Biological Definitions

In the beginning, the baby in the womb possesses the physical characteristics of both female and male children. For the first seven to ten weeks of life, everyone has female and male internal sex organs. Then, at round about week ten, one set of the organs predominates over the other and the baby takes on the physical sex of either girl or boy.
In most cases, this comes about quite simply. At the point of conception, the chromosome structure of the baby is decided: if the chromosomes are XX, then the baby is genetically female; if they are XY, then the baby is genetically male. It is the Y chromosome that instructs the babies body to produce chemicals called androgens, which diminish the female sex organs and stimulate growth of the male ones. So, at about twelve weeks old, the baby has either developed ovaries or testes: it is, at that point, biologically either a girl or a boy. And as the baby develops, so external sex organs develop to match the internal ones, and baby girls develop a womb, vagina and clitoris, while baby boys develop testes, penis, scrotum and prostate gland.

It all sounds so simple: and in 99 percent of cases, it is just as simple as that. But not always. Some babies are conceived with a syndrome called "Klinefelter`s Syndrome", in which their genetic structure is XXY A surprisingly high number of people - perhaps one in 400 - have this ambiguous genetic sexuality. As well, about one in 2,500 girls is born with "Turner's Syndrome", in which one X chromosome is absent or imperfect, so that the ovaries do not develop, although the external sex organs are quite normal.

The development of male external sex organs depends on the baby's body producing male hormones, especially one called testosterone. Some babies who are genetically male, therefore, may suffer from a syndrome known as "testicular feminisationn" in which, although their body produces normal amounts of testosterone, it does not trigger off the correct development of external sex organs: such children will be genetically male, but their appearance at birth will be female, and their genetic sex may not be discovered until they fail to menstruate at puberty.

Other babies which are genetically female may have "congenital adrenal hyperplasia", a syndrome in which their adrenal glands produce large amounts of hormones similar to testosterone. At birth, the external sex organs of these children will look ambiguous, or perhaps even male, although they are genetically female, usually with normally developed ovaries. A similar syndrome has occurred in the babies of some women who took synthetic forms of the hormone progesterone during pregnancy, which turned out to have similar effects to male hormones. Other girls may be born with a condition known as "Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome" in which they actually have an XY genetic structure but develop as normal girls because they are not sensitive to the male hormones which the body produces.

Just to make things more complicated, recent medical research has indicated that areas of the brain are affected by hormone development while the baby is in the womb, and that these developments influence the way in which the person will prefer to act all of their lives. Such research indicates that, irrespective of their genetic sex and their internal and external sex organs, people with a female brain development will prefer female play and activities and people with a male brain development will prefer male play and activities.

So even from the point of conception, the commonest question asked about a new baby - "Is it a boy or a girl?" may not have quite such an easy answer as at first appears. We have to recognise the existence of four ways of describing the baby's sex - genetic sex; biological sex according to internal sex organs; biological sex according to external sex organs; and brain sex. And although, in most cases, all four of these ways match the same description - male or female -there are ample cases where they do not.

The New Scientist of 18th January 1992 carried an article about the use of "sex-tests" at the Olympic Games. Since 1968 the International Olympic Committee has tested the sex of competitors by taking a smear from the inside of their cheek {the Buccal Smear test) and analysing its genetic structure. Only a conventional XX result was accepted as evidence of female status. Obviously, this meant that women either with Turner's Syndrome, or with Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome, were defined as being men and were excluded. The personal emotional suffering and professional humiliation which this caused to women who had never been regarded before as anything else other than female can be imagined As one such athlete, the Spanish hurdler Mario Patino, put it, "In the eyes of God and medicine I am a woman." Campaigners against this practice have now won agreement from the International Olympic Committee that, from 1992 onwards, this test will be dropped.

