Sexing the X: How the X Became the “Female Chromosome”

Richardson, Sarah2014-01-312012Richardson, Sarah S. 2012. “Sexing the X: How the X Became the ‘Female Chromosome’.” Signs 37 (4) (June): 909-933. doi:10.1086/664477. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/664477.1545-69430097-9740http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:11639551This essay examines how the X became the “female chromosome” and how the association of the X with femaleness influences research questions, models, and descriptive language in human sex chromosome research. I trace how the X is gendered female in scientific and popular discourse; document the contingent technical, material, and ideological factors that led to the feminization of the X during the first decades of sex chromosome research; and track the introduction of the “female chromosome” into human genetics at midcentury. In the second part of the essay, I document the continuing influence of the feminization of the X on genetic research, exemplified by “X chromosome mosaicism” theories of female biology and behavior.en-USSexing the X: How the X Became the “Female Chromosome”Journal Article2014-01-3110.1086/664477