The Better Half
On the Genetic Superiority of Women
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The Better Half
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Narrated by:
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Dr. Sharon Moalem MD PhD
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Written by:
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Dr. Sharon Moalem MD PhD
About this listen
An award-winning physician and scientist makes the game-changing case that genetic females are stronger than males at every stage of life
This program is read by the author
Here are some facts: Women live longer than men. They have stronger immune systems. They're better at fighting cancer and surviving famine, and even see the world in a wider variety of colors. They are simply stronger than men at every stage of life. Why is this? And why are we taught the opposite?
To find out, Dr. Sharon Moalem drew on his own medical experiences - treating premature babies in the neonatal intensive care unit; recruiting the elderly for neurogenetic studies; tending to HIV-positive orphans in Thailand - and tried to understand why in every instance men were consistently less likely to thrive. The answer, he discovered, lies in our genetics: two X chromosomes offer a powerful survival advantage.
With clear, captivating prose that weaves together eye-opening research, case studies, diverse examples ranging from the behavior of honeybees to American pioneers, as well as experiences from his personal life and his own patients, Moalem explains why genetic females triumph over males when it comes to resiliency, intellect, stamina, immunity and much more. He also calls for a reconsideration of our male-centric, one-size-fits-all view of medical studies and even how we prescribe medications - a view that still sees women through the lens of men.
Revolutionary and yet utterly convincing, The Better Half will make you see humanity and the survival of our species anew.
A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux
©2020 Dr. Sharon Moalem, MD, PhD (P)2020 Macmillan AudioWhat listeners say about The Better Half
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Rob
- 2020-07-02
Absolutely outstanding
Even though I have a substantial background in reproductive biology, this book not only strengthened my interest in the subject but provided insight into mysteries I had never even dreamed of. The author is clearly as described by others "...a polymath". What a wonderful contribution to biological sciences. Dr Moalem's book should be a obligatory reading for every student in biological sciences. Dr Moalem also does an excellent job of reading his own book; usually a red flag. A keeper!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Chelsea Patterson
- 2021-07-25
The Better Half: On the Gender Superiority of Women by Sharon Moalem Is revolutionizing!
First off the book is specifically biology based and more than that is focused only on the superiority of having two X chromosomes. In this way gender politics and gender identity could become tricky even more so given that there is a lot men vs women. However, Moalem is aware of this and uses terms like genetic females, and though this book is exclusively about genetic human females, they do speak about how the same double sex chromosome superiority can be found in bird and reptiles in males as they are the ones that carry the double identical sex chromosome like the mammalian genetic females.
What is fascinating is the biology, the application in statistics when it comes to genetic females thriving over genetic males in almost every aspect of biological life. Moalem is a Neurogentic physician, and much of the book follows his own research when it comes to sex differences based on the XX chromosome. Within the sections entitled Resilience, Disadvantage (The Male Brain), Stamina, Super-immunity, and Well Being, we readers start to see the general medical neglect of women in from a historical, cultural and paternalistic side.
This neglect goes from medical school talking about the bad chromosome X that seems to be the root cause of so many ailments included everything from colour blindness, poor or under active immune response, to an intellectual disability known as fragile X syndrome. However, this only really occurs in genetic males, whereas genetic females have what Moalem calls privilege immunity, and the double X gives them Tetrachromacy (seeing 100 mil colours instead of the typical 1 mil) not colourblindness- tetrachromocy is only possible in genetic women.
Having a double dose of the “bad” problematic X chromosome, one would think that genetic females would have an increase of these genetic issues caused by this chromosome. But in fact they have less, even when socioeconomic factors are taken into account, even when lifestyle, war and jobs, are taken into account. There are 105 male born to every 100 females but all super-centenarians are female. Slowly life, Moalem shows, seems to ween males off do to the lack of two X chromosome that make them weak to certain disease, such as cancers, poor immune response, environment/ political factors like famine & pestilence.
The book is a good balance of large country side statistical data and individual case studies of women who seem to pass the gendered stereotypes or go against the misogynist led science. There is an explanation to why it is The Boy in the Bubble, not the girl. As well as the story of Jasmin Paris who won an ultramarathon beating the best time set by a man by 12 hours whilst breastfeeding. There is also use of data from even century old death records of the Black Death, notorious famines, and Moalem’s own research.
Hunter’s Syndrome is a good example. Moalem tells of a friend of his who ended up dying of the syndrome in his 30s. Hunter’s results in the inability to digest sugars leaving it to build in a persons tissues eventually killing them. But this is only in males. The same friend’s mother also had Hunter’s but only on one of her X chromosome, leaving the other to be turned on and used to properly digest sugar. She had none of the syndrome’s effect: hearing loss, short stature (4f8), heart disease, declined brain function or seizures. In fact she has well out lived her son.
But being superior and the ability to switch between the faulty and good or the superior X chromosome in every biological function has its down side. 90% of lupus cases are women. Before genetic and more Rigourous screening and test, it was (misogynisticly) thought that women just complained more. UGH! Rather it’s an over reactive immune system. Moalem calls it Red Ridding Hood Paradox. The genetic females immune system will kill a few more grandmas than genetic males, incase it’s actually a wolf dressed as grandma. This makes genetic females superior in regards to infection, cancer etc but not when the body starts attracting itself like in the case of lupus and other Auto-immune disease it significantly effects more women than men.
The book was fascinating to see a very logically and medically based reason for genetic superiority of women. Showing how Prevalent the theory of women just being smaller weaker males is completely false. It shows how basic and standard medical practices fail women based on the misogynistic view of women and their health. All medical based people should read this, as it is clear from reading it there are still these bias in medical field. Like did you know women have a female prostrate? That has been mislabel and results in needless surgery for women. Think female ejaculation, that’s what we are talking about here.
The book shows how sex based studies should be started on almost all aspects of health, the sex of a kidney can effect transplant, the sex of a person effect absorption of medicine given women have a long colon, sex chromosomes effect the response to vaccines and it’s efficacy! It’s literally everything.
The book although medically based is still easy to read and full of micro and macro examples. It does build, so although each section can be taken in isolation it does refer back or remind you of pervious findings, so it should be read normally. This book should be used by any feminist when combating or people flippantly state men are just better adapted, or genetically better than women in life. (That is certainly not true based on this book.) It also should be used to bolster medical advocacy and sport advocacy and the basic inclusion of women in all aspects of science and life.
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