What do we Know About Psychological Sex?

1. How does one classify psychological sex differences?
   Some individuals develop what used to be called perversions but are today called paraphilias. These people do unusual things to get sexually aroused (sniff panties, need to be beaten, suck their partner's false teeth, etc.). Some practice pederasty (sexual molestation of children) which is a criminal act as is rape. The causes of these departures from normal means of meeting partners and participating in sexual acts without special devices to stimulate erotic feeling is not known. Still another category involves people who are cross-dressers (transvestites) or who desire sexual surgery to switch sexes.

2. What is the evidence that sexual orientation is innate?
   Only 2 to 10 % of humanity is homosexual. Homosexuals call themselves gay if the partners are two males and lesbians if the two partners are females. Kinsey in the late 1940s proposed that sexual orientation is not a clear set of categories but a spectrum that he assigned a range of 1 to 5 from exclusively homosexual to exclusively heterosexual. This is called the Kinsey scale of sexual orientation. Some males or females may have had only a few homosexual encounters but lived most of their lives as heterosexuals. Some people experiment in their youth and settle into a preference later in their adult lives. In the 1980s and 1990s several reports claimed that there was biological evidence of innate sexual orientation. One is based on brain anatomy (allegedly a region of the hypothalamus differs in males and females and in male homosexuals the size is characteristic of females). This has not been confirmed. A second is based on an alleged gene on the tip of the long arm of X chromosomes. This has also not been confirmed. No single psychological or biological theory prevails on the reasons throughout history this percent of humanity has a homosexual orientation.

3. What is the evidence that gender roles are largely cultural?
   The history and cultural anthropology of sex roles tells us that there is a lot of difference in the way males and females are expected to behave. Some societies are male dominated and females have little social or political life other than what their male relatives allow. Others give considerable equality to women and women enter as many professions as men when given that opportunity. Even within a culture values change. Women could not vote until the twentieth century. In the nineteenth century European and American married women could not own their own property and were considered subservient to their husband's wishes. It is not in our genes that makes a male call a female for a date. It is our cultural tradition that considers this a male's initiative.

4. What is the influence of hormones on behavior?
   It has long been known that males who are castrated (have their testes removed) experience changes in their personalities. They become less aggressive, lose incentive for their work, and lose the capacity for sexual arousal. Women who have tumors of the adrenal gland develop masculine physical features (bearded ladies) and may become more aggressive in personality. Girls who had surgery to remove male external genitals when treated for congenital adrenalhyperplasia often have a boy's rough and tumble playing activity as they enter toddler and child phases of their life cycle.

Back to Main Page