Transvestia

dence" in the complex interrelated nerve pathways that express the interests, the potentials, the longing, the satisfactions, the experiences, the values and the symbolism that "woman" represents to the male.

9) Sheila, in passing, calls attention to my sex and gender ideas. I don't say that there are NO social differences between male and female animals. I do say 1) that the truly genderal differences in animals are very small proportionately to humans where gender differences, from a practical point of view, outweigh sex differences, and 2) that many of the supposedly purely gender differences in an- imals are in reality related directly to their sex roles and reproductive behaviour. I think she picks a very poor example in the cow vs. bull. In the first place the reaction of a bull or a cow to a human being has nothing to do with gender differences in bovine society--it is a difference in reaction to an outside and possibly dangerous stimulus. Secondly the bulls behaviour is sex-related since it is a survival reaction. The pugnaciousness and aggress- iveness of the bull are naturally protective respon- ses to a threat. The bull is better equipped to do this for the herd than is the cow and animals of this type, such as buffaloes, and deer, commonly gather the cows and young in a group surrounded by the bulls when danger threatens. This is a sex and survival reaction and I will conceed that in such behaviour of animals lies the root of gender deve- lopement, but it is extremely primitive and doesn't in the least invalidate my position regarding gender as being primarily a human phenomenon.

Rats who care for young are, so to speak, doing "'female's work" whether they be normal females or treated and "modified" males. The word feminine is a human gender word which is recognized by social scientists as describing patterns that are mostly learned not inborn, and the nature of which varies from culture to culture. Taking the word from this context and using it to describe the specific sex

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