SEX AND GENDER ACROSS CULTURES

In nature, male and female are distinct. She-elephants are gregarious, he-elephants solitary. Male zebra finches are loquacious - the females mute. Female green spoon worms are 200,000 times larger than their male mates. These striking differences are biological - yet they lead to differentiation in social roles and skill acquisition.

 

Men also mature later, die earlier, are more susceptible to infections and most types of cancer, are more likely to be dyslexic, to suffer from a host of mental health disorders, such as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), and to commit suicide.

 

The scrutiny of borderline cases of human sexuality - notably the transgendered or intersexed - can yield clues as to the distribution and relative weights of biological, social, and psychological determinants of gender identity formation. http://samvak.tripod.com/sexgender.html

 

SEXUALITY AND GENDER -  What Religion has to do?

•  Americans tend to be polarized between social and religious conservatives and liberals/progressives.
• Non-Christian religions differ little from Christians on matters of sexual orientation.
• Conservatives from all religions tend to agree with each other: that only opposite-gender sexual behavior is moral, and then only between a man and a woman who are married to each other.
• Religious liberals are also largely in agreement among themselves, and tend to value sexual behavior as acceptable if it is consensual, low risk for pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease (STD) transmission. and perhaps within a committed relationship. 
• Those of no religious affiliation -- Agnostics, Atheists, Free Thinkers, Humanists, -- tend to hold beliefs similar to those of religious liberals. 
• Almost all groups disapprove of sexual behavior that is non-consensual, manipulative, forced, or unsafe. However, there are some profoundly misogynistic religious traditions that require women to submit to being raped by their husband.
  
  http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_sex.htm