Sex of rearing
Sex of rearing is the sex in which parents rear a child. This is the sex "chosen" by the parents and "taught" to the child. Aspects of rearing include choosing a name, providing clothes, toys, education, and opportunities which are sex-congruent for their culture. Sex of rearing includes both conscious and unconscious expectations and treatment of the child. Although all cultures rear boys differently from girls, specific differences vary greatly.
Nearly always, the sex of rearing follows from the sex of assignment, which in turn was based on the appearance of the external genitalia.
Nearly always, gender identity follows the sex of rearing, but the nature of the relationship remains a subject of controversy. From the 1960s to the 1980s, it was thought that sex of rearing was the most important determinant of gender identity. This was based on the observation that many people with apparently comparable intersex conditions raised either male or female developed a gender identity consistent with their sex of rearing regardless of genetic, hormonal, and anatomic characteristics. This view was politically supported by the feminist ideological view that most psychological sex differences resulted from cultural differences in the rearing of boys and girls. In the last two decades, academic opinion has downgraded the degree to which sex of rearing is thought to contribute to gender identity and other aspects of psychosexual differentiation, especially in people with intersex conditions.
Transsexualism refers to the development of a gender identity which is discordant with sex of rearing and genital anatomy. If reported biological explanations are confirmed, sex of rearing will seem even less important in the determination of gender identity.
A different, and far rarer, type of discordance occurs if parents raise an anatomically normal boy as if a girl, or vice versa. Other manifestations of psychopathology in the parents are usually apparent; the children have not developed unconflicted gender identities.
See also sex, sexual differentiation, sex assignment, gender identity, intersex, ambiguous genitalia.
