atypical gender development

• Gender dysphoria?

  When a person experiences discomfort or distress as there’s a mismatch between their sex assigned at birth and their gender identity.
• Brain sex theory?

  -GD has a basis in brain structure - the bed nucleus of the stria terminals which is involved in emotional responses and male sexual behaviour in rats.

  -this area is larger in man than woman and has found to be female sized in trans females.
• limitation of brain sex theory?

  P - central claims challenged

  E - hulshoff pol et al studied changes in trans individuals brains using MRI scans taken during hormone treatment. scans showed that size of BST changed significantly over that period. study by kruijiver et al and Zhou et al BST examined post mortem and after trans individuals had received hormone treatment during gender reassignment treatment.

  L - differences in BST could be effect of hormone therapy not cause of gender dysphoria.
• strength of brain sex theory?

  P - evidence suggests there may be other brain differences associated with gender dysphoria.

  E - rametti et al studied another sexually dimorphic aspect of brain that of white matter. there are regional differences in proportion of white matter in male & female brains. analysed brains of both male & female transgender individuals before beginning hormone treatment as part of gender reassignment. amount & distribution of white matter corresponded more closely to gender they identified with

  L - early differences in brains of trans individuals.
• strength of social constructionism approach?

  P - not all cultures have 2 genders

  E - some cultures recognise more than 2 genders like the fa'afafine of Samoa. this is a challenge to traditional binary classifications of male and female. increasing numbers of people now describe themselves as non-binary suggests cultural understanding is only now beginning to catch up with lived experience of many.

  L - gender identity best seen as a social construction rather than a biological fact.
• limitation of psychoanalytic theory?

  P - issues with psychoanalytic theory of gender dysphoria

  E - oversey and persons explanation doesn't provide an adequate account of gender dysphoria in biological females as the theory only applies to trans women. research by rekers found that gender dysphoria in those assigned male at birth more likely to be associated with absence of father not seperation anxiety with mother.

  L - doesn't provide a comprehensive account of gender dysphoria.
• brain sex theory?

  -gender dysphoria has a basis in brain structure, bed nucleus of stria terminals. involved in emotional responses & sexual behaviour in rats.

  -area larger in men than women & found to be female sized in trans females.

  -leads to suggestion that people with GD have a BST which is size of gender they identify with not biological sex.

  -this dimorphism fits with report made by people who are trans that they feel from childhood they were born with wrong sex(Zhou et al).

  -in follow up study 6 trans individuals showed an average BST neutron number in female range (krujiver et al).
• genetic factors?

  -coolidge et al assessed 157 twin pairs for evidence of gender dysphoria. found that 62% of variance could be accounted for by genetic factors. suggests there's a strong heritable component to GD.

  -heylens et al compared 23 MZ twins with 21 DZ twins where one of each pair was diagnosed with GD. found that 9% of the MZ twins were concordant for GD compared to none of the DZs which would indicate a role for genetic factors in development of GD.
• psychoanalytic theory?

  -ovesey and person emphasis social relationships within family as cause of GD. argue that GD in biological males caused by male experiencing separation anxiety before gender identity has been established.

  -boy fantasises of symbiotic fusion with mother to relieve anxiety and danger of separation removed.

  -so boy becomes mother and adopts a woman's gender identity.

  -stoller reports that in interviews GD biological males displayed overly close relationships with their mothers suggesting stronger female identification so conflicted gender identity in long term.
• social constructionism?

  -gender identity doesn't reflect underlying biological differences between people & these concepts invented by societies.

  -individuals with GD experience confusion as society forces people to be man or woman.

  -GD is a social phenomenon which arises when people required to choose one of 2.

  -McClintock cites case of individuals with genetic condition in Sambia. causes biological males to be categorised as girls at birth as they've a labia & a clitoris. At puberty genitals change due to large increase in testosterone. genetic variation common among Sambia, & routinely accepted that some people are men, some women, & others are kwolu-aatmwol - females-then-males. however, kwolu-aatmwol judged as having a pathological form of gender dysphoria.