ABSTRACT

T here are good grounds for believing that tw o o f the earliest categories

assimilated by a child are those o f masculinity and fem ininity;1 and

good grounds, too, for believing that m any o f us never quite satisfy ourselves that w e belong w holly to one category or the other. Hence

m asculinity and fem ininity can be seen not as tw o distinct biological

categories (open to the occasional herm aphroditic exception), bu t as a spectrum stretching from one extrem e to the other, and on w hich

the positions o f those w ho are biologically male and female are some-

times confused. T he individual is placed on this spectrum no t by medical exam ination, bu t by questions about his interests and attitudes, or

by observation o f his behaviour, or by his perception o f his ow n char-

acter. W e are dealing, in other w ords, no t in anatom y, nor even in

the perception o f anatom y, bu t in personality and the perception o f

personality. Before setting to w ork w ith a dim ension that m ay still

seem a little insubstantial, I shall first bed it dow n in some evidence from biology and social anthropology.