Sex - Basic Aspects of Human Sexuality

Development of tertiary sexual characteristics

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Just as a person's physical sex develops over many years from the undifferentiated embryo to the fully differentiated adult, so is a person's gender gradually constructed over a period of time. Of course, immediately at birth every baby is assigned one of the two sexes according to the obvious primary sexual characteristics. This, in turn, determines how the newborn is treated by family, friends, neighbors, etc. However, whether this sex assignment will stick, i.e. whether the child really accepts it, is another question. We know that a child’s sexual self-identification as female or male becomes permanent with the first few years of life. Still, the child may outwardly play the desired role without inner conviction. Thus, a child may play the female gender role while secretly resenting it. In other words, an apparent girl may secretly identify as a boy (the reverse is also possible). Fortunately, in the overwhelming majority of children there is no such problem. For them, gender role and sexual self-identification are merely two sides of the same coin. In any case, over the years, each individual's biological femaleness or maleness is augmented by the psychosocial dimensions of femininity and masculinity. Again, this development, which begins at birth, is greatly reinforced during puberty. At this time particularly, adolescents are expected to grow into "real women" or "real men".