found that they attributed masculine characteristics to sperm—depicting it as active and competitive—and feminine characteristics to eggs—describing them as passive and waiting. She concluded that these metaphors reflected cultural beliefs about gender, which distorted scientific understanding of fertilization processes.

The speaker, inspired by Martin, conducted a similar investigation that revealed two prevailing metaphors in public understanding: one aligning with the traditional active sperm vs. passive egg narrative, and another suggesting both sperm and egg are equal, seen as two halves of a whole. This video video second metaphor seemed influenced by increased public awareness of genetics, emphasizing equal contributions from parents.

The speaker stresses the importance of recognizing how cultural beliefs around gender shape scientific knowledge and highlights the significance of metaphors in revealing these assumptions. They emphasize that these findings can improve scientific accuracy by identifying and addressing cultural biases in the framing of biological processes. Ultimately, the study shows that the way we narrate biological phenomena reflects our societal views on gender, and the conversation around these metaphors may evolve as societal attitudes change.

Language:

Export as PDF

Export as PDF
Sure! Please provide the video you're referring to, and I'll help you extract five key points from it.

Export as PDF
It seems like the title or specific video you're referring to is missing. Could you please provide the name of the work or share the video you want quotes from? This will help me assist you better.

Export as PDF
Here are some articles that discuss topics similar to the one you , focusing on gendered metaphors in science, cultural biases in scientific narratives, and the implications of these perspectives on our understanding of biological processes:

1. **"Gendered Narratives in Science: The Role of Metaphor in Understanding Reproductive Biology"** - This article examines how metaphors used in scientific discourse influence public perception and understanding of reproductive processes, highlighting examples from various biological fields.

2. **"Language and Gender in Scientific Communication"** - This research explores how language and gender biases manifest in scientific literature, impacting both the interpretation and dissemination of scientific knowledge.

3. **"Metaphors We Live By: The Impact of Language on Scientific Thought"** - This paper delves into the relationship between metaphorical language and scientific conceptualization, particularly in the fields of biology and medicine, and discusses how these metaphors can perpetuate stereotypes.

4. **"The Politics of Metaphor: Gender Bias in Biological Science"** - This article critically analyzes the metaphors that dominate biological discussions about gender, arguing for a more equitable representation of both male and female roles in reproductive science.

5. **"Beyond the Egg and Sperm: Rethinking Gendered Metaphors in Biology"** - This study challenges traditional narratives by proposing alternative metaphors for understanding reproduction that emphasize cooperation and equality between genders.

6. **"Cultural Influences on Scientific Thought: Examining Gendered Bias"** - This article discusses how cultural beliefs surrounding gender influence scientific inquiry and understanding, with case studies from various fields, including biology.

7. **"Redefining Gender Roles in the Language of Science: A Call for Change"** - This piece advocates for a re-evaluation of the language used in scientific discourse to eliminate gender biases and promote a more inclusive understanding of biological processes.

These articles engage with the themes of cultural beliefs, gender representation, and the significance of language in shaping scientific understanding, mirroring the ideas presented in the video discussion of Emily Martin's work.

X-TIMESTAMP-MAP:LOCAL=00:00:00.000,MPEGTS=900000

00:00.055 --> 00:04.285
Emily Martin is an anthropologist who did probably one

00:04.285 --> 00:06.965
of the most famous studies in,

00:07.225 --> 00:09.925
gender studies in the sociology of health and medicine.

00:10.385 --> 00:12.645
Um, so it was about 30 years ago

00:12.645 --> 00:15.525
that she went into a biology lab at Johns Hopkins

00:16.025 --> 00:19.085
and was observing the biologists at work,

00:19.705 --> 00:21.805
how they spoke about the things that they were studying,

00:21.805 --> 00:24.685
which happened to be human fertilization and how eggs

00:24.705 --> 00:25.805
and sperm come together.

00:26.385 --> 00:30.245
And, so her article was an analysis of the metaphors

00:30.395 --> 00:33.965
that these scientists were using to describe the process

00:34.065 --> 00:35.245
of human fertilization.

00:35.905 --> 00:40.325
And what she found was that they sort of imputed, kind

00:40.325 --> 00:42.165
of human characteristics

00:42.465 --> 00:45.045
or the characteristics associated with masculinity

00:45.065 --> 00:48.965
and femininity at the time onto the sperm and the eggs.

