Bruce Reimer

The easy adjustment of the Batista children led scientists to challenge the usual view that male or female behaviour is determined more by the way we are brought up than by our physiology. They suggest that there may be part of the brain which is different in males and females which governs much of what we think of as sex-role behaviour. However, critics of the Biological approach would argue the Batista’s may have been able to adopt masculine behaviour more readily because of their supportive environment, rather than biological changes. If biological factors explained gender

     From early childhood, children are taught traits that are conceptualized as typically male and female normative patterns through toys. They don’t know it but sex dimorphism is actually happening while they are playing with their toys. Toys such as building sets, trucks, cars, sports equipment and war toys (guns and soldiers) are usually bought for and played with by young boys. What these boys don’t realize is

After listening to the podcast of Hidden Brain podcast, “The Edge of Gender: Nature, Nurture, And Our Evolving Debates About Gender” (October 9, 2017) I realized that biologically we are different because of our chromosomes and genes but even thought that makes us biologically different there shouldn’t be issues on whom we decide to be. A quote from Hidden Brain states, “girls are exposed to unusually high levels of testosterone in the womb. And what we see when they are born is, they will gravitate towards male-typical toys, and this is even if their parents give them more praise for playing with female-typical toys” To true this is a key point biologically, but that doesn’t mean that it’s all-true because as we grow up we are influenced from

The prenatal androgen model, which has become a cliché in the field, argues that homosexuality in men is due to under-exposure to prenatal androgens and in women, due to over-exposure.9 Attempts to support the model included hormone measurements, animal experimentations and studies of rare disorders (i.e., congenital adrenal hyperplasia and testicular feminization) all of which revealed inconsistent results.10 In the following surge of research in prenatal androgen model, indirect consequences of prenatal hormone impact, such as digit ratio, fingerprint patterns and oto-acoustic emissions have been studied, without reaching definitive conclusions.9 It is warranted that prenatal androgenization is essential for male gender identity development, but apparently not decisive.11 Thus,

Genitals that were ambiguous were just thought of as a natural variation of human anatomy [2]. Due to a huge leap in medicine in the 20th century, the medical field started to view intersexual conditions as abnormal and curable through surgery and other options. Starting in the 50s, doctors have used the “concealment-centered model” of healthcare when intersexuality is encountered. Using this model’s derivation, the “optimum of gender rearing model”, doctors “correct” the ambiguous genitals by means of surgery and hormonal treatments. Under this model, gender assignment should be done as early as possible so that children would “grow up to be good (believable and straight) girls and boys” [1]. This method of healthcare tries to “normalize” intersex individuals because it is trying to prevent the individuals from being “ostracized” in society

Moreover, gender roles were an adaptation that developed through evolution such that females grew into roles that were more empathetic while males would become more aggressive. The studying of sexual differentiation, behavioral, and hormonal variations helps to advance our understanding of epigenetics in the shaping of the social brain. Identifying how the interactive nature of society, media, and a child’s own understanding influences gender learning will assist scientists to better discern how the roles are currently changing, and what we should expect in the future.

The authors in paper one studied the genetic etiology of patients with disorders of sex development (DSD) (Kim et al, 2017). DSDs make up a congenital condition where the development of gonadal, chromosomal and anatomical sex is atypical (Kim et al, 2017). They

Intersex individuals are born with genitalia that cannot be identified as either clearly male or female. When children are born with ambiguous genitals, medical professionals often advise parents to opt for genital-normalization surgery. This procedure is used in an attempt to “resolve” some of the ambiguity and reconstruct the genitalia to more closely resemble the common features associated with male and female sexuality. After the surgery, the intersex individuals are raised in a manner consistent with the gender roles associated with their genitals. However, as these children age and develop, a variety of negative results can arise due to their troublesome situation. Research shows that in an attempt to maintain the gender binary, performing genital-normalizing surgery on intersex individuals at birth repeatedly leads to unnecessary chronic physical and adverse psychological consequences. Furthermore, the negative repercussions and unwarranted suffering felt by intersex individuals due to these surgeries are entirely avoidable.

Gender dysphoria is a complex struggle between a person’s physical gender and who he or she identifies, and this could be an individual physically born as a male that identifies as being female and vice versa. Biological sex is determined at birth based upon the appearance of the infant, but gender identity is how the person feels or how they identify themselves, which is where the dysphoria comes in. It is from highly complex genetic, neurodevelopmental, and psychological factors (Mandal, 2012), and is not the same as homosexuality or gender nonconformity. Symptoms and signs of gender dysphoria may vary depending upon age and gender. Gender dysphoria becomes known as a disorder when it fits certain criteria. Treatment is available when needed. There are speculations on the cause, but no real answer.

As an embryo, we are created with both ovaries and testes. As we grow, either the ovaries or testes will begin to develop further while the other will begin to degenerate (Fausto-Sterling, 2000). However, often times the one that degenerates does not diminish the entire way, therefore making them ambiguous genitalia. Our medical community destroys our perception of hermaphrodites by telling us that hermaphroditism is very uncommon and should be treated as soon as birth because the victims would be psychologically damaged from bullying and being different (ISNA, 2001). In reality, there has been no

In the Sex/Gender book the hypothesis is that Rspo1 and Wnt4 join forces to inhibit Sox9 activity and thus all of the testis differentiation factors that work downstream of Sox9. Scientists suggest some hypothesis that depended on the forest of hormones and brains. The direct evidence of the prenatal hormone hypothesis takes place in the fetal gonad, which produces hormones that affect brain development in some unspecified manner that has no social influences on brain identity development. Another hypothesis was on XY children born with cloacal dystrophy, those who remained as women as well as those who chose to become males. Also, social interactions during infancy or childhood cause gender identity discomfort. Hyde’s hypothesis was gender similarities, and she collected data from previous cases to see if the sex differences in adolescents. Lippar’s hypothesis was about childhood differences in toy preferences and play style.

There have been many theories and studies on the development of gender identity and roles. At age 3, it was said that children begin to learn their gender and start to understand genders of others. However, “young children still believe that gender can change and is not permanent. Children of this age are still not aware that males and females have different body shapes (Oswalt, 2008).” Children at age 7-8 began to understand that gender is permanent and start to behave in gender appropriating ways. Behaviors are then mimic by members of their own sex. Another theorist, Piaget, expressed that by examining the child’s daily activity and interaction is when development of gender identity begins. Our genes play an important factor in development,

This could occur in ways similar to how social experiences related to poverty or harsh parenting exert profound neurobiological effects (11, 12). If social experiences related to gender can modulate androgens, this may lead to surprising biological consequences: a gender→testosterone pathway. A gender→testosterone pathway would involve multiple inputs including neurobiological, sociocultural, and evolutionary

This article discusses that gender identity (GID) can appear appear even in early infancy with variable degree of severity with prevalence in childhood and adolescence is below 1%. GID can show itself in different degrees of harshness from childhood and on. The research that this elected from is a Medline literature search, existing national and international guidelines, and the results of a discussion among experts from multiple relevant disciplines. There have not been many large studies to date on GID and no studies focusing on causal factors for GID, the evidence level for the origin model of GID have been submitted as generally small. Approximately 2.5 to 20% of all cases of GID in childhood and adolescence are the initial manifestation

Sex hormones come in two varieties, male and female. Males are predominantly exposed to male sex hormones in the womb and throughout life, and females to female sex hormones. These hormones condition play behavior.” Or in short, that your biology determines how you act. These points to stereotypes like men are more aggressive, dominant and physically strong while women are submissive, weak and emotionally expressive.