Why Can't a Man Be More Like a Woman?

by Wolpert, Lewis;

  Gender identity is most likely to be influenced by hormones at puberty, according to Berenbaum and Beltz, in a way that is consistent with other links between testosterone and male identity, and oestrogens and female identity. At puberty, which begins around the age of twelve for boys and eleven for girls, there are dramatic sex differences in the expression of male and female hormones, and it is logical to presume that both types of hormones act on the brain at that time. Testosterone level in boys is normally low before puberty and then increases, causing dramatic physical changes. Boys are able to produce sperm, they develop bigger muscles and body hair, and their voices break. During puberty in girls, oestrogen stimulates breast development and maturation of the vagina, uterus and Fallopian tubes. The onset of sexual maturity comes from these changes at puberty, and this leads to changes in adolescents’ self-perception and accentuates gender-typed activities and interests as they adopt more adult roles. Precocious puberty, which can occur as early as five years of age, is more common in girls than in boys, whereas delayed puberty is more common in boys. Insensitivity to male hormones or sex chromosome abnormalities in women such as Turner syndrome may cause puberty to fail completely. Girls undergoing puberty show an increase in the total output of cortisol, which is related to stress, while boys show little increase. Increased production of cortisol is normally caused by alarm reactions to stress, and it is possible that these increases may unbalance the stress response in girls at high risk for depression. Depression rates in girls double as they grow up, and this may be one reason why.

  The direct action of testosterone on the developing brain in boys and the lack of it in girls are crucial factors in the development of male and female gender identity and sexual orientation. Berenbaum and Beltz have reported that a male embryo develops into a girl with a large clitoris if it has a deficiency which prevents testosterone from being transformed into an active hormone. These children are generally raised as girls. However, at puberty, when testosterone production increases because of their XY genes, this clitoris grows to penis size, the testicles descend and the child’s build begins to look masculine and become muscular. Despite the fact that these children are initially raised as girls, the majority change into heterosexual males, apparently due to the organising effect of testosterone on early brain development in the womb. This confirms the greater importance of hormones and genes over social rearing in the determination of gender identity.

  Boys who are born with a partly or wholly absent penis are often treated as girls immediately after birth, but in adulthood only about half of these children continue to live as girls. Male gender identity is not dependent on testosterone at puberty. Some individuals with male-typical chromosomes and prenatal male hormone exposure who were castrated in early life and brought up as girls still have a male gender identity. Interesting data on the effects of male hormones comes from XY individuals with 5-alpha-reductase deficiency, which leads to low levels of testosterone in the embryo. Sufferers are genetically male and have male gonads but exterior female or ambiguous genitalia. Berenbaum and Beltz reported that most individuals with this disorder changed gender from female to male at puberty, and that those who changed gender were not always those with the most masculinised genitalia. This is a strong indication of testosterone acting on them at puberty rather than in prenatal development.

  Another abnormality is complete male hormone insensitivity. Inability to respond to male hormones affects XY individuals who have normal testes that produce testosterone but lack functional receptors in the tissues which would normally respond to it. Because their cells cannot be affected by male hormones they are born with female-like external genitalia, and are reared as girls and remain as such.

  Gender can be complicated from a physical perspective, and when it comes to sport there is a problem of males being identified as females and so having a physical advantage. There are many tests that a female athlete who is deemed non-female for the purposes of competition can undergo, but the outcome may still be unclear. Probably the most reliable and important is genetic. The key test relates to the sex chromosomes and a female with Y chromosomes presents a difficult problem as it is necessary to determine if they have been active and so imposed male characteristics. But these tests will not necessarily reveal the person’s gender identity.

  At adolescence there is an overall gender intensification, and sex differences increase as children grow up; this is rather significant at adolescence and even a bit later, as they enter their twenties. There are reports that girls have more social anxiety and self-esteem problems with regard to social relationships than boys, who are more concerned about achievement. Girls are more motivated towards intimate relationships than boys, and less prone to physical aggression. Children have sexual feelings at a young age. Small boys often get erections after the age of about seven, and at this age begin to touch and caress their sexual organs regularly. By the time they reach puberty, more than half of all males have tried to masturbate, and eighty per cent of all boys have masturbated regularly by the time they are sixteen. Only forty per cent of sixteen-year-old girls, though, have masturbated according to published studies. It is only when girls reach puberty that they may begin to masturbate, but there can be a delay until much later in their teens or even twenties. This may increase to eighty per cent by the age of twenty, four years later than in boys. The evidence on sex differences in adults is, however, much more wide-ranging, and it is to this that I turn in the next chapter.

  7

  Sex

  Why are women . . . so much more interesting to men than men are to women?