00:49.385 --> 00:53.645
So she famously described the sperm as, active, well,

00:53.645 --> 00:55.605
she was describing how the scientists were describing it,

00:55.605 --> 01:00.245
but she famously described the scientists using terminology

01:00.415 --> 01:02.645
associated with, sort

01:02.645 --> 01:04.805
of the characteristics of masculinity.

01:05.225 --> 01:08.925
Um, you know, the, describing the sperm as active racing,

01:09.675 --> 01:13.045
competing to get to the egg, penetrating the egg.

01:13.345 --> 01:16.045
And the egg was described in terms that were associated

01:16.045 --> 01:18.845
with femininity at the time of being passive

01:19.425 --> 01:20.685
and kind of waiting

01:20.705 --> 01:23.525
around almost a damsel in distress is some

01:23.525 --> 01:24.605
of the language that was used.

01:25.025 --> 01:27.125
Um, so she, she kind of writes this, you know,

01:27.125 --> 01:30.645
article about the ways that biologists unknowingly used

01:31.525 --> 01:34.725
cultural beliefs and cultural understandings of masculinity,

01:34.725 --> 01:38.165
femininity, and describing human fertilization to the degree

01:38.165 --> 01:41.405
that they were actually not describing it accurately.

01:41.665 --> 01:44.725
And so what she found was that in fact, you know,

01:44.725 --> 01:47.005
and biologists now would say that this is not

01:47.025 --> 01:48.445
how human fertilization happens.

01:48.555 --> 01:50.365
It's not, you know, this firm aren't actually

01:50.365 --> 01:51.445
going anywhere.

01:51.475 --> 01:54.045
They're kind of like, you know, moving around in circles.

01:54.545 --> 01:58.325
Um, the egg is not actually waiting passively

01:58.385 --> 02:00.565
to be penetrated by oncoming sperm,

02:00.865 --> 02:03.845
but engages in a process that is called chemotaxis.

02:04.035 --> 02:06.445
There's actually sending chemical signals out

02:06.445 --> 02:07.565
to draw sperm in.

02:07.985 --> 02:11.205
Um, so the things that she writes about,

02:11.205 --> 02:13.525
and the reason that the article is so powerful even

02:13.525 --> 02:15.805
to this day is because it's one of the kind

02:15.805 --> 02:17.685
of classic examples of the way

02:17.715 --> 02:21.005
that gendered beliefs really shaped the process

02:21.625 --> 02:23.245
of making scientific knowledge.

02:23.545 --> 02:26.045
Um, to the extent that, you know, you can, still

02:26.045 --> 02:27.965
to this day open up, you know, a high school textbook

02:28.145 --> 02:31.085
or you know, in any of the documentaries that you see.

02:31.265 --> 02:34.885
Um, you know, we still often hear descriptions of sperm

02:34.885 --> 02:37.725
as sort of active racing, penetrating competing,

02:37.745 --> 02:39.765
and eggs is passively waiting there to go.

02:39.825 --> 02:41.365
So it's, it's not something

02:41.365 --> 02:43.325
that was only happening in that biology lab.

02:43.585 --> 02:46.085
Um, but that scholars have now demonstrated that it has sort

02:46.085 --> 02:49.005
of permeated popular culture around descriptions

02:49.005 --> 02:50.005
of human fertilization.

02:50.645 --> 02:54.045
I took Emily Martin as an inspiration,

02:54.145 --> 02:56.525
but my study was happening 30 years later.

02:56.705 --> 02:58.685
And so, you know, it was about,

02:58.785 --> 03:00.285
You know, seven or eight years ago

03:00.285 --> 03:01.845
that I started doing interviews

03:02.315 --> 03:05.525
with people from the general population in a

03:05.525 --> 03:06.845
northeastern American city.

03:06.915 --> 03:09.125
It's sort of, typical for sociologists

03:09.125 --> 03:10.965
to disguise the place that they do research.

03:11.425 --> 03:13.605
Um, and what I was interested in was sort of how

03:14.205 --> 03:17.005
everyday people understand, kind

03:17.005 --> 03:20.085
of a man's role in reproduction, how they would define that.

03:20.145 --> 03:22.605
So I was doing this sort of broader interview study,

03:22.945 --> 03:25.325
and one of the questions that I ended up asking was about,

03:25.585 --> 03:28.645
how would you describe, the relationship

03:28.645 --> 03:30.005
between an egg and a sperm?

03:30.185 --> 03:31.885
Um, and so I was sort of expecting to hear

03:31.885 --> 03:34.365
that traditional story about active sperm

03:34.365 --> 03:36.965
and passive egg, which I did,

03:37.195 --> 03:39.125
from almost everybody that I interviewed.

