Abstract:Emily Martin’s landmark article— “The Egg and the Sperm” —demonstrated that cultural beliefs about masculinity and femininity led scientists to construct a “fairy tale” romance between active sperm and passive eggs, a biological metaphor that influenced the process of research in scientific labs and descriptions of fertilization in textbooks. In the decades since, there have been significant shifts in cultural beliefs about sex, gender, and sexuality, including challenges to the conceptualization of sex as a b… Show more
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