Phyllis Sidheuaine

I'm mostly female but I have vestigial testicles instead of ovaries. What does that make me?

Phyllis Sidheuaine

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Arguing with you is like trying to hang myself in zero gravity<br /><br />This politickin' stuff is hard without detect evil.

Leto

A kind of hermaphrodite, biologically speaken. A semi-god(dess) with ability to predict future according to Greek mythology. And a good subject to test medical student knowledge.
Now, what's the most important in daily basis is how do you consider yourself.

littlemissattitude

When I took a college course in human sexuality, if I remember correctly, according to the defintions we were given "sex" was what your genes say you are. If you have an X and a Y, you're male; if you have two X chromosomes, you are female. That kind of leaves out certain genetic abormalities (such as XXY), but I think what it came down to was that if there was a Y chromosome in there anywhere, that makes a male, and if there were only X chromosomes, that signals a female.

On the other hand "gender" is what you consider yourself to be; it's the part of gender identity that is in one's mind, one's psychology. Which is where transgender issues come in, if I'm not mistaken.

Princess Ivy

firstly i only barely speak english, so here i'm refering to male and female. In australia there is apparently a third category, but here in the UK we are still sticking to old stereo types. But thank you for illustrating the point i'm trying to make so clearly. that point is that the categories themselves are misleading. there is no specific single criterion that every man and every woman can fulfil to prove their masculinity/femininity to the rest of the world. I am asking that people say what they feel that they are, and what for them is the criterion that they feel is most esential to being of that gender.

Alana

There are, of course, the physical properties that will make one male or female, but in a philosophical sense there are multiple possibilities/factors to take into consideration.

Firstly, there are environmental impacts on a person's psyche, which effects, of course, their personality (perhaps the two are interchangeable?). Society treats male and female humans differently, according to the roles they are expected to play in their lives. I.e. females are given a doll, whilst a male is given a truck (in Western society, of course). Females are expected to be more empathetic and focus more on the human element, while males are expected to be more of the providers of the family, and a family or reproduction is essential for the survival of our species. The question becomes- what causes these biases? Were they the product of nature, or did human's alter their nature to create a false perception of what is masculine or feminine. How much does society effect how we, as humans, view what is masculine/feminine and how we adopt these traits to ourselves, making them a part of our identity.

Second, there are the natural, physiological aspects of a person's brain. This is difficult to say, as our brains are rather impressionable while we are children, thus the impacts of society may be considered significant. But there have been studies displaying results of female newborns preferring dolls or objects with faces or things that deal with emotional intelligence in comparison to males preferring various objects that make use of spatial intelligence, i.e cars, balls, etc. This seems to imply that there is a certain proclivity for females to act more as nurturers psychologically while males are more inclined to make use of tools, perhaps. Uncertain of this (the male proclivity).

Now, there is the physical body that must be taken into consideration and other random speculations. Males, on average, seem to be larger, more muscular, and active physically than women- they are the fighters, they are the more hardy and they were the hunters in the past. Their bodies supports this. Females tend to be softer, smaller, etc. implying that they, perhaps, don't traverse on average as far of distances, etc. as males but instead manage the home, society, etc. They are the supporters, the nurturers.

This is speculation, however.

the ace

Clothes shopping... buy the first thing that fits.

Food shopping....buy what I need.