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Sex is biological, but society is responsible for the ridiculous gender roles and biases that have been so damaging. People are people, regardless of the male/female hormonal tendencies. I think a lot of folks show the world what is expected instead of what is natural to them.

Somewhat, but... I read this book a while back about two twin boys who were circumcised, and the one boy's circumcision was botched so they just made him a girl. Like, seriously, the doctor was like, "Oh no biggie, we'll just make a little vagina and you'll give him hormones and raise him as a girl and nobody will know anything." This was back in the 60s. Well, this little boy had the HARDEST time in life -- he looked like a girl and everybody said he was a girl, but he didn't feel like a girl, he wasn't sexually attracted to boys, he played with boy toys and talked like a boy and walked like a boy and dressed like a boy. So when he was 16, his parents finally told him OK... sorry, you're a boy.

He ended up getting a sex change back and marrying a woman and the book ended really nice. But then I read the Wikipedia entry and since the book came out, he killed himself. So, uh... yeah. Anyway, the point is, maybe gender isn't as much of a social construct as we think it is.

@ladyfingers: Good God, how bad was this botched circumcision that they were just like "Eh, let's just make a vag instead".

@mrbee: I know, it was really sad. The book was talking about how his brother was really messed up, and had drug problems, and the parents were fighting all the time, and everything was just so messed up, but then they came clean and it seems like everybody did well for a while. But the brother still had issues -- part of the "therapy" to make the sex changed twin be more female, or whatever, were these regular visits to the original doctor's office in Bethesda, and he would have the two SIBLINGS simulate sex with clothes on, and different positions. Like, 12-year-old kids. So the brother went back to drugs and OD'ed, and then the sex changed twin was laid off and his wife left him, so he killed himself

(ETA: The brother went back to drugs after a period of time, like, after the book came out. Not after the therapy sessions.)

Here's the Wikipedia entry if anybody's interested. Despite my total bummer of a post, it was probably one of the best books I've ever read. I even read the acknowledgments at the end because I didn't want it to be over.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Reimer