sunny@sun.uucp (Sunny Kirsten) (07/04/84)
Chromosomal and Genital Sex are usually determinate at birth, and there are few true hermaphrodites. Gender is determined typically in the age span from 1.5years to 2years of age. Gender is a mental state, and is widely acknowledged within the psych field to be fairly solidly unchangeable. In cases of conflict between sex and gender, it is typical to change the sex to match the gender. Gender itself is relative to societal norms. Gender is behavioral role related. Whereas Hermaphroditism is a condition of duality in genital sex, Androgyny is the equivalent duality in gender. Hermaphroditism is typically treated as a birth defect, with the anatomical sex being corrected in the direction of one or the other sex, either by parental/medical decision at birth, based on predominant sex, or later based on dominant gender. There is typically no mental confusion in a hermaphrodite, instead a solid gender identity. An androgynous person may simply be in between, gray vs black or white, or may range fully between the extremes of gender. A gender dysphoric person is one who is fairly solidly self identified as being the gender opposite their sex. The correction for gender dysphoria is typically transexual surgery, and administration of appropriate hormones. This is a case of fitting the patient to societal norms of gender, just as hermaphrodites are corrected to societal norms of sexual appearance. The societal pressures for conformity typically drive most hermaphrodites and androgynes to mold into one or the other of society's accepted gender/sex roles. For those more individualistic, a middle ground may be appropriate, and again is culturally related and relative, depending on the polarity of the societal roles. If there is no common ground between the societal roles, the individual will experience tremendous pressure to conform to one or the other poles of gender or sex. In a more open-minded and flexible culture which allows some common ground between the gender roles, more androgynes will feel comfortable in the non typed middle ground. While gender and sex may seem interlocked to most of the conforming population, for those who experience hermaphroditism, androgyny, or gender dysphoria, there is clear, and often painfully obvious, difference between sex and gender. Other cultures, notably the American Indian, fully accepted transgendered individuals, accepting at time of adulthood initiation, feminine men into the ranks of women rather than into the ranks of male warriors. Typically, in any culture, there are more transgendered men than women. Given societal acceptance of two gender roles, one might question societal rejection of those who cross gender and sex. But mankind has always been best at inhumanity to man in the guise of mass action rather than individual action. The difference between societally unacceptable murder, and societally sanctioned warfare, is simply whether society choses to accept or reject the same actions. With the same force society tries to link masculine with male, and feminine with female. But, while sex is naturally defined, gender roles are primarily defined by the local society. Just as society pushes the hermaphrodite to be corrected to, and conform to one or the other of the normal and natural sexual configurations, so society pushes the androgyne to polarize their gender in the direction of their appearant sex. Here we strike at the heart of cultural definition of man and woman, entirely separately from genetic defintion of male and female. Whereas sex is typically defined either in terms of genitals or genes, gender is defined partly in terms of related sex, and partly totally arbitrarily by society. To be cute, it's genes vs jeans. Society's appetite for sexual differentiation is insatible, in order to promote sexual reproduction, and the continuation of the infestation of earth by man. Until conditions become unacceptably overcrowded, when society begins to be more accepting of homosexuality (acceptance of sex without reproduction), and more accepting of merged genders (more feminine men and more masculine women) in an attempt to allow the continuation of sexual gratification while slowing the population growth. Given the state of medical technology, almost any feat of gender or sex may be wrought, but none have yet been able to correct in adulthood, the childhood choice made between the genders offered at that time by society. Unless society can grow to accept the full range of existance, societally defined gender roles will prevail over individual, personal experience. It seems somehow sad to live one's life experiencing only half of what life has to offer. But we MUST be fruitful, and multiply. And be divided. Why? Given that societally defined gender roles are primarily arbitrary, and that sex is medically adjustable to fit the gender of the individual, one questions the origin of gender before age 2, and the reasons for differences between genders. Remembering that part of gender is sexually determinate, we question which factors which vary with sex, are responsible for genderal differences. The classical question of nature vs nurture continues to rage on. It is most likely that both are correct, the nurture helps define the gender role, just as the nature (and sex) help determine the gender role. But what parts are sexual and what environmental? What parts of sexual difference contribute to gender role? For certain, hormones play a large part in the behavioral differences between the genders. But hormones are also medically adjustable, along with sex, to match gender. Gender identity is the root of both sex and gender, and the existance of transexuals is the symptom of sex being changed to match gender identity, of hormonal gender being adjusted to match mental gender identity. Thus, it may be seen that the situation of a hermaphrodite, and how that person relates to society, is a subset of the situation experienced by the transgendered transexual, whose numbers are far greater in the population. The overall situation then, is one of how the individual relates in terms of genital presentation, and genderal behavioral role, to the gender identity which was formed prior to age 2. There is no agreed upon model from either the medical or psych communities on exactly how gender identity is formed, or the extent of environmental versus genetic factors. Both fields agree that only massive psychological restructureing (brainwashing as it were), is capable of altering the gender identity. Thus, rather than seeing the mental sex of a person changed via psychothreapy, we see both the hermaphrodite and the transgendered transexual being medically "corrected" in their sexual presentation (genital formation) to match their gender identity. Likewise, social conditioning will form the genderal behavioral role to match the gender identity. So the root essence of both sex and gender, is this gender "identity" which is formed somewhere between conception and age 2, that nobody understands, and nobody can change. Could it be the sex of the soul? Sunny (C) 1984, all rights reserved, except non-profit copies which include this copyright notice. Opinions are the authors', not Sun Microsystems'. [ucbvax,decvax,ihnp4]!sun!sunny (Sunny Kirsten of Sun Microsystems)
perelgut@utcsrgv.UUCP (Stephen Perelgut) (07/09/84)
<RAID!!!>
The parent article to this was very well written and the author should
be commended for rising far above the norm for the network. There was
only one point I take exception to.
The author states that sex is physical and gender is mental and determined
at 1.5-2 years of age. OK so far. However, the following statement says
that psychs acknowledge gender cannot be changed so, when sex and gender
differ, sex is the one to switch.
20 years ago the answer would have been that doctors acknowledge sex cannot
change and therefor the confused subject just suffers. 20 years from now
gender will be as easily changed as sex.
One last point, sex change operations met with resistance from the straight
community (especially the traditional RC church). Gender change psychological
research seems to meet with more direct oppostion from homosexual camps
since it is viewed as a threat to them.
--
Stephen Perelgut
Computer Systems Research Institute University of Toronto
Usenet: {linus, ihnp4, allegra, decvax, floyd}!utcsrgv!perelgut
CSNET: perelgut@Toronto