Battling the sexes
ABC.net Australia
01 February, 2011
http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/43358.html (http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/43358.html)
When a baby was born with ambiguous genitals a generation or so ago, it was pretty much standard medical practice to chop off whatever male-looking appendages might be there and declare the hapless infant a girl.
Clinicians saw the bringing of such unacceptable anatomy into line as an urgent task and generally punted for the female sex because, as the saying went: "It's easier to dig a hole than to construct a pole."