03:39.425 --> 03:41.205
But the thing that was so interesting was

03:41.205 --> 03:44.805
that the interview study allowed me to, to learn,

03:44.805 --> 03:47.525
that there was a second metaphor circulating at the time.

03:48.065 --> 03:50.565
Um, and so people would describe that sort

03:50.565 --> 03:52.205
of traditional tale, but a subset

03:52.305 --> 03:55.685
of the respondents also told a very different story about

03:55.995 --> 03:57.445
eggs and sperm coming together,

03:57.985 --> 04:00.045
or that they were two halves of a whole.

04:00.505 --> 04:03.165
Um, so neither one was active or dominant.

04:03.785 --> 04:05.965
Um, neither one was submissive or passive.

04:06.105 --> 04:07.885
It was really that you needed both in

04:07.885 --> 04:09.005
order to have fertilization.

04:09.585 --> 04:11.805
And so that sort of discovery

04:11.945 --> 04:13.885
of there being a second metaphor

04:13.885 --> 04:16.805
that was circulating is made possible by an approach

04:16.805 --> 04:19.605
that sort of takes very seriously, the kinds

04:19.605 --> 04:22.805
of metaphors and the ways that those are produced by sort

04:22.805 --> 04:23.885
of cultural beliefs

04:23.985 --> 04:26.645
and reveal our cultural beliefs in finding

04:26.645 --> 04:27.845
these two metaphors.

04:27.845 --> 04:30.245
And sometimes people would articulate both

04:30.245 --> 04:31.845
of them in the same interview.

04:32.185 --> 04:34.365
Uh, so it's important to recognize that it wasn't,

04:34.365 --> 04:35.925
they're not mutually exclusive.

04:36.265 --> 04:38.725
And so it means that we're telling different kinds

04:38.725 --> 04:40.005
of stories about eggs

04:40.005 --> 04:43.845
and sperm, which are shaped in part by different stories

04:43.905 --> 04:46.805
and narratives around masculinities and femininities.

04:47.145 --> 04:50.365
Um, all of these are sort of rooted in an understanding

04:50.625 --> 04:54.805
of gender as binary, which is a cultural belief in the ways

04:54.805 --> 04:56.725
that human bodies can be categorized.

04:57.265 --> 05:00.925
And so, the, the, the way to understand what it means

05:00.925 --> 05:03.565
that there's these two different metaphors is to say that,

05:03.565 --> 05:06.525
you know, sort of, it's not only our beliefs about gendered

05:06.525 --> 05:10.045
bodies and the ways they were being kind of written on,

05:10.265 --> 05:13.245
egg and sperm cells, but also as we sort

05:13.245 --> 05:16.205
of have different conversations around gender

05:16.545 --> 05:18.685
and the spectrum of gender identities

05:18.825 --> 05:22.045
and the idea that gender is fluid, the expectation would be

05:22.045 --> 05:24.125
that there may be new metaphors that develop.

05:24.625 --> 05:28.125
Um, and so I did not see any of those kinds

05:28.125 --> 05:30.085
of metaphors emerging in my data.

05:30.585 --> 05:33.485
Um, but like I said, my data are seven or eight years old,

05:33.505 --> 05:35.125
and I think it would be really interesting

05:35.125 --> 05:38.525
to do the study again today, to ask this question of

05:38.825 --> 05:41.045
how have changing social conversations

05:41.045 --> 05:42.845
around gender shaped the kind

05:42.845 --> 05:44.525
of metaphors we're seeing when it comes

05:44.545 --> 05:45.645
to human fertilization.

05:46.265 --> 05:48.045
Um, so that's one way I'll answer that.

05:48.065 --> 05:50.085
The other, the other thing that I would draw out here from

05:50.085 --> 05:53.245
the findings is, that second metaphor where eggs

05:53.245 --> 05:54.565
and sperm are seen as equal.

05:55.205 --> 05:58.605
I don't have definitive, data to prove this,

05:58.705 --> 06:03.085
but my sense is that that emerges from an understanding,

06:03.305 --> 06:05.565
and more popular awareness of genetics.

06:05.985 --> 06:07.925
And so in the past 30 years,

06:07.995 --> 06:10.245
even since Emily Martin's study, you know,

06:10.295 --> 06:11.885
we've sequenced the human genome.

06:12.035 --> 06:15.325
There's sort of more everyday discussion about DNA

06:15.345 --> 06:16.525
and genetic inheritance.

