>>How else would it be determined? Even if a person is transgendered, where
>>the mental sex doesn't agree with the hardware, it is still a biological
>>issue, since all mental processes are ultimately biological.
Transgenderism
>>is simply two aspects of biology in disagreement with each other.
>>
>>Jocelyn Brown
>>jocelynb@mindspring.com
>If you're arguing that there are two options here (male gender or female
>gender), you need to look at some cultures that have more than two genders.
I was speaking of gender when it comes to primary sexual characteristics, i.e. male and female. Yes, I know that hermaprhodites exist, both naturally and otherwise, and we can count them in as a third. Other than that, that's it for genders as far as I know. That is _not_ to say that there are only two or three gender roles. But if you can show me a culture with more physical genders than what I mentioned, I would love to see it.
>Gender is a cultural construct that entails far more than biological sex or
>sexual preference, and we're expected to conform to certain rules that
apply
>to the gender (i.e. males are ridiculed for wearing dresses).
I certainly agree that culture influences behavior, but there have been numerous studies done where female children were raised with the specific purpose of influencing them into male gender roles and vice-versa. What was found was that overall girls developed female characteristics such as superior verbal communication skills and males developed male characteristics such as playing cowboys and Indians. I am not suggesting that anybody should have to conform to social standards; personally, I could care less if a man wants to wear a dress. However, when it comes to biological tendancies, some are more "male" and some are more "female", such as spacial perception and navigating by landmarks. These tendencies are not cultural constructs; they developed to perpetuate the survival of the human race.
Jocelyn Brown
jocelynb@mindspring.com