Multi-Dimensionality of Gender
Carl W. Bushong, Ph.D., LMFT, LMHC

When we speak of gender, in a context other than language, it is a recent concept in our culture, both lay and professional. In 1955, John Money, Ph.D. first used the term "gender" to discuss sexual roles, adding in 1966 the term "gender identity" while conducting his gender research at Johns Hopkins. In 1974, Dr. N.W. Fisk provided our now familiar diagnosis of Gender Dysphoria. Previously, one’s sexual role was considered one of two discrete, non-overlapping congenital attributes--male or female. These two mutually exclusive categories allowed for no variation. Of course, we acknowledged the cultural differences in sexual roles, but there still could be only two modes of expression.

Now we know that one’s gender is on a continuum, a blending, analogous to a "gray scale." But, our distribution of gender is bimodal, that is, most people are lumped at the two ends (see graphic) with only a minority in the middle. The great majority will see themselves as either male or female with all that implies.

Probably more upsetting to our conventional view of gender than this fuzziness of gender roles is that we can be a MIX of male and female identities within the same individual. Several researchers have developed theories of how the brain develops prenatally along sexual lines arising from androgen mediation. Dr. Milton Diamond concludes from his research that the brain has four stages of gender imprinting. The first is Basic Sexual Patterning such as aggressiveness vs. passivity. Second comes Sexual Identity (gender identity), third, the Mating Centers develop (sexual orientation), and fourth, the Control Centers for sexual equipment such as orgasm.

Gunter Dörner in Germany, using his research with rats, sees only three stages. He believes that first the Sex Centers develop giving typical male and female physical characteristics, then the Mating Centers (sexual orientation) and then the Gender Role Centers which are similar to Diamond’s "Basic Sexual Patterning."

As a psychotherapist, I don’t presume to enter into the discussion of what develops in what order and how. I take a more pragmatic stance and seek to observe what behaviors are linked, or independent from one another. From this research and observation, I have developed the list of five semi-independent attributes of gender. Not as a fixed dogma, but as a working theory, a map if you will, to help us understand this complex often hotly emotional issue of gender. Consider sexual identity / behavior springing from five semi-independent attributes. These five attributes are:

top | continued

home ~ about me ~ intersexuality faq ~ intersexuality vocabulary ~ articles
real people ~ bulletin board ~