Nuture/Nature and the Girl Lizard Brain (GLB)

[mariehart]

Very interesting and coherent comments. I always feel the nurture argument falls apart very easily. When you consider that many of us who are TS had conventional male upbringings. Yet we reject our maleness and wish to live or dress/act as females even in overtly patriarchal cultures. Now nurture may have part to play in encouraging fetishes and other sexual behaviour. That's easy to see. But I believe many of those who cling to the nurture explanation are more interested in the social or political implications. Gender neutral toys for children as an example. A pointless effort IMHO.

So for me it's largely nature with I think hormones having a large part to play, particularly when it comes to being TS. The issue of pre natal hormones I read about previously. One explanation suggested that stress in the Mother during the foetus early development can interrupt the flow of hormones that dictate a male or female brain development. I doubt if the science is fully settled on the point but in my own case my Mother became pregnant before she married my Father. Bearing in mind this happened in Ireland during the 1950s at a time when unmarried pregnant women where put in Mother and baby homes and often had their child taken away from them for adoption. She must have been under considerable stress at the time not that she ever spoke about it. Could that have an impact on my development? Possibly.

There may be a genetic aspect but I think hormones are the most likely culprit.

On the other hand I do think the differences between male and female are not as great as many of us believe. The balance of ying and yang as it were. My own belief is that all of us have both male and female characteristics. But because culturally we have tended to separate the male and female roles there's a tendency to assign certain behaviours or interests as male or female. Now with gender equality being high on the agenda. Women are often encouraged to take on formerly male roles. But the opposite is not true. Often professions that were male dominated are now dominated by women. For example Secretaries or Personal Assistants used to be a predominantly male job. Now it's largely female and as such is avoided by men. I came across this myself I started off in a job as an office clerk in an Engineering department. But as time went on they only hired people who could type which meant girls. So the role became largely female. I was the one and only male in that role and as befits the cliché an effeminate one at that. I had to learn how to type and effectively became a PA to an Engineer. No men would take on the job anymore. The medical profession is another example. It's not just nurses, many of the background jobs have become female dominated. It may be only a matter of time before most Doctors are women. Once a job is seen to dominated by women most men avoid it because of course most men don't want to be seen as effeminate or gay even if they might be so inclined. Culturally any perception of being anything less than masculine is still not very acceptable. So it's ok to have a girl who might be considered a tomboy but a boy doing 'girl' things is not.

You can even see it with the reaction of wives to finding out their husband is a crossdresser. They're shocked as they stand there in their trousers and business suit having just come home from their job in a male dominated profession. 'I married a man' they cry 'not a woman. Are you gay?' they ask, without a hint of irony. In our culture women are encouraged to take on formerly male roles, professions and behaviour. They can wear men's clothes without any comment from anyone. But again the reverse is not true. We must keep the masculine mask at all times. Not for us are the 'pretty things'. Many men are comfortable with that but a significant proportion are not. But they cannot express anything feminine in their day to day life. So they secretly wear women's clothes which gives permission to express their true selves. That in my opinion is why many CDs have a clear and discrete separation of male and female personas. It's a way of coping with restrictions placed on men by both women and our society.

That's the way I see it.