According to U.S. News & World Report, two new studies show that people associate anger with male faces and happiness with female ones. When subjects were shown androgynous faces that looked angry, they were more likely to identify them as male. But if the faces looked happy or fearful, people were more likely to label them as female. And in another experiment, subjects were slower to identify faces as female if the faces looked pissed off. Says psychologist Ursula Hess, "The present research shows that the association between anger and men and happiness and women is so strong that it can influence the decisions about the gender of another person when that person is viewed briefly."

In another study, researchers gave women testosterone pills and studied how they played a cooperation-based game. The game involved giving one woman $10 and instructing her to choose an amount to offer her partner. If the partner turned down the offer, neither got money. Women who received testosterone were no less generous than their peers — unless they were told they'd gotten the hormone. Those who knew they'd gotten testosterone "stood out with their conspicuously unfair offers," wrote the study authors. Lead author Ernst Fehr says that when asked about how they thought testosterone would affect them, the subjects said things like, "Oh, testosterone would make me more egotistic, more risk-taking and more aggressive." In other words, they thought testosterone would make them drive a harder bargain, and so they did just that, even though the testosterone alone might have had no effect.

What's interesting about these studies is that they show how deeply ingrained our perceptions of masculinity and femininity are — and, in the case of the bargaining study, how these perceptions may be even stronger than reality. Are women actually happier than men? Are men more angry? Probably not — but we may be socialized to express these emotions more freely, with the result that they become associated with gender. The result looks a lot like a feedback loop: girls are told it's not feminine to get mad, so they avoid making mad faces, and so people begin to think that anger is for men, and the cycle begins all over again. Similarly, if women learn that aggression is "male," they may not behave aggressively (except when hopped up on testosterone), further reinforcing this stereotype. The finding that this stereotype outstrips the actual effects of testosterone underscores the fact that gender differences are problematic, and that we shouldn't be too quick to assume that any difference in behavior has a biological basis. As Michael Naef, co-author of the testosterone study, says, "In a society where qualities and manners of behavior are increasingly traced to biological causes...this should make us sit up and take notice."

Are Angry Women More Like Men? [U.S. News & World Report]
Women On Testosterone Only Think They're Macho [New Scientist]
Testosterone "Prompts Fair Play, Not Aggression" [Reuters]

In the article, Allen traces the marketing of "Female Sexual Dysfunction" (FSD) — yes, the affliction itself, since you can't start marketing a cure until enough people are convinced they have the disease — which might more accurately (if less amusingly) be described as "Listless Vagina Syndrome". "The FDA's evolving definition of FSD includes decreased desire or arousal, sexual pain and orgasm difficulties — but only if the woman feels 'personal distress' about it. So, convincing women to feel distress is a key component of the drug company strategy to market a multi-billion-dollar pill that will cure billions of women of what may not ail them."

And even though the FDA has not yet approved a treatment for Listless Vagina Syndrome, the campaign to inform women that our sex lives are inadequate — but treatable! — is already working. Doctors have written 1.4 million off-label prescriptions for Viagra and 2 million off-label prescriptions for testosterone in an effort to alleviate FSD. And they have done this despite absolutely no evidence that either one will help a flagging female libido! Not to mention, "as filmmaker Liz Canner shows in her excellent new documentary Orgasm, Inc., testosterone is usually teamed with estrogen, which increases risks for stroke, cancers and dementia." Fantastic! Not only will your non-existent illness not be cured, but you might get a whole new one!

I should pause here to point out that there are doubtless plenty of women who wish their libidos were more active, or who otherwise suffer from something that could rightly be termed "sexual dysfunction." And as someone whose life was changed very much for the better by an ADHD diagnosis, I am wary of making any "It's all a plot by Big Pharma!" arguments that erase people who have real problems supposedly invented by greedy drug manufacturers. Nevertheless, the genuine existence of a disorder doesn't mean that aggressive marketing can't lead to an epidemic of overprescription and — especially when it comes to female sexuality — self-recrimination. And it's no coincidence that "experts" in FSD often have ties to pharmaceutical giants. Increased awareness of Female Sexual Dysfunction might be helpful to some women, but it's important that we're at least equally aware of a far more widespread sickness. As Allen puts it:

The companies and clinics that narrow the range of sexual normality to porn industry standards suffer their own disease. Symptoms include: a compulsion to concoct illnesses and then develop drugs to treat them, and vice versa. Either way, the syndrome is typically accompanied by a rash of conflicts of interest.

