Posted: Oct 06, 2010 2:53 pm
the role of genes in the formulation of the mind is not properly elucidated yet, therefor at this time there is no definitive answer to your question of psychological gender being "real" or "innate" as opposed to "learnt" and "imposed", however the wonderful thing about nature is it's ineffable ability to fuck up, and as such we see all sorts of failures in biological systems which help us understand what is wrong with the damaged component (failure in the genes that are responsible for the production of melanin result in albinism for example)
particularly prudent to this case is the existence of gender identity disorder, which appears to be a failure in some mechanism that allows the mind to assume the correct psychological role, whilst no one as yet knows why this happens, it begs the question, how can this happen if gender is learnt?
you might say that the wrong gender has been imposed on the child whilst developing a sense of self but this explanation is lacking when GID occurs in individuals who have the condition despite an upbringing which fixates on aligning their psychological gender with their physiological and genetic genders
so... hoo humm
particularly prudent to this case is the existence of gender identity disorder, which appears to be a failure in some mechanism that allows the mind to assume the correct psychological role, whilst no one as yet knows why this happens, it begs the question, how can this happen if gender is learnt?
you might say that the wrong gender has been imposed on the child whilst developing a sense of self but this explanation is lacking when GID occurs in individuals who have the condition despite an upbringing which fixates on aligning their psychological gender with their physiological and genetic genders
so... hoo humm