Let’s Have Sex, Two of Each. But No Gender Tonight, Since Both of Mine Are Playing Hard to Get.

Several writers on the topics of sex and gender assert that there are more than two sexes, and more than two genders. Anne Fausto-Sterling suggests there are at least five sexes and Joan Roughgarden claims there are as many as seven genders.^{1, 2} Both of these conclusions are wrong because, in the case of sex, it is only within combinations of male and female characteristics that extra sexes can be interpreted to exist. Also, the traits used to define genders are drawn from masculine and feminine qualities which intermix differently in every individual. Someone born with ambiguous genitalia, for example, should not be seen as being of an additional sex, but rather as a combination of male and female. Also, because no individuals are exclusively either masculine or feminine, any mixture of the two cannot indicate a new gender. In every sexually reproducing species there are gradations of sex ranging from female to male, and degrees of gender ranging from feminine to masculine. The ranges of qualities between two extremes are not equally comparable to the limits that define them, therefore degrees of sex and gender cannot represent distinct sexes and genders in themselves.

Ronnie de Sousa asserts that gender is a variable that cannot be confined to the categories of masculine and feminine.³ He is right about the variability of gender, but in order to be defined, the variables are nonetheless dependent upon the masculine and feminine qualities from which they are drawn. Support for the argument that there is a mixing of two sexes in each body and two genders in each psyche can be taken from Sigmund Freud’s observations of the occurrence of anatomical and psychic hermaphroditism in all human organisms.⁴ The case of intersex individual, Lynn Edward Harris, demonstrates how the gender traits of masculinity and femininity can interact and yet remain independent from one another within a single body. Criteria for what should constitute distinct sexes and genders must be established in order to refute claims that additional sexes exist beyond the limits of male and female, and that genders have being outside of masculinity and femininity. First of all, however, the terms “sex” and “gender” must be defined.

As a category applied to organisms, the term “sex” has been used for much longer than the word “gender”. There is scientific agreement that “sex” indicates either of two main categories, namely male and female, into which many species are divided on the basis of their reproductive functions. Gender, however, is more difficult to classify, in that it only came into common use in reference to organisms in the late twentieth century, and there is not such universal agreement on its definition as exists for sex. The Oxford English dictionary defines gender as “the state of being male or female (typically used with reference to social and cultural differences rather than biological ones)”, but Merriam-Webster says more concisely that gender represents “the behavioural, cultural, or psychological traits typically associated with one sex”.^{5, 6} It will be argued here that gender traits collectively expressed in human behaviour have more of an influence on culture than vice-versa. Culture affects how gender is perceived and interpreted, but only superficially. While culture is a social environment that our psyche reacts to, each individual’s own sexual biology is more of a stimulus on how one’s psyche reacts to gender. Therefore, it can be said that sex stands for our biological state of sexual being while gender represents our psychological state of sexual being. Culture may direct some gender roles associated with biological sex, but there are super-cultural agreements as to what the common gender traits are. Masculine qualities, such as aggression and defiance, as listed by Freud, would find their feminine counterparts for him in passivity and obedience.⁷ Although feminine and masculine properties are associated with the female and male sexes, respectively, they are not fixed to them. Some gender qualities can be linked to levels of testosterone within the bodies of either sex, and when these levels are high they influence the expression of masculine characteristics. When testosterone levels are low there is a diminishment of masculine traits, in the absence of which, corresponding feminine gender properties tend to surface. A study by Paul J. Zak, et al. found that an artificial increase in testosterone caused men to display increased selfishness.⁸ Josephs and Mehta discovered that men who refused to back down in competitions showed higher testosterone levels.⁹ Mazur and Booth, in researching various independent studies into the effects of testosterone, concluded that high testosterone levels correspond to aggression only when it serves dominance, whereas lower levels can accompany aggression when it is needed for self defence.¹⁰ Nick Neave, et al. found a connection between higher testosterone levels and spatial perceptivity, while lower levels corresponded to a talent for landmark recognition that is often associated with females.¹¹ The amount of testosterone present in either sex can vary individually, circumstantially and over time. When females are sexually aroused their testosterone levels rise and when males are in love, or taking on the nurturing role of fatherhood, their testosterone levels diminish.^{12, 13} As males reach and pass middle age the presence of testosterone in their bodies goes down, while the occurrence of estrogen rises.¹⁴ Attempts have been made to prove that females lose estrogen and gain testosterone as they age,  but most studies show that when they begin to lose estrogen, they also lose testosterone. The result is that as females lose estrogen and males gain it, men and women truly come closer to gender equality.

