Congress Paper Abstract

Aspects of conformity: reassembling the building blocks of gender identity, sexual orientation, the physical body and selfhood

Sue Bell, Ph.D, FTM Network 

This paper proposes a model of the person in which there is a fixed number of possible components. From these are derived the spectrum of individuals ranging from "standard mainstream heterosexual" to transsexual. This model has an underpinning theory based on neuronal "wiring" of the brain during development. The model attempts to place each person in context with the others, to clarify the relationship between groups, and to examine the key question - if one or more of these building blocks is "at odds" with the rest of the personal structure, how can the strains be resolved?

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