Comments on: The battle over infants with cross-gender desires http://mindhacks.com/2008/05/12/the-battle-over-infants-with-cross-gender-desires/ Neuroscience and psychology news and views. Mon, 20 May 2013 15:51:40 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: ConcernedMan http://mindhacks.com/2008/05/12/the-battle-over-infants-with-cross-gender-desires/#comment-37981 Sat, 06 Oct 2012 08:16:04 +0000 http://mindhacksblog.wordpress.com/2008/05/12/the-battle-over-infants-with-cross-gender-desires/#comment-37981 Both of the approaches are wrong.

The kid thinks he’s a “girl” because a great deal of his personality lines up with what society says should be a “girl”.

Has any psychologist ever tried this?:

Let the kid play with what ever he wants. If you force him to only play with boy toys it will just make him further convinced that in order to be himself he has to change his body.

Instead teach the kid that boys and girls can do what ever they want, and that all there is to being a “boy” is having boy parts and all there is to being a “girl” is having girl parts, that people have ideas about how boys and girls should behave but that some people don’t conform to those ideas yet they are still their physical sex boy or girl.

Then by adulthood the child associates the concepts of “boy” and “girl” with physical form rather than the various social constructs that get glued to it. The dysphoria is because the kid’s concept of gender is overcomplicated. Just divorce “gender” from the symbolic things people associate with gender and maybe people wouldn’t want sex changes.

Note: Shouldn’t be taken for medical advice. I’m not a doctor, but everytime I’ve read about treatment of children expressing gender identity issues the only two suggestions seem to be “make the kid conform” or “let the kid transition”, why can’t there be a middle ground?

]]> By: Vaughan http://mindhacks.com/2008/05/12/the-battle-over-infants-with-cross-gender-desires/#comment-6682 Sun, 18 May 2008 21:45:42 +0000 http://mindhacksblog.wordpress.com/2008/05/12/the-battle-over-infants-with-cross-gender-desires/#comment-6682 Zucker seems to be linked to ‘reparative therapy’ by his opponents, but I can’t actually find any evidence that he supports this approach at all. I’d be interested to hear of any evidence either way though.

]]> By: kforeman http://mindhacks.com/2008/05/12/the-battle-over-infants-with-cross-gender-desires/#comment-6681 Sun, 18 May 2008 19:30:53 +0000 http://mindhacksblog.wordpress.com/2008/05/12/the-battle-over-infants-with-cross-gender-desires/#comment-6681 An interesting look into the reparative therapy proponent who is in charge of revising gender identity disorder in DSM-V:
http://www.bilerico.com/2008/05/uh_oh.php

]]> By: Tom Michael http://mindhacks.com/2008/05/12/the-battle-over-infants-with-cross-gender-desires/#comment-6680 Wed, 14 May 2008 23:11:25 +0000 http://mindhacksblog.wordpress.com/2008/05/12/the-battle-over-infants-with-cross-gender-desires/#comment-6680 Actually, gender identity does seem to have a physiological area in the brain, known as the Sexually Dimorphic Nucleus. Google it.
One part of this nucleus corresponds to sexual preference (straightness or gayness) and the other to gender indentity (boyness or girlness).
There’s a bit on in in Carlson (2001?) Physiology of Behaviour, nth Edition.
Sorry for not giving a proper reference…
Mark is quite right about the John/Joan case (I read about this in a developmental text).
What causes the Sexually Dimorphic to occasionally pick a different gender or sexual orientation to the normal one? Prenatal testosterone? Genes? Does anyone know yet or have a theory?

]]> By: Mark(p.s.) http://mindhacks.com/2008/05/12/the-battle-over-infants-with-cross-gender-desires/#comment-6679 Wed, 14 May 2008 16:40:35 +0000 http://mindhacksblog.wordpress.com/2008/05/12/the-battle-over-infants-with-cross-gender-desires/#comment-6679 Sexual identity is unlikely to be changed from birth. Doesn’t anyone remember the John/Joan case of the boy infant with a botched circumcision, turned into a girl? The psychiatrist called it a success, the patient called it a failure. The patient in adolesence knew they were different , the lies to cover up the medical mistake did not work.

]]> By: rhizome http://mindhacks.com/2008/05/12/the-battle-over-infants-with-cross-gender-desires/#comment-6678 Tue, 13 May 2008 01:27:37 +0000 http://mindhacksblog.wordpress.com/2008/05/12/the-battle-over-infants-with-cross-gender-desires/#comment-6678 Gender is meaningfully different than race here because it is more ‘social’ than ‘biological.’
The gender/sex distinction isn’t just an academic quibble in this case, because “traditionally male toys and activities” simply aren’t as natural or inevitable as, e.g., one’s skin color.

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