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What is Gender?
I learned recently that my youngest sister had participated in a study on campus a few years back. The study involved the gender based structure of the brain shown in an MRI scan. They wanted to see the proportion of the college population whose brain structure matched their anatomical gender.
The point of interest here is that my sister landed in the 25% where the brain is structured exactly opposite. Her brain scanned as 100% male.
This is but one piece of scientific interest that supports the theory that individuals are born homosexual, transgendered, and the like.
Needless to say hearing this from my sister makes me feel much better about myself. Since this is a genetic trait, it stands to reason I am not too dissimilar from my sister. I do not know how my brain would scan but I do know I have one feminine brother (he isn't homosexual, but he is very feminine in behavior and emotion), one sister very masculine, while the remaining brother and sister are what society considers "normal". (i.e. masculine body, masculine behavior and feminine body, feminine behavior.)
I have taken a few psychological gender identity tests but I don't consider them to be scientificly sound - all of them have been online and appear to be "just for fun" kind of thing. However, with all of them I have scored at fairly neutral, slightly favoring masculine. The only thing about me that is exceptionally feminine is in regards to my parenting. I am a "mother" 100% on this. Anyone that knows me can probably attest to this.
I am curious about obtaining more information on this subject. Heck, I wish I had been able to participate in the same study my sister had.
My sister also talked about how current research is showing that the human race is progressively evolving into an asexual creature, much like that of a species of lizard whose eggs are fertilized by eggs from the same body. Natural cloning basically. The Y chromosome is progressively become smaller compared to the X chromosome and contains less genetic material. The female human body's "hardware" is already structured for natural cloning, but the hormonal "software" is not. This research suggests that if this trend continues there will eventually come a day where male humans will no longer exist!!!! crying All I can say is I am so glad that I will never live long enough to see that day. However, I can't help but wonder if we would instead evolve into like some species of snails and frogs who can act as either gender, and asexually, during reproduction. I also can not imagine seeing a world where every human is anatomically structured the same with the genetic variation available only through genetic mutation.
In light of all this, I am dismayed that historically across the globe, society only acknowledges two genders. We are only now beginning to explore new additional definitions. Based on the science available today I would say society is late in coming to this point. We may never see the day when there are more than two socially accepted gender identities, dispite the scientific support available in many fields of research.
What are your thoughts on all of this?
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