  Virginia Woolf

  Childbearing is fundamental to the survival and evolution of humanity, and so in all cultures sex and sexual activity are found to dominate people’s lives. Sexual activity includes emotions and behaviour pertaining to sexual intercourse and the production of offspring. It leads to key differences between men and women, determined by biological as well as social factors. Individuals of either sex possess different combinations of these attributes, which are characterised as ‘male’ or ‘female’, and brains are neither purely male nor female, though usually strongly biased one way or the other. To fully appreciate this dichotomy one needs to further consider the nature of gender and certain divergences from the norm, such as homosexuality and transsexuality.

  An early question when considering human reproduction is whether the desire for children is genetically determined, or whether it is simply the outcome of wanting sex. The answer seems to be both, although there are whole societies among whom it is not realised that sexual intercourse gives rise to children. Some Australian tribes, for example, are wholly ignorant of the mechanism that causes childbirth and believe that the child is produced by the spirit of an ancestor entering the mother. They do not make any link between childbirth and sexual intercourse or understand that sexual intercourse is necessary to produce a child. There is a concomitant belief in reincarnation, and it is prevalent over the whole of the central and northern parts of the Australian continent. This is one remarkable illustration of the emotionally based genetic programme in our brains, both male and female, that drives us to have sex. Much sexual activity is not related to producing offspring, but results from a sexual drive that leads to a most enjoyable activity. It also acts in cementing the bond between a couple. The basic drive is genetic and driven by the evolutionary need to continue the existence of the species. However, many modern women in the United Kingdom do not want to have children for a variety of reasons, such as preferring to concentrate on a career. Over half of professional women there aged forty to forty-five are childless: an example of how culture can alter biology.

  A prominent difference between the sexes is seen in their respective targets in sexual arousal as the overwhelming majority of men are attracted by women, and vice versa. Men in general are more easily sexually aroused, while women prefer sex to be linked to an emotional attachment. Men are much more sexually motivated than wom
en; they visit pornographic websites more often, although it should be taken into account that the majority of those sites are made for men by men. Adolescent males may initiate sex without emotional involvement, whereas girls may require to be seduced–and it is possible that this divergence has a genetic basis.

  It is the desire to have sex rather than the desire to have children that historically has driven reproduction. Does this desire differ between men and women? A New Yorker cartoon by Sam Gross nicely illustrates the issue, showing Adam and Eve walking naked in the Garden of Eden, with Adam saying to Eve, ‘Hey! I just figured out how we can have a child without using another rib.’

  Evolution has made sure that sexual activity is very common. Ninety per cent of men and eighty-six per cent of women have had sex in the past year, and a recent article in the Independent newspaper reported that some men said they had had sex with more than a thousand women–or even many more. Wilt Chamberlain, an American basketball player, claimed in his 1991 autobiography, A View from Above, to have slept with 20,000 different women, none of them married and none ever impregnated by him, from the time he was fifteen until he wrote the book at the age of seventy. It is, of course, impossible to verify these claims!

  There are basic patterns of behaviour for males and females that may have evolved with a genetic basis to ensure reproduction. The woman may feel good when a man indicates that he finds her sexually attractive, and so become willing to engage in sexual activity. Her vagina will become lubricated so that when the man inserts his erect penis into it she will be able to experience this without discomfort. Women have a reflex vaginal response to sexual stimuli, says John Bancroft, former Director of the Kinsey Institute, regardless of whether they find the stimuli consciously appealing. The clitoris, which develops from the same tissue as the male penis, is very sensitive and becomes erect with sexual stimulation–it is the primary cause of female sexual pleasure. For the man in states of sexual arousal the penis becomes erect and erotically sensitive. Insertion of an erect penis into a well-lubricated vagina is an optimally effective means of stimulation. During orgasm his sperm will be ejaculated into her vagina, and this is a strongly pleasurable experience. All these phenomena are primarily genetic in origin.

  There are differences in sexual responses and sexual desires between men and women, particularly with respect to orgasm. Though approximately ninety per cent of women report orgasm from some form of sexual stimulation, most women do not consistently experience orgasm from sexual intercourse. About sixty per cent of women report that they usually or always have an orgasm when masturbating compared with twenty-nine per cent who do so during partnered sex. The corresponding figures for men are eighty and seventy-five per cent. Thus most men routinely experience orgasm from sexual intercourse. But whereas men are more likely to orgasm when sex includes vaginal intercourse, twice as many women are more likely to experience it when they engage in a variety of activities such as oral stimulation.

  During orgasm in both men and women the hormone oxytocin is released into the bloodstream. For women this leads to a desire to lie still for a while afterwards, thus increasing the likelihood of conception. The typical male orgasm lasts no more than a few seconds, while in women climaxes of up to a minute are known. Males have a higher interest in orgasm, perhaps because they place less importance on permanent relationships.

