The Complete Parenting Collection. Steve Biddulph
licks their genitals, too! If baby boy rats are castrated, the mothers don’t lick them any more (a double tragedy!).
But wait, it gets more amazing. The rats that are licked in this way develop a masculine-functioning pituitary gland, whether they are male or female. Female rats given the licking treatment behaved like male rats for the rest of their lives. And when the licking was replaced by a researcher stroking the male or female rats with a paintbrush each day, the same long-term physical changes to the brain took place.
Of the hundreds of studies I have seen, this one probably tells us more about how complex the interaction is between nature and nurture in developing gender characteristics. (And that is perhaps the only conclusion we can draw from it!)
There are physical and social influences at work all the time, in complex interaction, to produce healthy and functioning males and females. Gender differentiation does not just happen automatically. Without affection and stimulation, we know children don’t grow as well or become as intelligent as their potential would allow. We have to bring nurturing and parenting skills to bear, to help our kids both develop physically and find a comfortable gender identity.
How did male and female differences come about?
Evolution is constantly changing the shape of all living creatures. For instance, early humans had huge jaws and teeth for chewing raw food. But when fires and cooking were discovered, over many generations our jaws and teeth became smaller because our food was softer to chew. If we have a few thousand years of eating fast food, we may end up chinless altogether!
Some gender differences are obvious in human beings – size, hairiness, and so on. But the main differences are the hidden ones. These came about through taking very different roles for a very large part of our history. Hunter-gatherer societies divided the work very much along gender lines. For 99 percent of human history, the women mostly gathered, and the men mostly hunted.
Hunting was a specialised activity. It required quick team action, sudden and strong muscular activity in short bursts, and you had to be very single-minded. Once the chase was on, there was no time for discussion. Someone was in charge, and you did what you were told – or got gored or eaten by a large animal.
The women’s work of gathering seeds, roots and insects was different. It allowed time for discussion, required finger dexterity and sensitivity, and included the care of babies and children. As a result, human females have finger sensitivity several times greater than males. The women’s work required caution, constancy and attention to detail – whereas hunting required a certain degree of recklessness, or even self-sacrifice. Women’s bodies became generally smaller but better able to persist and endure. Men’s bodies were better at rapid bursts of strength but were more likely to be laid low by a dose of flu or an ingrown toenail! The differences were not great, and some role flexibility probably helped. So we ended up a species with slight but significant differences between male and female bodies and brains.
The hunter-gatherer tradition continues to have a problematic legacy. In the developing world (where many people still live by agriculture), the men often do not work as hard as the women. Presumably they are waiting to fight someone or hunt something!
The links between sex and aggression
There is some support from primate studies for the idea that males with more power have higher sex drives. Men in sports teams that win have a higher testosterone level (after the game) than those who lose. And, according to historians, many great leaders (US President Kennedy, for instance) had very high sex drives, to a degree that was really rather tragic and disabling (it’s kind of hard to run a country when you want to keep racing off to have sex all the time).
One study of juvenile delinquency in the 1980s found an intriguing connection – that boys were several times more likely to get into trouble with the police in the six months before their first sexual experience. In other words, they calmed down a bit once they started having sex. Since almost all boys masturbate at this age, it can’t just have been the release of sexual frustration. Perhaps the boys felt they had ‘joined the human race’ when they found a real-life lover; perhaps they felt more loved. (We don’t recommend this as a cure for crime, but it makes sense.)
Sex and aggression are somewhat linked – controlled by the same centres in the brain and by the same hormone group. This has been the source of enormous human tragedy and suffering, inflicted via sexual assaults on women, children and men. Because of this connection, it is very important that boys are helped to relate to women as people, to have empathy and to learn to be good lovers.
Blaming hormones is never an excuse for male aggression; and it’s vital that we separate the stimuli of violence from the stimuli of sex. We shouldn’t really make or show movies that link the two. The rape-revenge plot of many B-grade movies is a bad connection to make. Most pornography in fact is pretty dismal role-modelling for good relating or sensitive and joyous loving. Where are the movie depictions of tender, sensuous, playful and boisterous lovemaking, with plots that include conversation, sharing and vulnerability, so that mid-adolescent boys can learn a fuller kind of sexuality?
Even adult men can get the wrong idea. A matchmaking agency recently had to counsel a man in his sixties who was being far too sexually forward on ‘dates’ that the agency arranged. The man, a very gentle and considerate farmer (widowed two years earlier), had researched copies of Cosmopolitan magazine to find out what today’s women liked, and was acting accordingly!
Overcoming sexual violence probably starts younger still. It may just come down to treating children more kindly. Raymond Wyre, a British expert on working with men who sexually abuse children, found in his work that while not every sex offender had been the victim of sexual assault (though many had), everyone without exception had been the recipient of a very cruel and uncaring childhood. It was the lack of empathy, resulting from never having been shown consistent understanding and kindness, that he felt was the key factor in someone being able to sexually assault another human being.
Guiding the ‘high-drive’ boys
Testosterone provides energy and focus. A boy with high levels of the hormone makes good leadership material. Early in the school year, teachers often notice a certain kind of boy who will either become a hero of the class or a complete villain. For this boy there is no middle ground. This type of boy stands out by his:
challenging behaviour and competitiveness
greater physical maturity, and
high energy levels.
If the teacher is able to befriend such a boy and direct his energies in good ways, the boy will thrive and be a plus in the school. If the teacher or parent ignores, backs off or is negative towards the boy, then the boy’s pride will depend on defeating the adult, and problems will compound. These boys have leadership potential, but leadership has to be taught from an early age.
IN A NUTSHELL
Testosterone in varying degrees affects every boy. It gives him growth spurts, makes him want to be active, and makes him competitive and in need of strong guidelines and a safe, ordered environment.
It triggers significant changes:- at four – into activity and boyishness- at thirteen – into rapid growth and disorientation, and- at fourteen – into testing limits and breaking through to early manhood.
The boy with testosterone in his bloodstream likes to know who is the boss, but also must be treated fairly. Bad environments bring out the worst in him. The boy with lots of testosterone needs special help to develop leadership