Source: New Scientist18th January 1992, p.14

Social Definitions
Biological definitions, whether genetic or physiological, are only one way of understanding the identity of people. Social definitions are at least as important as this, and thus there are two other kinds of personal identity which have to be taken into consideration to provide a full understanding of people and society. sexual preferences and gender

Sexual preferences are to do with the biological sex of the partner which people prefer for an intimate relationship.
Modern western society is predominantly heterosexual; that is to say, the majority of its members prefer partners of the opposite biological sex. But recently, there has been a growing awareness of a wider sexual choice and of the need for people to be free to express their love for members of either, or of both, sexes. And every civilisation of which we have a detailed record has recognised this need, although some of them, such as Hitler's Germany, have outlawed it and even made it punishable by death.

This issue of personal sexual preference is not the same as the issue of gender change since people who require that are not automatically gay. .Their sexuality is as diverse or as normal as that of any other group in society. The issue is not sex, but gender, which is rather more complicated that either biological sexuality or sexual preference. Gender is about the social behaviours -the values, habits and preferred activities- to which individuals relate.

From their earliest years, boys and girls are taught and encouraged to have different forms of behaviour. Even as babies, they are dressed in different colours - "blue for a boy and pink for a girl" - and detailed studies have shown that they are encouraged to play differently, with boys being directed towards more rough and tumble and girls being encouraged to "play nicely". As they grow from babyhood to childhood, so these separate roles are encouraged still furrther. they are admired for being "a proper little man" or for being "a real Mummy's helper." And so, by the time adolescence and adulthood arrive, the two sexes are also two quite different genders, expected to place importance on different things, to act and speak differently, and to operate in different social roles.

Not everyone conforms to the usual gender roles, of course, and British society has special names for children who do not conform: girls who prefer the competitive, machine-oriented, boisterous boy's role are called, affectionately, "tomboys" and may even be turned into the heroines of childrens books, like George in Enid Blyton's Famous Five series. But the names for boys who prefer girls' games and the company of girls are much less affectionate: they are "Mother`s boys" or "sissies" and other boys - and sometimes even their brothers - treat them as the legitimate object of scorn, ridicule and bullying. Of course, none of this necessarily has anything to do with their sexual preferences when they grow up: a "pretty little girl" may grow up to love other women, just as a "tomboy" may grow up to be heterosexual, and similar likelihood apply to boys.

At the start of this century, gender separation was underlined by the very limited civil liberties which women had in comparison with men, and there has been a long-standing movement to reform that. Mrs Pankhurst and the suffragettes campaigned for women's right to vote; Marie Stopes and her colleagues did the same for women's right to contraception and to control over their own bodies. And more recently, feminist writers such as Germaine Greer and Susie Auerbach have been campaigning for greater equality, greater social liberty and a greater sense of communality between women.

How Words Change . . .

When it was coined in the Fifteenth century, the word "tomboy" meant simply a rude or forward boy. A hundred years later, it was used to describe women who were impudent or unchaste. Charlotte Yonge, in the late nineteenth century described a tomboy as a girl who had "a whole-some delight in rushing around at full speed, playing at active games, climbing trees, rowing boats, making dirt-pies and the like" - the non-pejorative meaning it still has today.
The word "sissy", however, has much older roots, since it is a corruption of "sister". which appears in the very earliest forms of the English language. In the mid-1800s in America, sissy meant a little sister or young girl,. not until thirty years later did it acquire its pejorative meaning of a weak or effeminate boy or man.

Source: Jane Mills, Womanwords (London: Virago Press, 1991)

So where does gender reassignment come in ? Modern scientific work was begun only twenty five years ago, by Professor John Money at the Johns Hopkins University in the USA and it has taken time for a body of scientific knowledge to be assembled. Now, however, the medical profession is clear on two points. First, there is no choice in the need for gender reassignment: it is not some kind of personal peccadillo or fancy, but a medical condition which must be treated if the person is to live a whole life. Second, although much more work needs to be done to find out why the baby in the womb develops as it does, there is very little doubt that the condition starts from birth.. The explanation which is now generally accepted is the straightforward one that in the first few weeks of life, when the baby is developing both its body and its brain, the two sets of development do not match. When that happens, either as a result of genetic factors or as a result of an imbalance of hormones, the baby will be born with genitalia and other physical characteristics opposite to that of its real gender.