  There is a traditional view that women fall in love first and discover sexual desire later, while men long for sex and only subsequently learn to love. In line with this women quite often say that their most satisfying sexual experiences are based on emotional connection to someone, not just on sexual activity or orgasm. In fact women’s ability to feel sexual desire and achieve orgasm may not be a universal characteristic. There are societies, according to Margaret Mead, where women apparently neither masturbate nor feel any particular pleasure through sexual activity, and where female orgasm is so much an unknown phenomenon that it does not even have a name. In these communities it is men who ensure that reproduction takes place, for all they desire is to have sex.

  But the function of the female orgasm compared to the male is far from clear. One possibility is the advantage it provides by causing the uterus to suck in sperm. Another explanation is that the pleasure it gives increases women’s desire to have sex and also helps bonding with their partner–though as we have seen many women’s orgasms are from masturbation, not sex. It is also possible that the female orgasm evolved in a manner similar to nipples in men, and this resulted in some aspects of the male orgasm being introduced into female development. In this respect, the female orgasm could be a male modification.

  Men mainly become sexually aroused by erotic images of women. Hard-wired into the male brain, after millions of years of evolution, is a desire for sex in response to the sight of a good-looking young woman. In contrast both male and female erotica cause sexual arousal in women, whether heterosexual or lesbian. They thus have a bisexual arousal pattern, even when they prefer sex with men rather than women. These findings may suggest a fundamental difference between men’s and women’s brains, and illustrate important differences in sexual emotions in the two sexes.

  An important example of genetic programming in females is the menopause, which in British women occurs at an average age of fifty-one. Why do women forgo many years of reproductive life? What selection pressures could result in this adaptation, which is shared only by humans and two species of whale? Primates and other animals have declining breeding rates towards the end of their lives but then die quickly, whereas women continue to live for what may be over a third of their lifespan unable to breed. One explanation is the ‘good mother’ theory, namely that energy should be devoted to looking after the children a woman already has rather than having more. Then there’s the ‘grandmother’ hypothesis, which contends that women who have stopped ovulating are now freed from the risky costs of reproduction, and so are better able to invest not only in their own children but also in their grandchildren. A recent research project in Gambia by Shanley’s team revealed that children are significantly more likely to survive to adulthood if they have help from a grandmother.

  Andropause is the name given to a condition in men in their late forties and early fifties that has some similarities with the menopause in women. But there is a steady, not a sudden, drop in testosterone in men from about the age of forty, unlike the sudden drop in female hormones at the female menopause. Some dispute the term and assign other underlying causes such as stress or lifestyle to explain symptoms such as tiredness, depression and loss of energy and concentration. Andropause does not prevent older men reproducing until quite an advanced age, but it may lead to episodes of impotence.

  Sexual stimulation using visual images has been used to elicit a state of sexual desire and arousal in men and women alike, and their brains have been found to react differently. Both the amygdala and the hypothalamus showed substantially more activation in men than in women during these studies. In contrast to men women did not show significant bilateral activity in the amygdala and hypothalamus. During tactile genital stimulation of the erect penis, differences in brain activity were particularly marked and the brain regions activated were not the same as those activated by clitoral stimulation. This shows that men and women have different ways of reaching orgasm. But the patterns of activation and deactivation in the brain are largely similar in men and women during the orgasm itself.

  On what basis do men and women choose their sexual partners? Is physical attractiveness the essential factor? Humans all around the world discriminate between potential mates on the basis of their attractiveness. Attractiveness has been defined in most societies throughout history by the different clothing worn by men and women, with women expected to wear clothes that are more visually alluring. Visual stimuli play a much greater role in male sexual behaviour. A recent survey of over 10,000 people, in thirty-seven countries on six continents, reported that men everywhere value physical attraction and youth in
their potential mates, while women rate ambition, status and financial resources more highly. From an evolutionary perspective, the psychological mechanisms underlying what is regarded as attractive in a mate are adaptations that have developed so as to increase the propagation of healthy offspring.

  The main evolutionary hypothesis is that attractiveness reflects an individual’s health, and is thus a good indication of their ability to reproduce. Thus the desire to propagate genes beneficial for reproduction would suggest that humans were and are able to distinguish a desirable mate partly by looking at their outer signs of good health. Both obesity and extreme thinness, for example, are generally thought to be indications of poor health in men and women and to be heritable characteristics. Obesity has been known for a long time as a risk factor for a variety of serious illnesses and early death, which is now clinically recognised. There is some evidence that attractiveness correlates with health in women in Western societies, though not in men. Yet no relationship was found in one large study in 1999 by Thornhill and Gangestad, when men’s and women’s facial attractiveness assessed during their teenage years was compared with their health assessed years later. Although this finding appears to be damaging to the view that perceptions of attractiveness have evolved as assessments of health, the authors did point out that there are problems. Since modern humans live in environments different from those of our ancestors millions of years ago, facial attractiveness might not be associated with health to the same extent as it was. It is clear that modern medicine and healthier lifestyle have both had an effect. In the light of current evidence it is difficult to sustain the idea that facial attractiveness alone can be the full explanation of how we choose our mates.