Restless Vagina Syndrome [In These Times]

The Economist makes the classic correlation-equals-causation mistake in its recent article that reports a study from Chicago that found female MBAs with more testosterone in their saliva tended to engage in riskier gambling behavior and went on to choose high-risk careers like finance.

Naturally, the Economist bills this as justification for the lack of women in finance:

THAT the risk-taking end of the financial industry is dominated by men is unarguable. But does it discriminate against women merely because they are women? Well, it might. But a piece of research just published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by Paola Sapienza of Northwestern University, near Chicago, suggests an alternative-that it is not a person's sex, per se, that is the basis for discrimination, but the level of his or her testosterone.

But the study didn't definitively find that it was testosterone that caused risky behavior, just that it correlated. It also didn't find that higher levels of testosterone intersected with riskier behavior in men. It was only a matter of time before someone used this study, a biological finding, to justify gender inequalities. What's more, as we've see with the financial crisis, it isn't necessarily a good thing to have high-risk individuals, men or women, dominating the culture of the financial sector. Many of the reforms that have been proposed have been examining how much risk in the financial sector is a good thing.

Risky business [Economist]
Study finds women with higher levels of testosterone more likely to take financial risks [AP]

The study, which examined MBA students at the University of Chicago, found higher levels of testosterone in women coincided with riskier gambling behavior, but the same wasn't true of the men. Previous research suggests that women are generally less risk averse than men, and this new study suggests that these same women with higher levels of testosterone choose riskier careers like finance or investment banking. In the study, only 36 percent of women chose such risky careers compared with 57 percent of men in the study.

People were freaked out by Semenya's athletic ability, causing many to question how "female" she is. As the BBC reports today, the athlete is determined to have three times the "normal" level of testosterone a woman, and some asked she not be allowed to run as one. Both the study and Semenya's experience show us that when we see women emerging as in fields that are traditionally dominated by men, we look for a reason.

Semenya's experience aptly demonstrates that people became frustrated and confused when she didn't fit neatly into preconceived gender stereotypes. The study also looked at women, who tend to be risk-averse, and asked why they might enter a high-risk career like stock trading. If we have learned anything from Semenya, it is that gender is complicated. As Anna previously pointed out, "It's true that if gender testing is something that athletes only have to undergo if other people raise suspicions - and if those suspicions are only raised when an athlete is 'too good' to be female - then the process is hardly fair."

Recent news shows that Semenya's coach has a sordid past. Dr. Ekkart Arbeit, has been accused of feeding testosterone hormones to at least one athlete on a team he coached in East Germany during the 1970s and '80s. One of his former proteges, Heidi Krieger, accused Arbeit of giving her so many steroids that she underwent surgery to live out her life as Andreas Kreiger. Still, Arbeit claims he hasn't been involved with such drugs since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

The story of gender testing in athletics puts the study of high-testosterone women in high-risk careers in new light. We will hardly begin to see "gender testing" implemented for highly successful (or risky) female stock traders or investment bankers. But if we don't want to make sure our investment bankers fall into neat gender categories, maybe we shouldn't make successful runners do the same.

New Twist In Semenya Gender Saga [BBC]
Women with high levels of testosterone 'take riskier jobs' [Telegraph]

Earlier: Coach: Gender Concerns Reasonable Because Runner "Looks Like A Man"
Semenya Takes Gold, But Gender Issue Is Ongoing

• PETA has taken some time out from their busy schedule of objectifying women to call McDonald's out on their inhumane method of slaughtering chickens. • Doctors say that the chronic stress caused by the recession may lead to lower testosterone levels among men. • Although Showtime has its fair share of hookers, victims, and doormats, the network is leading the way to better roles for female actors with what CEO Matt Blank calls their "strong women's club:" "You're talking Edie Falco. You're talking Mary-Louise Parker, Elizabeth Perkins, Billy Piper, Toni Collette ... these women are some of the most exceptional talents on television right now." • Click here to watch the latest video from Jay Smooth about Rihanna, Chris Brown, and the greater issue of violence against women. • A woman who was allegedly set on fire by her husband embraced him while she was still burning, and held on until he was also in flames. The couple died in the hospital from their burns on Sunday. • Till-Death-Do-Us-Part.com is a new dating site that is set to be the e-harmony for the terminally ill. • Minister for the Olympics, Tessa Jowell, is pushing a rule change that would allow women to compete in every Olympic sport (currently, there are 40 medal events that are for men only). She also hopes to open synchronized swimming and rhythmic gymnastics to male athletes. • According to the National Pet Owners Survey, there are 88.3 million pet cats living in America, compared with 74.8 million dogs. While more families own dogs than cats, cat owners are more likely to own multiple felines, which has led to the discrepancy in numbers. • A 41-year-old woman has plead guilty to reckless homicide after dragging her 73-year-old husband around their pool, essentially "exercising" him to death. • Sunday's New York Times had this sad story about Romanian mothers leaving their children and homes for better paying jobs abroad. • The latest wave of "paparazzi" in Seoul aren't looking out looking to capture celebs and their spawn, but rather the small crimes of everyday people. Capturing even a minor crime on film- like lighting up near a non-smoking sign- can pay big. •

