(no subject)

[sophiaserpentia]

Someone on my friend's list has been posting stuff about birth order and its effect on personality, and i got curious about whether or not there is any correlation between birth order, sexual orientation and gender identity.

I found this:

Schott's findings show that crossdressers are more likely to be oldest siblings and male-only siblings than the average population. His findings also shows that crossdressers experienced a better relationship with their mothers than the control group. Schott concludes that because crossdressers perceived their mothers as warm and tender and their fathers as cold and hostile, that they developed an aversion to masculinity. (from Aspects Of Transgenderism)

Although as someone male-born and first-born who is perhaps more strongly attracted to men sexually (my sexual moods oscillate slowly over a 6-9 month period), i bucked one trend:

For a male child, Blanchard found, the more older brothers in his family, the higher the probability that he would be gay. A firstborn male has a likelihood of homosexuality of about 2%. But for a boy with four older brothers, those odds jump to 6%, Blanchard found. In all, he estimated, one in seven gay men owed his sexual orientation to this "fraternal birth order" effect. (from Pieces of the Puzzle)

I find it really eerie to read descriptions of other people's childhood that could have come from my own (this from the second article above) -- and sad-making to read about parental acceptance i wish i could say parallels my own experience:

The distinction, say researchers, is gender-bending behavior that is neither subtle nor temporary. It isn't "just a phase," say parents like Angela and James, a couple who spoke on condition their last names not be used.

By the time he was 18 months old, their son, now almost 7, was drawn to his mother's shoes and scarves--the silkier or more glittery they were, the more enticing they were. From 3 years old, he "'would obsess" about the Little Mermaid and Cinderella, mimicking their dresses, their songs and their gestures, according to his parents.

"Being the progressive, modern-thinking parents we were, we thought, 'Let's not stereotype,' " said Angela, explaining why the couple bought their son a Barbie doll (and a Ken, whom the child pointedly ignored) when he asked for it.

It was a poignant moment of epiphany--the day their then-4-year-old son stood up in a shopping cart and wept at the realization that he would not grow up to be a mommy--that drove the couple to seek treatment for the child's "gender-identity disorder."