ONTOGENESIS OF SEXUAL BEHAVIOR 



1417 



I6 + - 



16- 



7- 



Age in 

 Years at 5 

 Time of 



Change 4 



AGE AT TIME OF REASSIGNMENT OF SEX 



AND SUBSEQUENT ADEQUACY 



OF PSYCHOLOGIC ADJUSTMENT 



A Healthy Adjustment 



A Mildly Non-Healthy Adjustment 



A Moderately Non-Healthy Adjustment 



t 



Syr lOyr 7yr 8yr lOyr 9yr 20yr I4yr llyr I4yr 22yr37yr 

 Assigned Sex and Age of 12 Patients at Time of Study 

 Fig. 23.2 



growing up years and into adulthood, the 

 first few years of a child's life are signifi- 

 cantly characterized by mutually recipro- 

 cating expectancies on the part of parents 

 and child alike regarding gender-appropri- 

 ate behavior which are particularly influen- 

 tial in structuring personality functioning. 

 Speaking metaphorically, the learning ex- 

 periences during the first 2 to 3 years ap- 

 ])ear to be critical in that they set the stage 

 for the dramatization to follow. 



1. Social Environment and the Establish- 

 ment of Gender Role 



In working with hermaphroditic children 

 and their parents, it has Ijecome clear that 

 the establishment of a child's psychosexual 

 orientation begins not so much with the 

 child as with his parents. Faced with the 

 dilemma of a sexually ambiguous-looking 

 baby it is next to impossible for parents to 



avoid assigning sex status to the child. If 

 medical indecision about the child's sex 

 status is delayed too long such parents, 

 understandably, find it difficult to refer to 

 their baby as "it" indefinitely. Under ordi- 

 nary circumstances, there is no such quan- 

 dary about the sex status of a newborn and 

 appropriate pronouns are used from the out- 

 set. From cigars, w^ hich announce a new son, 

 to a mother's insistence on sex-appropriate 

 pink or blue cradle accessories, our cultural 

 folkways provide ample evidence that pa- 

 rental attitudes and expectancies are set in 

 operation virtually the moment a child is 

 born. Thus the assigned sex-status, as well 

 as such body signs as the external genitals," 



" It is only partly facetious to say that even the 

 hair-cut is important. In a clear and unmistakable 

 way the short hair-cut of a boy and the long 

 tresses of the girl provide a clear sign to others 

 which in effect announces "I am a boy (girl) — treat 

 me as such." Many preschool youngsters when 