Well, it actually turns out that science backs up the premise that the testosterone-addled among us do make riskier financial decisions! A new study of 98 Harvard students published yesterday in Evolution and Human Behavior shows that men with higher levels of testosterone invested more of their money than those with lower levels. This jibes with earlier studies that show actual traders "make more money" on days when their testosterone levels are higher and that even women make riskier financial decisions while menstruating — when estrogen and progesterone are lower in proportion to naturally occurring testosterone. (Wait, does that mean that testosterone can be blamed for PMS? Because that would be kind of cool.)

Anna Dreber, the co-author of the Harvard study, says, "Long-term, above-average testosterone levels may perhaps eventually lead to irrational risk-taking, and thus lower profits." So, maybe there was a method to the SAC Capital estrogen-popping madness? Could a hedge fund really have been trying to maximize long term profits? That might be even stranger than a hedge fund forcing its traders to cross-dress.

Is Testosterone To Blame For The Financial Crisis? [LA Times]

I'm going to be brutally honest with you: she was totally right. I mean, that was, like, an epiphany. Don't deny it, you were thinking, if you did something really cool and top-secret and maybe in tandem with the G-spot or something, all would be forgiven, and the whole thing would be back in (heh) swing again. Which is why I have to tell you now, dude: I'm sorry, but I was faking the whole time. I thought you knew! I mean, I mean, I enjoy faking, it's one of the few things I'm really good at, but like...dude. The Las Vegas condo market? Enron? That time you gave me a 300 basis point rate cut and I had to pretend like, oh yeah baby, that hits the spot? Jesus Christ, T, did you learn nothing from that pathological faker you dated eight or nine years ago, the so-called New Economy? Yeah, fuck that slut; I'm telling you this because I love you: there is more to a lasting relationship than fucking, and for the next few ...months... fucking has to stop being a proxy for the health of our relationship because we are going to be going through a dry spell. I am not going to be in the mood. And for the last time, I'm not mad. I'm actually just sort of baffled by your predictability, and your inability — after ALL THESE YEARS — to respect me for my many parts and sectors. I know there is a lot of nuance to the signals I give out sometimes, and when I'm feeling bereft I sometimes communicate my emotional balance sheet in arcane and opaque language that it's unfair to expect you to interpret correctly, but dude, you are not gonna find a more straightforward communicator in any of the Asian markets. And the orgasm thing — it's all in my mind, I swear. So for the next few months if we can just stay in, maybe see some independent films, do crossword puzzles together, lower our carbon footprints, cut down on the Asian massage parlors— you'll actually enjoy all this because your levels will be lowered! — I promise we will hump like Eliot and Ashley in...no time!

XO,

Me

Testosterone Fuels Stock Market Success [LiveScience]
Traders' Raging Hormones Cause Stock Market Swings [NewScientist]
The Testosterone-Profit Link [Newsweek]
Earlier: Estrogen Hedge Fund Story]

That seems like a lot to ask, especially since some doctors, like NYU School of Medicine's Leonore Tiefer, don't think a testosterone gel will really help the female libido in the first place. Tiefer tells U.S. News: "There was a big study in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2005 that has never been refuted showing that low testosterone may have nothing to do with [low libido]." In 2000, Tiefer formed what she calls a group of "like-minded feminists" under the heading the New View Campaign to educate women about the medicalization of female sexuality.

Earlier this month, Moe tackled the same question Tiefer wrestles with: Is not being horny a disease (Moe: "probably not!")? And Tiefer elaborates on exactly why. She thinks the variety of sexual problems a woman faces — loss of interest in sex, irregular sex, interest in the wrong partner — have been hijacked by the medical community when those issues have nothing to do with medicine. "I would regard fluctuations in sexual interest not just as normal but as a good thing built into one's feelings about pretty much everything; with the seasons, with age, with changes in a relationship, with changes in health, with changes in work responsibilities," she says. "Everything comes and goes." Anita Clayton, co-author of Satisfaction: Women, Sex, and the Quest for Intimacy, adds, "For women, a lot of our sexuality is above the neck, not below the waist,"

Then there are women like "Bette," a 72-year-old breast cancer survivor who says using the testosterone gel, which was prescribed to her "off label," basically saved her life. "I'd rather have something worth living for right now, rather than living in the old folks' home. I'm not going to miss any fun."

