'Tabula Rasa' - Humans are a blank slate at birth

The argument

The blank slate argument states that socialization, not biology, govern psychological characteristics and behavioral differences that become evident during child development. Blank slate argues there are no naturally present psychological differences between men and women - only learned behaviors. The claim concerns origin rather than existence: the differences observed between men and women are not denied, but they are attributed entirely to what happens after birth rather than to anything present at it. This notion extends to gender roles within culture, arguing behavioral traits that could be stereotypically ascribed as either masculine or feminine, are the result of gender specific socialization within a given society. The extension matters because it moves the account from individual psychology to the organisation of a culture. If traits are learned then they are learned from somewhere, and the traits a society treats as masculine or feminine are the ones it is arranged to teach. The influence biological sex plays is inconsequential on the resulting gender role. That is the strongest form of the claim and the one the position rests on, since anything weaker would make gender a product of nature and nurture together rather than of nurture alone. Individual ideas on appropriate gender behavior differ throughout a person's lifetime and depend heavily on the social influences - if a parent decides their child should behave more feminine, then this trait will most likely be developed. Two things are being offered as evidence here. That a person's own sense of appropriate behaviour shifts across a lifetime indicates it is responsive to circumstance rather than fixed by constitution; and that a parent's expectation can produce the trait indicates the causation runs from the expectation to the behaviour rather than the other way. If gender behaviour can be shaped by a decision taken about a child, then on this argument it is constructed rather than discovered.

Context

Tabula rasa is a latin phrase which roughly translates as 'blank slate'. Tabula rasa as a philosophy can be traced back to the works of Aristotle, however the phrase is most commonly associated with English philosopher John Locke, who was a proponent of the term in the 17th century. Within the context of gender as a social construct, the Tabula Rasa philosophy suggests biological sex holds a nugatory impact on gender roles.

Premises

Counter-arguments

David Peter Reimer (1965–2004) was a Canadian man born male but reassigned and raised female following medical advice and intervention after his penis was accidentally destroyed during a botched circumcision in infancy. Between the ages of 9 and 11 years Reimer developed a realization of his biological gender and opted to transition back to a male by the time he was 15. After suffering years of severe depression, financial instability, and a troubled marriage, Reimer committed suicide. The Reimer case is a well quoted anecdote of the evidence against blank slate gender identity.

Rejecting the premises

There are measured hormonal differences between genders which actively play a part in human behavior.