RANSVESTIA

Over and above the purely animal need to copulate to reproduce the species, the human being feels a great need to seek out the com- panionship and the opportunity to share with another human of the opposite sex. Those of a strictly biological turn of mind see this as simply an extension of the complementary roles of male and female in reproduction extended to the complementary contributions of man and woman in society. But just as an egg needs a sperm to become a whole viable entity, so do men need women and vice versa for exactly the same reason, to become a whole viable social entity, a "oneness" or as some people say it, to achieve "unity." Love songs and marriage ceremonies often intone this theme of "making the two into one." This carries with it the implication that each individual alone is incomplete and of course they are, but how did they get that way? Male and female animals of most species are each complete in all aspects of their existence except in the area of reproduction at which point they come together for the purpose of bringing a sperm close to an egg to initiate the process of making a new individual. But it makes somebody like me wonder where, how, and for what reason did mankind, in the process of becoming mankind, lose this individual completeness and adequacy. By this I mean animals whether male or female are provided with appropriate equipment both physical and mental (instinctual since it is not an aware con- sciousness such as humans have) to enable them to cope equally well with the environment that they find themselves in and to survive its dangers. Of course all species live off of some other species so none of them survives all the dangers, but the point is that neither the males nor the females are at a greater disadvantage than the other. If they had been, one sex would have been wiped out or drastically reduced in numbers thus lowering the prospects for the next genera- tion and finally to the extinction of the species. It brings up the inter- esting thought that perhaps it was precisely such a disparity of coping ability that may have led to the extinction of many of the animals that we know did live in the remote past.

But in human kind, that individual, total, survival capacity has been lost. Neither sex is very effective without the other. Of course today we live in a complex society such that a single, individual obtains the contributions of the opposite sex on a social level. Thus either a male or female living alone in society may be lonely but will survive because the complementary abilities to what she or he have in themselves is provided by society. To take a mundane but illus- trative example, women generally have provided cooking and house- keeping for men and men have provided sustenance, protection and

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