Psychology and neuroscience have
always been concerned with anomalies. Whether this means studying a small population
with a rare disease, or teasing apart seemingly trivial differences in behavior,
human experience that deviates from accepted norms is rife with potential for
scientific understanding and progress. This notion is relevant in psychological
and neuroscientific pursuits of gendered differences in behavior and brain
function. The terms gender and sex have been used interchangeably in much
scientific literature. In reality, the two mean quite different things: The
term sex indicates an assignment of male or female at birth, based on
biological norms and expectations. The term gender, on the other hand, is
distinctive from sex in that it does not necessitate congruence with sex.
Gender is the identity which one feels or claims, often male or female, and exists
independently from biological, assigned sex.
Historically, the gender binary has
been comprised of male and female. These two categories have often been
presented as exclusive and opposing. In the fields of psychology and
neuroscience, much research has relied on the categories of male and female as
separate and distinct. Even when sex and gender are recognized as separate, as
in the case of transgender persons, for example, people are categorized as
either men or women. Study participants have largely been classified as either
male or female with no alternative or expanded option. This mimics the norm of
the gender binary in western society today. Society allots little room for
deviance from the gender binary and expectations of masculinity and femininity
that accompany it. Gender nonconformity is regularly treated as an abnormality affecting
a very small minority of the population. Psychology and neuroscience research
that relies on the gender binary for interpretation and meaning of scientific findings
would need to be reassessed if, perhaps, the gender binary is not as solid as
society would like it to be.
Research conducted by Joel et al.
(2013) supports the deconstruction of the gender binary based on their findings
that point to a more fluid and elastic experience of gender than the male/female
binary allows for. Importantly, their research challenges the myth that gender
nonconformance is a rare occurrence in typical populations. Joel et al. (2013) developed
a novel questionnaire that measures multiple facets of gender identity in ways
which prior psychology research had not. As illustrated in Figure 1 below, there was extensive overlap in the experiences of male
and female identified participants in regards to their gender and whether or
not they felt “as a man” or “as a woman” (Joel et al. 2013). It is key to note
that participants in normative male
and female categories showed a wide spread of responses as to whether or not
they felt as a man or as a woman.
These findings do indeed indicate
that gender is much more fluid than the male/female binary allows. Thus,
Psychology and Neuroscience need to account for that fluidity both in future
research but also in reassessing the soundness of prior research that relied on
the male/female dichotomy for meaning. Furthermore, it is important for
research to expressly solicit information on gender identity and gender sentiment
versus relying on stereotypical external cues to gather the gender of a
participant based on researchers’ assumptions. This is particularly important
when it comes to research on transgender persons. The research from Joel et al.
(2013) also challenges the distance felt from trans* related research based on the
conceptions that transgender experience is a seemingly distant “ism” and that gender
nonconformity supposedly only affects a small percentage of the population. “Stable”
gender categories are, in reality, not very stable. Given the findings from
Joel et al. (2013), it is also interesting to consider how gendered findings
from animal research in psychology and neuroscience should be interpreted. One
last point – this piece is not meant to question the validity of anyone’s
gender identity, rather it is meant to question the commonly accepted and
propagated notions of male and female as separate and exclusive categories.
Joel, D., Tarrasch, R., Berman, Z.,
Mukamel, M., & Ziv, E. (2013).
Queering gender: Studying gender identity
in ‘normative’ individuals. Psychology
& Sexuality, 5:4, 291-321.
