PeterZ wrote:Have you ever heard of androgyn insensitivity, Daryl? Ot is a condition where a genetic male's body does not recognize testosterone. It results in the child developing the secondary female sex characteristics. The genetic male child looks like a female. They tend to be tomboys but their gender identification is confused.
Tomboy? Ah yes, gender prejudice in its finest form. Because one part of the problem is that the definition of that word ( and it´s translations across the world ) varies rather a fair amount according to local culture.
There are some parts personality wise that MAY be a result of genetical gender coding, but MOST of what you would consider genderbased behaviour, isn´t. Cultural indoctrination is heavy, and the kids start learning almost from the first time they open their eyes.
Important addition however is that personality differences are very likely more varied between individuals than they are between gender. Ie. most of what you would term "tomboys" are in fact 100% girl with 100% natural behaviour. And vice versa.
Also, your description is inadequate, because the results of that specific "disorder" can be a number of rather different ones.
It is in fact only recently that it´s even become realised just how "common" it is(as in, several times more common than previously thought, still only a low single number percentage(probably)).
There´s also the reverse, hypersensitivity to male hormone.
But, that´s only a small part of the spectrum of causes that can result in uncertain gender classification and self-identity.
The easiest example is how beyond the usual XX and XY gender determinating DNA, there´s people with all combinations up to XYYY (YYYY doesn´t work, but as long as there´s always 1 X in the mix, it´s probably possible).
A small part of the population is genetically TWO people(so far unknown if it is possible for more than two sets of DNA), themselves and their nonexistant twin with the division seen so far beeing that organs are split between the 2 DNA. And as identical twin DNA can´t be separated from each other, we cannot even know if it is more common than we would expect, or not.
And these people can have a combination of XX and XY, where visible gender was determined by what organs got which set of DNA.
Then there´s the parts of the brain that develops differently between gender. Depending on exact classification there´s about a dozen, and a BIG minority of people have at least one of those parts as if they were of opposite gender, but these are rarely noticeable unless when it is the part involved in sexual behaviour.
Our modern chemical society is also responsible for a bunch of issues caused by the vast amounts of "non harmful" chemicals thrown around that still interacts with human bodies.
And that´s before you´ve even started looking at "purely psychological" gender issues.
Essentially, if we look purely at the scientific evidence(ie ignore anything that cannot be verified, meaning that psychological issues are completely ignored ), and depending on how strict the limits are set, we have male, female and somewhere between 10 and >40% "other".