            Joan Roughgarden argues that gender should be categorized according to sexual appearance and behaviour. In giving examples of species she interprets as having more than two genders, she cites, for instance, the bluehead wrasse, a coral reef fish, as being a three gendered species, in which females that transform into males begin to squirt sperm as opposed to eggs.¹⁵ Roughgarden also describes the phenomenon of domesticated pigs on the islands of Vanuatu, which breeders claim have seven genders ranging from the most obviously female genitalia to typically male sexual organs, with the in-between breeds carrying various intersex characteristics.¹⁶ Another example she uses to support her claim of extra genders is that of the Tanzanian female spotted hyena. This creature has genitalia nearly identical on the outside to that of its male counterpart and is also highly aggressive. Another model for Roughgarden’s theory of gender diversity is a species of lizards that consist only of the female sex.¹⁷

The all female lizard species that Roughgarden describes is defined as female because it genetically spilled away from a parent species in which there were clearly observable divisions of males and females. Being able to reproduce without males does not make an all female species of lizards a different gender. Many female vertebrates among lizards and fish typically have the ability to reproduce by parthenogenesis if environmental conditions require it. How a species reproduces is a sexual, rather than a gender characteristic. Roughgarden’s addition of sexual appearance to the definition of gender differs from that of both the Merriam-Webster and Oxford dictionaries. Most scientists lean heavily towards the psychological definition of gender, and therefore apply the word only to humans.¹⁸ Her use of the words “male” and “female” in relation to gender, also clashes with their accepted functions as terms defining sex alone. She suggests that for the bluehead wrasse, the females that change into males are of a different gender than those which do not change sex. Some misinformation about this species, however, may have caused Roughgarden to draw inaccurate conclusions in support of her argument. A peer reviewed paper by John Godwin, et al.; in detailing research on the bio-chemicals involved in the metamorphosis of sex changing coral reef fish, also details a field study of the bluehead wrasse. Their paper uses the term “sexual phenotypes” to describe what Roughgarden calls “genders”, and their research reveals information that shows us that Roughgarden was mistaken about some of her conclusions. They observed that both “initial phase” males and females have the ability to transform into the larger, more aggressive males, which they call “terminal phase males”. They also refer to the female to male transformation as a “sex change”, which makes more sense than Roughgarden’s conclusion that it is a gender transformation.¹⁹ However, changes of gender characteristics can often accompany a change of sex, so in the bluehead wrasse, the transformed females can be said to have changed gender as well, but their new ability to squirt sperm as opposed to eggs is a manifestation of their sex change. Godwin, et al., also observed that with the right environmental conditions, any initial phase bluehead wrasse, of either sex can change into a terminal phase male. If the males can also transform into the same kind of super-male that the females can, this does not suggest an additional sex existing within the species, but rather an extreme manifestation of maleness that every member of the species has the potential to arrive at.

In Roughgarden’s example of the Vanuaatu pigs, the word “gender” is again inaccurately used, this time in reference to genitalia. Genitals are sex characteristics, and the different combinations of male and female qualities in the genitalia of the pigs would more precisely be called sexual phenotypes. The five breeds in between the typically male and female pigs do not represent separate sexes, but rather a mixture of aspects of the two conventional ones. The Tanzanian hyenas that Roughgarden describes are an extreme example of the female sex of a species having phenotypically masculine gender characteristics, but they are still not proof of an extra sex or gender.

What Joan Roughgarden defines as different genders, Anne Fausto-Sterling would call distinct sexes. In her essay, “The Five Sexes”, she argues that, for humans, in addition to males and females, there are three more sexes. She suggests they could be called “herms”, “merms” and “ferms”. She says that herms are true hermaphrodites, in that they have both male and female gonads; merms are male pseudohermaphrodites who have some female parts but no ovaries; and ferms are female hermaphrodites with some male parts but no testes.²⁰ All three of these “sexes” that Fausto-Sterling lists are defined by whatever combination of male and female body parts their bodies contain. Therefore none of them are of a separate sex than male and female, but rather a combination of the two.

