Violence

Murder

Weapons

The Labyrinth

Castration

Hormones

Madness

Mothering

Stereotypes

To the uninitiated it is easy to assume that there are two sexes, male and female, which are definite and in some sense opposites. We are born male or female and in fact can be identified as such on ultrasound scans during pregnancy. We are male if our chromosomes are XY and female if they are XX.

The actual situation is more complex.

This was described in detail by John Money himself.

Chromosomal sex is only the first stage on the path of 'building a man'. The second stage is gonadal sex (the Y produces a testis, X an ovary. This is followed by foetal hormonal sex which should produce the appropriate hormones to drive the process of internal morphologic sex and external morphologic sex, then, although it is difficult to identify, brain sex. All this happens before the sex of assignment, when nurture steps in to develop gender identity and gender role. Finally the individual, if all this has been successful, will be capable of reproduction - of procreative sex.

There are a number of points at which things may go wrong. People can have more than the usual XY or XX chromosomes. They may have problems with protein production or recognition. Such individuals may be seen as 'inter-sex', having some characteristics which make the choice of sex of assignment difficult. Alternatively they may be assigned to one sex and yet later, possibly at puberty, develop characteristics of the other sex.

At birth, doctors may react strongly to this sex identity confusion and decide on their own criteria which sex is most appropriate and then perform surgery to fit the chosen sex. Boys with small penises may be assigned to female and so castrated but genetic females are generally raised as girls, regardless of levels of virilization. They may receive surgery to 'correct' genitalia. Money observed that such girls tend to be 'Tom Boys' and also tend to develop lesbian relationships.

Richard Green described a parallel situation with boys as 'Sissy Boy Syndrome for boys who develop 'feminine' interests, dressing up in girls clothes etc. He believed them to be 'at high risk' of becoming homosexual.

These attitudes pathologize homosexuality.

There are cases such as the true life story of Bruce Reimer, and others like him who are accidentally castrated. When this happened he had already been through all the development stages and been assigned as male and was being brought up as such. John Money argued that the intersex individuals could be brought up as a different sex of assignment, perhaps from their chromosomal sex and that this was successful. History however does not agree. Many intersex individuals, particularly in America are unhappy about their genital surgery, equating it with genital mutilation. Some say they would rather have been allowed to grow up as hermaphrodites, or been allowed to choose once they reached the age of puberty.

The case of Frank is rather different. He believes himself to be a male but accidentally castrated in infancy. As his / her father, has constantly fed her with testosterone since infancy some virilization would have occured. Frank has been kept separate from contact with other girls or women and so has not had an opportunity to compare her genitalia with anyone else's.