Toy choice in monkeys
In 2002, Gerianne M. Alexander of Texas A&M University and Melissa Hines of City University in London stunned the scientific world by showing that vervet monkeys showed the same sex-typical toy preferences as humans. In an incredibly ingenious study, published in Evolution and Human Behavior, Alexander and Hines gave two stereotypically masculine toys (a ball and a police car), two stereotypically feminine toys (a soft doll and a cooking pot), and two neutral toys (a picture book and a stuffed dog) to 44 male and 44 female vervet monkeys. They then assessed the monkeys’ preference for each toy by measuring how much time they spent with each. Their data demonstrated that male vervet monkeys showed significantly greater interest in the masculine toys, and the female vervet monkeys showed significantly greater interest in the feminine toys. The two sexes did not differ in their preference for the neutral toys.
Why is this study so surprising?
What may it indicate about gender in humans?
Abstract of Servinetals 1999 study on toy choice
This cross-sectional study investigated toy-choice in 38 one-year-old, 33 three-year-old, and 35 five-year-old children, who could choose between 10 different toys (four feminine, four masculine, and two neutral) in a structured play-session. The children played alone for 7 minutes and together with their accompanying parent for another 7 minutes. The results showed that girls and boys chose different toys from as early as the age of one year. These sex differences were found at all three ages. In contradiction to earlier studies, our results showed that feminine toys became less interesting for both girls and boys with increasing age
This study contributes to the knowledge of how early behavioural sex differences can be observed and it also raises questions concerning where sex differences stem from.
Think of two examples of gender neutral toys, feminine toys and masculine toys
Why do you think one year olds make gender appropriate choices in toys?
What new result did this study find? How could you explain it?
Influence of socialisation on gender
Smith and Lloyd (1978) conducted a piece of research that showed adults treating babies according to the gender the adults ‘perceived’ them to have. Using a sample of 6 month old infants, the researchers dressed and named some of them as the opposite sex. They then asked adults unknown to the babies to play with them. They found the adults used the cues associated with name and clothing to prompt their interaction and toy choice. Babies perceived as boys were more likely to be given a squeaky hammer to play with, whereas those perceived as girls were given dolls.
What does this suggest about where gender differences in behaviour may come from?
How else could gender differences in behaviour arise?
The case of David Reimer
David Reimer was born as a male identical twin in Winnipeg, Manitoba. His birth name was Bruce; his twin brother was named Brian. At the age of 6 months, after concern was raised about how both twins urinated, they were referred for circumcision at the age of 8 months. The procedure did not go as doctors had planned, and David Reimer's penis was burned beyond surgical repair.[1]
Reimer's parents, concerned about their son's prospects for future happiness and sexual function without a penis, took him to Johns Hopkins Medical Center in Baltimore to see John Money, a psychologist who was developing a reputation as a pioneer in the field of sexual development.
They persuaded his parents that sex reassignment would be in Reimer's best interest, and, at the age of 22 months, surgery was performed to remove his testes. He was reassigned to be raised as a female and given the name 'Brenda'. Psychological support for the reassignment and surgery was provided by John Money, who continued to see Reimer for years, both for treatment and to assess the outcome.
Money reported on Reimer's progress as the "John/Joan case", describing apparently successful female gender development, and using this case to support the feasibility of sex reassignment and surgical reconstruction even in non-intersex cases. Money wrote: "The child's behavior is so clearly that of an active little girl and so different from the boyish ways of her twin brother." Estrogen was given to Reimer when he reached adolescence to induce breast development.
Reimer's later account, written two decades later with John Colapinto, described how, contrary to Money's reports, when living as Brenda, Reimer did not identify as a girl. He was ostracized and bullied by peers, and neither frilly dresses nor female hormones made him feel female. In 1980, Reimer's parents told him the truth about his gender reassignment, following advice from Reimer's endocrinologist and psychiatrist. At 14, Reimer decided to assume a male gender identity, calling himself David. By 1997, Reimer had undergone treatment to reverse the reassignment, including testosterone injections, a double mastectomy, and two phalloplasty operations. He also married a woman and became a stepfather to her 3 children.
His case came to international attention in 1997 when he told his story to Milton Diamond, an academic sexologist who persuaded Reimer to allow him to report the outcome in order to dissuade physicians from treating other infants similarly.
What does this illustrate about sex and gender?