            Ronnie de Sousa says that obvious sexual differences are dubious and that gender is a “psychological construct”. He argues that gender varies from culture to culture, and that people act out their gender in the way they talk, dress or behave, as if in a play, and that there are frequently negative consequences for breaking character. De Sousa asserts that gender differences, as expressed through emotion, vary in different cultures and circumstances. He gives the example that men display more emotion and smile more when in a subordinate position, whereas women in power express less emotion. He claims that this shows that emotionality is more an expression of status than gender. Also, in challenging the use of statistical normality as a standard for gender comparison, de Sousa points out that it is normal to have bad eyesight.²¹

             De Sousa is right in his assertion that there are no fixed gender traits. However, the attributes that manifest themselves most prominently in males and females are the standard by which gender is best understood, even when those traits mix to form what he would call other genders. So while gender traits are not fixed, this does not mean there are more than two genders. There are two genders that fragment and intersperse within single organisms. Because people have within them a mixture of characteristics of the two genders, it could be that certain circumstances will draw some latent gender characteristics into manifestation. Taking de Sousa’s example of a male in a subordinate position expressing more emotion than his female boss, it is likely that to play a submissive role invokes the expression of feminine characteristics in both males and females. Conversely, to play a dominant role draws upon masculine gender characteristics in either sex. De Sousa is right that bad eyesight can be seen as normal, in that most of the population does require corrective lenses. However, good eyesight exists as a standard against which to compare bad eyesight; just as extreme cases of masculinity and femininity exist as a standard against which to compare ambiguous gender. It should be pointed out though that this analogy is not meant to equate gender interspersal with any type of fault, but rather to compare standards.

According to Sigmund Freud it is normal for the characteristics of both genders to be interspersed within a single organism.^{22, 23} He says that we are all to some degree “anatomically hermaphroditic”, in that we all display attributes drawn from both sexes; and “psychically hermaphroditic” in our tendency to carry at least some sexual attraction for both the same and the opposite sex. Identification with a gender may fluctuate within an organism, thus changing, from time to time, which gender a person is attracted to. Gender attraction may in fact be a more dominant urge for us than attraction to a given sex.

            It can be argued that every inter-mixture of masculine and feminine within each individual is as unique as a fingerprint. If each combination were to be recognized as a gender then that would mean there are approximately six billion genders on the planet earth. This is an impractical way of approaching the understanding of gender. The analogy of the forest and the trees applies here. If we cannot see this, it may be best to simply eject the word “gender” from our vocabulary.

The intermixing and fluctuation over time of masculine and feminine traits within a single organism, as Freud describes it, can be illustrated by the case of Lynn Edward Harris. He was declared female at birth, but found himself becoming increasingly more masculine as he grew older until he finally accepted a male identity. He claims that he ironically made use of some of his encroaching masculine qualities, such as aggression and competitiveness to hold on to his feminine characteristics even as they were being eclipsed. “I was determined to be the best female of any female I knew, and I went over the top,” he says.²⁴ The fact that Harris found himself displaying more and more masculine traits with age shows how independent of one another the two genders can be. Rather than the masculine blending with the feminine, one displaced the other. This also works against the suggestion that genders other than masculine and feminine can be identified. If the traits of either gender manifest themselves strongly in one person and then drift toward one gender or the other, one can not pinpoint any set characteristics with which to identify an additional gender. If Lynn Edward Harris lived in some Native American societies, he would be considered as a “Two spirit person”, a term which equates masculine and feminine gender each as a spirit. Native Americans do not assess such individuals as being “Three spirited”, or as any other number than two.

Males and females are considered a different sex because their genitalia are, on average, distinctly different from one another. If at birth someone’s body contains both male and female genitalia, this does not make the person of an extra sex, but rather a mixture of two. To identify an individual as being of a sex other than male and female would imply that they have genitalia unique to that sex alone, as is the case in the three sexes of an alien race called “the Soft Ones”, created by Isaac Asimov in his novel, The Gods Themselves.²⁵ But the beings in his story, had anatomies that allowed for the merging of three sexes for the sake of reproduction. This is not the case with humans because there are only two reproductively compatible sexes. The mixing of the parts of two distinct sexes does not make up a new sex any more than the mixing of salt and water produces a new element. In saline water the parts of the whole are easily recognized as being the separate components they are made from. The name “transex” itself implies that a person is between sexes. However, such individuals do not hold characteristics distinct from male and female.

