Susan's Place Transgender Resources

A question about Nature versus Nurture was recently raised.

Think back over your own childhood.  Do you recall anyone, on a regular basis, trying to nurture you into a gender that was different from your sex?

Chaunte

The problem with psychophysical questions is that they are so hard to word correctly!


Posted at: June 15, 2006, 10:53:20 PM

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I can not think of a single incident where someone tried to nurture me into being female.

Chaunte

^*ponder* What do you call "nurture" ?

When I was itty bitty my parents giving me what I asked nicely for/hinted that I wanted?

When I was itty bitty being given something that I didn't ask for?

Uh, being dressed up by a sibling/friend perhaps?

Erm, allowed to do what I wanted perhaps?

^*shrug*

Hmmm, the only thing I'd mention is that my parents say I was consistently "mistaken" for a girl as a baby. One wonders what hearing, "Oh what a cute baby girl!" over and over might do :)

Oh, if only I could remember that, lol...

But it's all heresay, so I shouldn't really vote.

Chaunte,

Do not let the Critical Thinker get into your head. I am sure no will really be able to define why our community exists just as there is no reason for Gay/Lesbian to exist.

I love nature and I am an outdoor type of person and I often equate our poistion with the Gay/Lesbian people. In nature the main reason for a guy to exist is to find a girl and pro-create. So why is there a gay guy? I do not think anyone can answer that question as it goes against nature just like on-one will be able to answer why own community (or if you like we are a part of the GLBT) exist.

The fact remains that we all exist and wether it is nurture or nature (or a combinatin of both) will never really be understood.  What we need understanding and space so we can be ourselves. Otherwise we would be very inhappy people.

Alice

My honest response is that all human psychology is to do with a combo of the two.
In fact I was unconsciously encouraged toward a somewhat more feminine mindset. I was delicately put together and NOT encouraged to play football. In fact forbidden to play tackle. Good thing, I HATED THAT STUFF.
Also all female siblings, cousins, nieces not nephews, lot of estrogen energy in the house always.
If I had been at core solidly masculine in the first place it would have amounted to nothing, is my thought on that. In fact, rebelled and it would have solidified it the other way round.
my half sister had the notion that I needed to be non-nurtured, in some way fit to ensure i didn't turn out homosexual. You know what, even at 12 years old I knew better than that.

the poll as worded I cannot answer, the sort of thing I mean was not conscious. If there was ANY conscious effort it was a little bit in the other direction, too late and too feeble even if it might have taken.
Eye yam what eye yam Olyve.

Quote from: jan c on June 16, 2006, 01:41:10 AM
Also all female siblings, cousins, nieces not nephews, lot of estrogen energy in the house always.
If I had been at core solidly masculine in the first place it would have amounted to nothing, is my thought on that. In fact, rebelled and it would have solidified it the other way round.

LOL - My all of my family was male (much to the disgust of my grandma). I have a few cousin that where female but they where a long way away. I most hung with the boys as my brother, four close cousin where all boys and all of my close friends in the street where male.

Alice

I can't remember  ???

I don't think it is genetics, but what takes place in the womb.

There have been young boys being circumsized and it was burnt off. they were raised as girls but thought something was wrong with themselves.
Because of what happens in the womb it is nature. therefore we are born this way.

As I Understood it Nurturing a person Is supposed to be productive and healthy.
Sure some people might say being nurtured towards to oposit sex is unhealthy, but that isnt true. Its trans people being nurtured towords our biological sex that causes depression, and shame. (is this healthy is this productive?)

Nurturing is promoting feelings of self worth and productivity. So if a boy likes flowers? make sure he sees no shame in it. dont say flowers are for girls and he shouldnt like them. because flowers arnt for girls, there for anyone that likes them.

No.

But what is interesting is that behaviors considered feminine - i.e. asking for help, dependence, crying, etc. were not accepted by my parents. Emotional weakness as a concept was never endorsed by either of them, despite the fact it is now evident to me that both of them were emotionally weak people themselves.

They were also both emotionally distant from me. I was raised by a mother that seemed to see independence and personal freedom as the highest virtues.

No surprise that's exactly what I ended up believing too, as well as that a "weakness attitude" in myself was despicable.

But neither of them ever brought gender up in that way. I had a pretty un-gendered upbringing - allowed to play with whichever toys I preferred, and not forced to dress or act a certain way by my parents. I don't recall a sexist statement from any of them against women.

So it's interesting to me that I developed a masculine outlook because of them, or what would appear to be a masculine outlook, although I still think it's coincidental to the problems of my transsexuality. Neither of them had ideological input on the topic of sex, for example, but I had some instinctive and pervasive problem with female anatomy and sex that could not have come from anywhere else but from within me, and I never made the connection between masculine "behaviors" or attitudes, and physical sex at that age.

In short, many of my attitudes and habits come from the nurture, but there are gender-related problems I have that have no identifiable root, other than that they just are, and seem to come from a place like instinct. I had every reason to feel confident as a girl from my nurture - my mother was a staunch 2nd wave feminist after all - but I was never comfortable as one, or of being considered one.

In my case I am quite sure my condition comes from my nature, not my nurture.

No, I voted in the overwhelming majority of this poll

Nobody sold me on this, no one encouraged me, transsexualism was a harsh reality, now deal with it....

I think I fit the nature over nurture paradigm closer...

Being nurtured into being transgender?  I can scarcely imagine it, although I have seen documentaries in which some parents were accused of doing it to their trans children.  I remember my parents in particular trying very hard to STOP me from identifying as a girl.

I voted NO for this poll. In fact, just the opposite occurred, people tried to nurture me into a rough and tough boy.

Well, that worked for a long while and I was miserable the whole time. I finally transitioned and now life is worth living.