The Autobiography of a Transgender Scientist Quotes

“I have tried my best to help others by being open about my transgender identity and by being as good a scientist, mentor, and human being as I have been able to be. It has been a very great privilege to have had such an enjoyable academic career.”
― Ben Barres, The Autobiography of a Transgender Scientist

“There is no compelling evidence for relevant innate gender differences in cognition. There is overwhelming evidence for severe gender prejudice.”
― Ben Barres, The Autobiography of a Transgender Scientist

“To my amazement, I learned that I am not alone”
― Ben Barres, The Autobiography of a Transgender Scientist

“I strongly feared that a transition would end my career. For about a week, I was almost unable to sleep from the stress as I pondered whether I should transition or commit suicide.”
― Ben Barres, The Autobiography of a Transgender Scientist

“He looked at me said, “You know, someday, if you ever learn how to focus, you are going to be a great scientist.”
― Ben Barres, The Autobiography of a Transgender Scientist

“Once, though, I was feeling particularly tired and decided to go to Miami Beach for a week holiday. I arrived in Miami around 4 p.m., fell into bed, and slept until the next morning. I then went to the beach for about fifteen minutes, decided I would rather be in the lab, and flew straight back to Boston!”
― Ben Barres, The Autobiography of a Transgender Scientist

“its not particularly stressful for me nancy
maybe its because i am transgender
i really don’t care what other people think of me
and i really couldn’t care less who i piss off
thats the virtue of tenure isn’t it?!
whats stressful to me is having such an unfair world”
― Ben Barres, The Autobiography of a Transgender Scientist

“I imagine that if I had been a male student my name might have been mentioned in class or that the professor might have encouraged my career in computer science, or perhaps offered me an opportunity in his or a colleague’s lab. This is why I get deeply angry when famous men (like Larry Summers, whom I will come to below) espouse the idea that women as a group are innately less good at science than men but say that of course they do not discriminate against individual talented women. They fail to miss the basic point that in the face of pervasive negative stereotyping, talented women will not be recognized. Such negative stereotyping is not supported by any data and is deeply harmful to all women”
― Ben Barres, The Autobiography of a Transgender Scientist

“Although MIT was finally admitting more women, we were in some important respects not receiving the same education as the men.”
― Ben Barres, The Autobiography of a Transgender Scientist

“I loved MIT. I found immediately that despite my differences, unlike in high school, I fit in. I was a science nerd just like everyone else.”
― Ben Barres, The Autobiography of a Transgender Scientist

“I saw two movies during high school that had enormous emotional impact on me because of these differences. One of these was the 1958 science fiction movie The Fly. In a failed scientific experiment the protagonist becomes half man, half fly, ultimately committing suicide in a hydraulic press. Somehow I sensed that I shared an identity with this scientist and his ultimate fate.”
― Ben Barres, The Autobiography of a Transgender Scientist

“Whenever I see videos of parents talking openly and supportively with their (pretransition) transgender children, I weep. Much progress is left to be made, but I marvel at how far the world has come in recent years.”
― Ben Barres, The Autobiography of a Transgender Scientist

“It was only at the age of forty, as I will come to later in this book, that I finally understood that I was transgender and was able to deal effectively with the problem. But growing up I was too confused to talk with anyone about it or to have any idea what to say. It just made no sense that I was a girl feeling like a boy. How could I ever utter something like that to anybody?”
― Ben Barres, The Autobiography of a Transgender Scientist

“From junior high school on, I had increasingly strong feelings
of gender dysphoria, difference, and confusion. I felt very embarrassed and ashamed about my gender incongruity, but was totally
unable to express what I was feeling to anyone.”
― Ben Barres, The Autobiography of a Transgender Scientist

“Whereas my sister had an active social life and many dates, I never
dated in high school. Not that this bothered me, as I found that I
had very little if any attraction to men (or to women). It was only
much later as an adult that I finally realized that I lack the ability to
experience sexual attraction (I also have severe face blindness and
wonder if the two difficulties are connected somehow).”
― Ben Barres, The Autobiography of a Transgender Scientist

“Although I was a girl,
internally I felt strongly that I was a boy. This was evident in everything about my behavior. Because I had a fraternal twin sister, these
differences were all the more apparent”
― Ben Barres, The Autobiography of a Transgender Scientist

“One of the great pleasures of growing up was having endless time
to read.”
― Ben Barres, The Autobiography of a Transgender Scientist

“Even in grade school I recognized that what
I was being taught about God was not supported by evidence, was
internally inconsistent, and made no sense.”
― Ben Barres, The Autobiography of a Transgender Scientist

“In thinking about my success as a scientist, I do not attribute it to any
especially great intelligence. I have met many people far more intelligent than I am who have been much less successful. I believe that two
specific attributes have made me successful. First is the intense and
uncontrollable passion that I have for doing research. I do not know
where this passion comes from, but it has always been there. The second attribute is what in recent years has been called “grit” and refers
to attributes of perseverance and resilience. I believe that I have grit in
spades.”
― Ben Barres, The Autobiography of a Transgender Scientist

“From my mother, I inherited intelligence, the BRCA2 mutation, and sleep apnea, and from my father an addictive tendency,
not for gambling but for doing research”
― Ben Barres, The Autobiography of a Transgender Scientist

“I believe that I have grit in spades.”
― Ben Barres, The Autobiography of a Transgender Scientist