If someone identifies as being to some degree in between male and female, or masculine and feminine, that person should not be considered of an extra sex or gender. The word, “extra” means additional, but sharing the qualities of two extremes puts one between them rather than separate from them. If one chooses not to identify with either sex or gender, one may determine oneself sexually neutral or gender neutral, but this does not mean one is of a neutral sex or gender. Such a person’s position between sexes or genders is more likely divided in such a way that they live in the middle in order to have access to experiencing equally preferred aspects of both sexes or genders. If I enjoy being in Toronto, but also love life in Montreal perhaps I will pick a city in between to live so as to have access to both places. If I move to Kingston, Ontario, it may not be because I feel an affinity with living in that city, but because I want to be within reach of both Toronto and Montreal. This is comparable to transgender individuals who choose to live as both man and woman.

Transgender porn actress Kimberly Devine, on her decision to not have sex reassignment surgery is quoted as saying: “It takes more than a vagina to make a woman”.²⁶ She clearly identifies with being a woman, but wants to keep her penis. But is she of an additional gender or sex? She is neither, but that does not mean that she should not be referred to as “she” or not be acknowledged as a woman if that is her wish. Devine has the appearance of a woman, except for her genitalia, but even if she did not, the sex with which she identifies should be respected. According to Joan Roughgarden, the terms “woman” and “man” are social constructs, whereas “male” and “female” are biological categories.²⁷ If then, womanhood or manhood are socially defined, that would imply that others must agree that Kimberly Devine is a woman for her to call herself a woman. However, public opinion is often subjective and fluctuating, and therefore not a very efficient criteria for determining how individuals should be categorized. To claim that one is a woman makes one a woman whether or not one fits the preconceived notions of what a woman should look like. In the case of Kimberly Devine then, she is a woman even if her female secondary sex characteristics such as breasts and facial features are the result of plastic surgery, and even though she has a penis.

            Even though people having combinations of male and female body parts do not constitute a distinct sex, this does not mean they should not be distinguished as a unique group or groups with their own needs based on the effect on themselves such combinations produce. This can be compared analogously to the Metis people, who are partly of Native American and European descent and who, although they are not considered to be a unique race, but rather a combination of two, nonetheless have their own unique culture, needs and rights.

Arguments are often made for the sake of tolerance that individuals with ambiguous genitalia should be defined as being of sexes other than male and female, and that people with mixtures of masculine and feminine qualities should be recognized as being of additional genders. It is true that in a society where the primary purpose of sex is no longer reproduction, but rather well being, that sex and gender should be understood less along the lines of what they do, and more in terms of how they feel. This goal can be achieved, however, without dismissing sex and gender’s dualistic realities. Society should promote acceptance of the rich diversity that displays itself between the extremes of male and female, and masculine and feminine. Hope for this ideal can be found in the fact that time and exposure to the multiplicity of sex and gender combinations are bringing tolerance of uniqueness gradually into reality. It can be observed, in western society at least, that each new generation is more accepting of sex and gender differences than the previous one, and that tolerance is approaching. Although sex as an activity in western culture is no longer primarily about reproduction, the sexes and genders have been sculpted by evolution around the purpose of procreation. Every human being on this planet arrived here as a result of the fertilization of a female gamete by a male one.

Notes

1. Fausto-Sterling, Anne. “The five sexes: why male and female are not enough”, The Sciences, 33:2, (March-April 1993). Blackboard. Web. January 31, 2013.

2. Joan Roughgarden, Evolution’s Rainbow: Diversity, Gender and Sexuality in Nature and People, (Los Angeles, University of California Press, 2004): 13-42. Reprinted in PHL243H1S reading package. (Toronto. Alicos Printing. January 2013): 1-24.

3. Ronnie de Sousa, "Lecture #5, February 4, 2013", PHL243H1S, LEC5101, Room 159, Lash Miller Chemical Labs Building, 80 St. George Street, University of Toronto.

4. Sigmund Freud. Three Contributions to the Theory of Sex, Project Gutenberg. Web. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/14969/14969-h/14969-h.htm. February 28, 2013

5. “gender”. Oxford English Dictionary. 2013. Oxford University Press. Web. http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/gender. March 28, 2013.     

