07 Sex and Gender

Transsexual male Thomas Beatie made worldwide headlines in 2008 when he announced that he was pregnant. Beatie, who was born female but had gender reassignment surgery and is now legally a man, gave birth to a healthy baby girl in June 2008.

What are the biological and societal influences on gender?

• X and Y chromosomes control a person’s sex—the biological categorization of that person as either male or female.
• Sex roles and conditioning affect the behaviors and characteristics that define gender, and a person’s gender identity can be fluid.

What are the typical and atypical processes involved in an individual's development of a gender identity?

• Typically, a child has male or female genitals at birth and develops secondary sexual characteristics during puberty. An individual identifies with either gender based on these bio- logical characteristics and the responses they receive from others.
• Atypically, a person can be born with ambiguous genitalia. A person born with one set of sexual characteristics may identify with the opposite sex and choose gender reassignment surgery.

What similarities and differences between the genders have been observed and studied?

• Women tend to be shorter than men. They generally have more fat and less muscle than men do, and they tend to live longer.
• The male brain seems to be thicker in areas related to spatial abilities, while the female brain seems to be thicker in areas related to verbal abilities.
• In general, men tend to be aggressive and socially dominant, and women tend to value interdependence and social connectedness.

What do we know about the biological and societal influences on sexual orientation?

• Early psychological research suggested that people’s sexuality depended largely on their upbringing.
• Most current research suggests that sexual orientation is largely biological in origin, dependent on such factors as genetics and birth order.