06:16.945 --> 06:19.925
Um, and so I think thinking of ex and sperm as 50 50

06:20.465 --> 06:24.045
or two halves of a whole is linked to that understanding

06:24.265 --> 06:28.245
of sort of equal, contributions from,

06:28.305 --> 06:30.565
two different parents to genetic inheritance.

06:30.585 --> 06:33.485
And so if I had to speculate, I would say that's probably

06:33.485 --> 06:35.885
where that metaphor is coming from.

06:36.645 --> 06:39.685
I think when it comes down to it, the real, point

06:39.985 --> 06:43.365
of research like this, so Emily Martin's research about

06:43.395 --> 06:46.765
what kinds of biological stories do we tell about eggs

06:46.765 --> 06:48.685
and sperm, my research about

06:48.685 --> 06:51.965
how those stories might be changing in response to broader

06:52.565 --> 06:53.885
societal changes around gender

06:53.945 --> 06:58.405
and bodies, sexuality, genetics, the, the real kind of

06:58.975 --> 07:02.085
importance of those studies is being aware

07:02.225 --> 07:06.245
of when our cultural beliefs are shaping our science.

07:06.825 --> 07:10.445
Um, and so it's not an anti-science argument in any way.

07:10.555 --> 07:14.805
It's actually an attempt to make the science as strong

07:14.825 --> 07:18.245
and as good as possible by identifying when these sort

07:18.245 --> 07:20.765
of cultural assumptions are sort of, you know,

07:20.835 --> 07:22.205
finding their way in.

07:22.625 --> 07:26.485
Um, and metaphors are really, sort of, you know, it's,

07:26.565 --> 07:27.885
I think sometimes people hear metaphors

07:27.885 --> 07:30.085
and they think, well, that's a study of literature.

07:30.585 --> 07:33.725
Um, but metaphors are a way that really, it's a way of kind

07:33.725 --> 07:36.365
of smuggling these cultural assumptions into

07:36.365 --> 07:37.525
scientific knowledge making.

07:37.545 --> 07:41.165
And so there are previous scholars, Evelyn, Fox, Keller,

07:41.165 --> 07:44.805
Sarah Richardson, who have really identified the power in I,

07:44.905 --> 07:48.205
in sort of spotlighting those metaphors that are at play

07:48.225 --> 07:49.685
and understanding how they work.

07:50.185 --> 07:51.285
Um, so I think it's, you know,

07:51.285 --> 07:53.925
it's not the eggs in the sperm that are more

07:53.945 --> 07:57.845
or less egalitarian or more or less dominant or submissive.

07:58.195 --> 08:00.605
It's the stories that we tell about them that are,

08:00.905 --> 08:02.885
and those stories are really stories about us

08:03.065 --> 08:05.005
and our society and our gendered beliefs.

08:05.025 --> 08:07.885
And I think that's the, the importance of studies like this.

00:00 - Emily Martin is an anthropologist who did probably one of the most famous studies in, gender studies in the sociology of health and medicine. so it was about 30 years ago that she went into a biology lab at Johns Hopkins and was observing the biologists at work,

00:19 - how they spoke about the things that they were studying, which happened to be human fertilization and how eggs and sperm come together. And, so her article was an analysis of the metaphors that these scientists were using to describe the process of human fertilization. And what she found was that they sort of imputed, kind of human characteristics or the characteristics associated with masculinity and femininity at the time onto the sperm and the eggs.

00:49 - So she famously described the sperm as, active, well, she was describing how the scientists were describing it, but she famously described the scientists using terminology associated with, sort of the characteristics of masculinity. you know, the, describing the sperm as active racing, competing to get to the egg, penetrating the egg. And the egg was described in terms that were associated with femininity at the time of being passive and kind of waiting

01:20 - around almost a damsel in distress is some of the language that was used. so she, she kind of writes this, you know, article about the ways that biologists unknowingly used cultural beliefs and cultural understandings of masculinity, femininity, and describing human fertilization to the degree that they were actually not describing it accurately. And so what she found was that in fact, you know, and biologists now would say that this is not how human fertilization happens.

01:48 - It's not, you know, this firm aren't actually going anywhere. They're kind of like, you know, moving around in circles. the egg is not actually waiting passively to be penetrated by oncoming sperm, but engages in a process that is called chemotaxis. There's actually sending chemical signals out to draw sperm in. so the things that she writes about, and the reason that the article is so powerful even

02:13 - to this day is because it's one of the kind of classic examples of the way that gendered beliefs really shaped the process of making scientific knowledge. to the extent that, you know, you can, still to this day open up, you know, a high school textbook or you know, in any of the documentaries that you see. you know, we still often hear descriptions of sperm as sort of active racing, penetrating competing, and eggs is passively waiting there to go.

