Androgynous
For the purposes of this discussion I will be
addressing the androgynous look.
Intersex
and hermaphrodite information is displayed elsewhere on the tzone.
"He looks like a girl!"
"She looks very butch!"
What is it that makes us think like this
and is it a biological reaction within the viewer or is it simply down to
social programming?
Gender is a dimension of face recognition.
Baudouin JY, Tiberghien G.
J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn. 2002 Mar;28(2):362-5.
Institut des Sciences Cognitives, Bron, France. baudouin@isc.cnrs.fr
In an experiment, the authors investigated the impact of gender
categorization on face recognition. Participants were familiarized with
composite androgynous faces labeled with either a woman's first name (Mary) or
a man's first name (John). The results indicated that participants more
quickly eliminated faces of the opposite gender than faces of the same gender
than the face they were looking for. This gender effect did not result from
greater similarity between faces of the same gender. Rather, early gender
categorization of a face during face recognition appears to speed up the
comparison process between the perceptual input and the facial representation.
Implications for face recognition models are discussed.
Depersonalization, self-esteem and body image in male-to-female
transsexuals compared to male and female controls.
Wolfradt U, Neumann K.
Arch Sex Behav. 2001 Jun;30(3):301-10.
Department of Psychology, Martin-Luther-University, D-06099 Halle, Germany.
u.wolfradt@psych.uni-halle.de
Whether postoperative male-to-female transsexuals differ in regard to
measures of self- and body image from a nontranssexual control group was
investigated. A group of 30 postoperative male-to-female transsexuals and
control groups of 30 males and 30 females completed self-report measures
(depersonalization, self-esteem, gender identity traits, body image). Results
showed that transsexuals and males scored higher on self-esteem and dynamic
body image than the females did. No differences between the groups were found
in terms of depersonalization and satisfaction. Transsexuals and females
described themselves as more feminine than males. Regarding sex-role
orientation, more androgynous subjects were found among transsexuals than in
the control groups. General satisfaction is associated with feminine and
masculine traits in transsexuals. Results are discussed in context of the
function of these personality features for the identity development of
male-to-female transsexuals.
Further work is currently being undertaken
on the page and will be added soon!
