by Joan Inong

Created on: March 15, 2008

Ah, the age old question of "Nature or Nurture?" Freud answered this question by proposing that nurture has a very big influence on our sense of self, but that nature, namely our "sexual urges," is the underlying motive for all of what we do. So, which one is it?

First, we have to separate the words "sex" and "gender," because they are inherently different. Sex is the actual, physical characteristic of a person, according to his/her genitals. On the other hand, gender is primarily a psychological concept, one that transcends the sexual, physical characteristic.

In any day and in any age, there have been homosexuals. There has been the question of whether they are born that way, or they begin to think of themselves that way at a certain point in their lives. Although the answer may be different to each person, gender identity does appear to be more influenced by "nurture," or society.

From the minute a baby is finally in the outside world, it is wrapped with either a pink blanket or a blue one. Once it gets home, it is clothed with either pink clothes or blue clothes. Its room is furnished with what corresponds to "its gender." This continues throughout the child's young life. If it is a boy, he is given trucks and trains. If it is a girl, she is given dolls and frilly dresses.

This conditioning extends to imitation. The child will relate itself to either parent: however, the parent plays a large part in this "relating." The father will most likely do more things with a son, and the mother will most likely do more things with the daughter. Thus, the child learns to imitate either what mommy does or what daddy does. However, is this process of "relating" and imitation a result of biological differences? Probably not. While the parents do have a lot of say in who the child will relate to, there is still a probability that the child will do the opposite. In many cases, in fact, children do not realize sexual differences until they are much older. Thus, they have no means in which to connect sexual identity with gender identity.

Thus, while biology plays an important role in a person's identification of his/her sexual identity, it plays a less important part in determining a person's identification of his/her gender identity. It is like a package of cake mix. They are all basically the same, with a few minor, flavor distinctions, but they have the same basic, building blocks. However, what they end up to be depends mostly on how a person cooks them. They can turn into regular cakes, or they can turn into cupcakes, etc. Gender identity is a process which is largely affected by society.

Learn more about this author, Joan Inong.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.