In these circumstances, the baby will grow up wishing to act in the way which its brain demands. So, a girl who has been born with the physical characteristics of a boy will exhibit female behaviours and will want to continue With those behaviours. But its parents will have identified it as male and so as the child develops, it will begin to be aware that it is getting negative feedback from its parents when it exhibits these natural behaviours -the process of socialisation comes into play. This feedback doesn't have to be in the form of words or actions: if its parents simply don't encourage those behaviours by rewarding them with praise, cuddling or other forms of love, then the child will be aware that they are not behaving appropriately. Since the need for parental love and approval is absolutely paramount, it searches for other behaviours which will be acceptable and very quickly learns what it must and must not do. So, the pressures of socialisation and the need for parental approval, override the natural inclinations which are built into the child.

People who grow up like this, then, will be aware from their childhood that they are being required to behave in a way which simply does not make sense to them. Instead, they are likely to be attracted to the socialisation process which is generally associated with their real gender. If they are girls who are being brought up as boys, then they may feel dolls and dolls' houses are good fun and want to play with them. If they are boys who are being brought up as girls, then such things may have no attraction at all, whereas c1imbing trees or building Meccano might seem a sensible way of enjoying themselves. If there are sisters in the family unit then the child which is apparently a boy may feel that the way in which their sister is being brought up is the way in which they want to be brought up. they may want to be praised for being clean and neat, and to be admired by visitors for being helpful to their Mother, sitting quietly, or for other typical behaviour expected of young girls. Meanwhile, all of this required action may be absolute purgatory to the child who is being brought up as a girl, who may see the delicate fabric of her party dress as something which inhibits her from having fun in the way in which she would like to.

People born in such circumstances frequently describe just such experiences. Depending on how open-minded and aware their parents are, they may be allowed to explore such alternative gender roles to a greater or lesser degree, and obviously their childhood will be less stressful and happier for doing so. Sadly, however, most parents are more likely to be concerned to make their child conform to "normal" standards of behaviour and such exploration is likely to be discouraged. Children learn quickly. and many people who change gender can recall that, at the age of four or five, they realised that they had to hide what they wanted to do and act instead in the way in which grown-ups wanted them to. Of course, this process of forced social conformity - "socialisation" as it sometimes called - is emphasised by attendance at school where boys are expected to play boys' games with other boys and girls to do the same with other girls.

So, from childhood, a person's real gender identity may be pushed underground, and that is made all the easier because most children have no way of articulating these strong feelings which they have. If they were asked "would you like to be like a girl or like a boy today?" and there really was a genuine choice, then perhaps they would have a chance of exploring this unusual sense of themselves and coming to terms with it in a more conventional fashion. But of course, the question is never asked and so they grow up as best they can, perhaps feeling perpetually uncomfortable in the world which society has allotted to them, having difficulty making friends, and alternately feeling guilty and day-dreaming about being allowed to be in their real gender role.

Gender - different patterns of behaviour in babies are present at birth: a study of two-day old babies, for example, showed that during breast feeding, boys were more likely to continue to suck when they fell asleep and girls were more likely to stop sucking. Mothers tended to treat the child differently in response to its different behaviour. girls were jiggled in an attempt to make them feed more, while boys were simply talked to and touched as they lay sleeping and feeding. The researchers concluded that the baby's behaviour stimulated the Mother to react unconsciously in a sex-speciflc way which meant that the sex-bias which naturally existed in the baby's behaviour was magnified - hence the belief that boys are easier feeders than girls.

However, these biological differences are not so clearly recognised and responded to by adults as are social signals. In another study, adults were asked to play with a baby who was dressed in gender-neutral clothing. when the adults were told that the baby was a boy, they offered "him" stereotypically masculine toys and encouraged active play,. when they were told the baby was a girl, they offered "her" different toys and provided more social stimulation than was given to the "boy. "

What is more, there seems to be an overriding need of parents to stereotype the appearance and behaviour of their children right from the point of birth. Tape recordings of parents' conversations in the twenty minutes after birth show that over eighty percent of their comments refer to the baby's sex. From that point onwards, they will depict their daughters as "softer" and "finer featured" and their sons as "alert" and "stronger " 

Source: The Opposite Sex edited by Anne Campbell (London, 1989)