From: Alan Cairns 

On Sun, 28 May 2000 16:23:53 -0400, John Beamish  wrote:

>I thought you might have something to say about the way the
>differentiation progresses or on current thinking about how hard/soft
>wired the differentiation is.

Not really -- I can't claim to be an expert in sexual medicine. I am pretty
clear about the doings of the Mullerian and Wolffian ducts in the embryo,
though.

For what it's worth, I gather that the research shows that the perception
of gender is pretty hard wired. But it would be a mistake to think that
actual sexual behaviour is so. There are a million possible interactions
that might control sexual expression. It is not a good idea to consider the
complexities of human behaviour as merely expressions of the hormonal
environment in early pregnancy. We are much more complicated animals than
that.

It appears that boys and girls are quite clear who they are from very early
on: but that knowledge translates poorly into their later sexual behaviour.


Alan
alancairns{at}dccnet.com

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