Sex Drug Viagra Turns 10; Women Still Waiting [U.S. News & World Report]
Women Lacking Libido Aren't Sick [U.S. News & World Report]
A Woman's Sex Drive Restored By Testosterone [U.S. News & World Report]

Earlier: Five Reasons To Love Viagra
Is Not Being Horny A Diesase? Okay, Probably Not, But Should Big Science Keep Working On Female Viagra Anyhow?

For one thing, I am sick of studies that fall under the realm of "duh." Of course people whose hormones empower them to be more aggressive about their joke-making are going to be funny. Have you ever hung out with a seriously funny dude? It takes weeks before you can get a joke in edgewise, and that's if you can even understand what the hell their powerfully-ingrained dudejoke sensing mechanisms even finds so funny already. Then there is the whole matter of the fact that they are SO MUCH LOUDER. They also like to repeat themselves, and they tend to find themselves funnier than you ever will, and so there is this snowball effect where the laughing becomes contagious, like yawning, and soon the DUMBEST THINGS ARE FUNNY. And by dumbest things I don't mean, like, a range of dumb things, I mean generally "butt sex" and "miscellaneous other homo shit."

Anyway I'm willing to chalk this whole entire sequence of events up to testosterone. In fact, I would further venture that as a woman, I can't even comprehend what a dude means when he says the word "funny." I think there is some pheremonal component I'm missing, maybe because my pheromones are otherwise occupied syncing my period and inexplicably drawing me to unemployed fat guys.

But here's the part I don't get: where in the testosterone molecular structure is the part that gave you the idea to conclusively prove testosterone makes you funnier by riding a unicycle and subjecting yourself to the merciless jeering of overfed 11-year-old bullies?

Because that's actually pretty fucking funny.

Humor Comes From Testosterone [BBC]

• Poor Fergie reportedly barfed all over herself while at the Minnesota State Fair. Maybe it was all the fried food on a stick? [Dlisted]
  
• Speaking of Minnesota: Republican Senator Larry Craig got busted by the police for "lewd behavior" in the gentleman's room of a Minnesota airport. Hasn't the Land Of 10,000 Lakes been through enough?! [Crooks and Liars]
  
• Michael Vick is going to jail and rightly so. But lets also remember that we live in a country where the man behind the Katrina debacle, Michael Chertoff, may be getting a promotion. [BBC]
  
• President Bush says that poor little Alberto Gonzalez endured "unfair treatment" during his tenure as Attorney General. [CNN]

• Speaking of Bush, French president Nicolas Sarkozy is starting to sound eerily like him: He's gunning for Iran. Sigh. [NYT]
  
• The U.N., Christy Turlington, and Russell Simmons are banding together to promote some sorta World Peace Through Yoga Day. It's like Sesame Street: One of these things is not like the other. And by that we mean, we've never seen any of those U.N. dudes successfully execute scorpion pose. [ABC News]
  
• "You could feel her bones sticking through. She's on the cusp - she looks good now but if she takes it any further, she's going to start to look ill. She's incredibly compulsive. The Spice Girls' reunion is a huge deal for her and she wants to look her very best for her moment back in the limelight." Alas, this quote isn't about Victoria Beckham, but Geri "Ginger Spice" Halliwell. Note to Geri: Starvation is not what "Girl Power" is all about. [Malaysia Sun]
  
• Yay for gender equality? Now it's not just women who have to worry about the aftermath of hormone replacement therapy: Men who take testosterone supplements could suffer major kidney damage. [CNN]

Phil has somehow managed to come home with bag after bag of perfect items found at deep discount in the men's section from Lodan Dager navy pants to Paul Smith corduroy.

What Dr. Burnham's result supports is a much deeper rejection of the tenets of classical economics than one based on a slight mis-evolution of negotiating skills. It backs the idea that what people really strive for is relative rather than absolute prosperity. They would rather accept less themselves than see a rival get ahead. That is likely to be particularly true in individuals with high testosterone levels, since that hormone is correlated with social dominance in many species.

Neuroeconomics: Money Isn't Everything [Economist]