6. "gender" Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster, 2013. Web. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gender. March 21, 2013.

7.  Owen J. Flanagan Jr., “Freud: Masculinity, Femininity and the Philosophy of Mind”, Mary Vetterling-Braggin, ed., “Femininity”, “Masculinity”, and “Androgyny” (Totowa, N.J.: Littlefield, Adams & Co., 1982), 75.

8. Paul J. Zak, Robert Kurzban, Sheila Ahmadi, Ronald S. Swerdloff, Jang Park, Levan Efremidze, Karen Redwine, Karla Morgan, William Matzner. “Testosterone Administration Decreases Generosity in the Ultimatum Game”. Plosone.org. Web. http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0008330. April 4, 2013

9. “Men's testosterone levels predict competitiveness”. Phys.org. Web. http://phys.org/news84473710.html. April 4, 2013

10. Mazur, Allan. Alan Booth. “Testosterone and Dominance in Men”. BEHAVIORAL AND BRAIN SCIENCES (1998) 21, 353–397. Scholarsportal. Web. http://journals2.scholarsportal.info.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/tmp/2347160827953948377.pdf. April 4, 2013

11. Neave, Nick. Meyrav Menaged. David R. Weightman. “Sex Differences in Cognition: The Role of Testosterone and Sexual Orientation”. Brain and Cognition.  41, 245–262 (1999). Article ID brcg.1999.1125. IdealLibrary.com. Web. April 4, 2013.

12. van Anders, S.M. L.D. Hamilton. N. Schmidt. N.V. Watson. “Associations between testosterone secretion and sexual activity in women”. Hormones and Behaviour. 2007 Apr;51(4):477-82. Pubmed.gov. Web. Epub 2007 Jan 25. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17320881. April 4, 2013.

13. James W. Kalat. “Reproductive Behaviors”. Biological Psychology(2).pdf. 2007 Wadsworth, Cengage Learning. Belmont, California. 322.

14. “Male Hormone Information”. Turtonmd.com. Web. http://turtonmd.com/male-hormone-information%20/. April 4, 2013

15. Roughgarden, “Sex Within Bodies”, Evolution’s Rainbow, reading package, 15-16.

16. Roughgarden, “Sex Within Bodies”, Evolution’s Rainbow, reading package, 20.

17. Roughgarden, “Sex Within Bodies”, Evolution’s Rainbow, reading package, 21.

18. Kalat. “Variations in Sexual Behavior”. Biological Psychology(2).pdf. 331.

19. John Godwin, Ryan Sawby, Robert R. Warner, David Crews, Matthew S. Grober. “Hypothalamic Arginine Vasotocin mRNA Abundance Variation Across Sexes and

with Sex Change in a Coral Reef Fish”. Brain Behavior and Evolution. 2000; 55:78 http://www2.gsu.edu/~biomgx/Publications/GodwinetalAVT.pdf. March 7, 2013.

20. Fausto-Sterling. “The five sexes”.

21. de Sousa, Lecture #5.

22. Freud. “The Sexual Aberrations”.  Three Contributions to the Theory of Sex: “A certain degree of anatomical hermaphroditism really belongs to the normal. In no normally formed male or female are traces of the apparatus of the other sex lacking; these either continue functionless as rudimentary organs, or they are transformed for the purpose of assuming other functions.”

23. Anne Dickason, “The Feminine as a Universal”, Vetterling-Braggin, ed., “Femininity”, “Masculinity”, and “Androgyny”, 18. : quoting Freud.

24. Greg Stacy. “Interview With the Hermaphrodite: The many faces of Lynn Harris”. http://gregstacy.wordpress.com/2006/11/25/interview-with-the-hermaphrodite-the-many-faces-of-lynn-harris/. March 14, 2013

25. Isaac Asimov. “The Gods Themselves”. The Gods Themselves. http://www.gpnp.net/backshelves.gpnp.net/001%20scifi%20ebooks/scifi%20fav%20authors/asimov%20ebooks/The%20Gods%20Themselves.pdf. March 21, 2013.

26. LGBT Project Wiki. “Kimberly Devine”. http://lgbt.wikia.com/wiki/Kimberly_Devine. March 22, 2013.

27. Roughgarden, “Sex Versus Gender”, Evolution’s Rainbow, reading package, 9.