My thoughts regarding genetics and a person’s character has not changed much. I believe that the basis of one’s character is determined by genetics and nature, and that the environment can nurture this behaviour and bring it to its full potential. The information I heard did not change my opinion as it did not oppose my theory nor did it support it, but the information did make me think about the major effects of nurture and reconsider my idea. As in some of the experiments, such as the “Bobo Doll Experiment” it showed the overpowered effects of nurture on violence and aggression.

Genetics must have effected me majorly, but I do notice them as I have only been in my shoes, I’ve only lived as Jyun and never as someone else. Thing such as how people treat me, how people expect me behave, and whether people feel safe around me can be heavily effected by your genetics, and these determine your identity and how people see you. But many of these can also be formed or changed by nurture. Some things which only genetics can determine are my race and biological gender. Being asian, people expect to be less ‘sporty’ and less fond of the outdoor, and this has somewhat affect my identity. Otherwise it is not very significant.

In my opinion, majority of a human’s gender identity is determined by nature where you are assigned a specific gender since your existence. From my perspective, Gender is much like natural selection in homosapiens, according to the law of nature the weak will wither away while the strong will prevail, this is what the survival of the fittest was suppose to mean and be. But our specific species of humans have advanced so far that we have halted the evolution of humans and natural selection, much like the theory  of malleable gender identity. Naturally gender is assigned at birth, but if we try hard enough and have the scientific knowledge too, we will be able to artificially change someone’s gender.

 

In our current world, I do not think we have the technology or knowledge to be able to change a normal human’s gender identity (physically AND mentally) after birth, but this feat will possibly be able to be achieved in the near future as research in this field is rising due to the recent controversy regarding gender identity and transexuality. Dr. Money’s theory of neutrality is understandable but does not have enough evidence to back it up to be determined true, I also believe that the failure of David Reimer’s gender reassignment is not due to the theory being false, but that there were too many variables in the experiment, ultimately leading to the conclusion it had. With more research Dr. Money’s ‘Theory of Neutrality’ can easily be determined true or false, but due to the current human rights law this is not possible.

 

Therefore I believe that gender is assigned at birth but can be changed when using the correct method but it must be executed correctly.