02:39 - So it's, it's not something that was only happening in that biology lab. but that scholars have now demonstrated that it has sort of permeated popular culture around descriptions of human fertilization. I took Emily Martin as an inspiration, but my study was happening 30 years later. And so, you know, it was about, You know, seven or eight years ago that I started doing interviews

03:02 - with people from the general population in a northeastern American city. It's sort of, typical for sociologists to disguise the place that they do research. and what I was interested in was sort of how everyday people understand, kind of a man's role in reproduction, how they would define that. So I was doing this sort of broader interview study, and one of the questions that I ended up asking was about, how would you describe, the relationship

03:28 - between an egg and a sperm? and so I was sort of expecting to hear that traditional story about active sperm and passive egg, which I did, from almost everybody that I interviewed. But the thing that was so interesting was that the interview study allowed me to, to learn, that there was a second metaphor circulating at the time. and so people would describe that sort of traditional tale, but a subset

03:52 - of the respondents also told a very different story about eggs and sperm coming together, or that they were two halves of a whole. so neither one was active or dominant. neither one was submissive or passive. It was really that you needed both in order to have fertilization. And so that sort of discovery of there being a second metaphor that was circulating is made possible by an approach

04:16 - that sort of takes very seriously, the kinds of metaphors and the ways that those are produced by sort of cultural beliefs and reveal our cultural beliefs in finding these two metaphors. And sometimes people would articulate both of them in the same interview. so it's important to recognize that it wasn't, they're not mutually exclusive. And so it means that we're telling different kinds

04:38 - of stories about eggs and sperm, which are shaped in part by different stories and narratives around masculinities and femininities. all of these are sort of rooted in an understanding of gender as binary, which is a cultural belief in the ways that human bodies can be categorized. And so, the, the, the way to understand what it means that there's these two different metaphors is to say that, you know, sort of, it's not only our beliefs about gendered bodies and the ways they were being kind of written on,

05:10 - egg and sperm cells, but also as we sort of have different conversations around gender and the spectrum of gender identities and the idea that gender is fluid, the expectation would be that there may be new metaphors that develop. and so I did not see any of those kinds of metaphors emerging in my data. but like I said, my data are seven or eight years old, and I think it would be really interesting to do the study again today, to ask this question of

05:38 - how have changing social conversations around gender shaped the kind of metaphors we're seeing when it comes to human fertilization. so that's one way I'll answer that. The other, the other thing that I would draw out here from the findings is, that second metaphor where eggs and sperm are seen as equal. I don't have definitive, data to prove this, but my sense is that that emerges from an understanding,

06:03 - and more popular awareness of genetics. And so in the past 30 years, even since Emily Martin's study, you know, we've sequenced the human genome. There's sort of more everyday discussion about DNA and genetic inheritance. and so I think thinking of ex and sperm as 50 50 or two halves of a whole is linked to that understanding of sort of equal, contributions from, two different parents to genetic inheritance.

06:30 - And so if I had to speculate, I would say that's probably where that metaphor is coming from. I think when it comes down to it, the real, point of research like this, so Emily Martin's research about what kinds of biological stories do we tell about eggs and sperm, my research about how those stories might be changing in response to broader societal changes around gender and bodies, sexuality, genetics, the, the real kind of importance of those studies is being aware

07:02 - of when our cultural beliefs are shaping our science. and so it's not an anti-science argument in any way. It's actually an attempt to make the science as strong and as good as possible by identifying when these sort of cultural assumptions are sort of, you know, finding their way in. and metaphors are really, sort of, you know, it's, I think sometimes people hear metaphors and they think, well, that's a study of literature. but metaphors are a way that really, it's a way of kind

07:33 - of smuggling these cultural assumptions into scientific knowledge making. And so there are previous scholars, Evelyn, Fox, Keller, Sarah Richardson, who have really identified the power in I, in sort of spotlighting those metaphors that are at play and understanding how they work. so I think it's, you know, it's not the eggs in the sperm that are more or less egalitarian or more or less dominant or submissive. It's the stories that we tell about them that are,

08:00 - and those stories are really stories about us and our society and our gendered beliefs. And I think that's the, the importance of studies like this.

Faculti AI can make mistakes