Post # XIV - And then, WHAT ABOUT JUNG? A MODIFIED ALTERNATIVE SUBMITTED.

[Please note that what follows is composed in the context of contemporary 'straight' culture wherein males orient their sexual thinking and actions towards females. This blogger does not presume to compose ideas pertinent to homosexual or lesbian social interaction. I look forward to reading a Philosophy of Homosexuality composed by a writer who practices such.]

PREAMBLE:

Although this blogger has not read Jung in any detail, I understand that some contemporary men subscribe to his notion that human beings are intrinsically hermaphroditic, at least psychologically: a man has/is primarily an 'animus' with a secondary 'anima' ("the feminine" inside him) and a woman has/is primarily an 'anima' with a secondary 'animus' ("the masculine" within her) - leading to several different ways that the man and woman may inter-relate.

Plato's view of a somewhat similar hermaphroditism was that people are conceived with both sexual organs but then split into the two - and spend the rest of their lives seeking their original partner of the other sex.

COMPOSING AN ALTERNATIVE:

1) It is well-known that the sexual organs of the male fetus and the female fetus are, initially, extremely similar.

2) New-born babies and young children of both sexes provide emotional, even 'spiritual', resources for adults.

3) Young boys have high-pitched voices and relatively 'soft' anatomical features. (In terms of evolution, such semi-female comportment protected them from adult males seeing them as male competitors). And girls functioning as 'tom-boys' protected them from becoming overt female sexual objects of adult males.

4) So, in many ways, young humans are 1/2 male and 1/2 female adding up to 1 human being.

5) The human being's father contributed 1/2 of the chromosomes necessary for life and the human being's mother contributed 1/2 of the chromosomes necessary for life - adding up to 1 set of 46 chromosomes - the basis of a human being.

6) Thus, each infant is a manifestation of 1 whole human - constituted by adding together 1/2 male qualities and 1/2 female qualities - sure enough, Jung's hermaphrodite!

7) However, this blogger submits that maturation involves a male gradually 'shedding' his "female side" (a term favoured by acolytes of Jung) so that he functions more and more only as a male. Not only his breasts but his female psychology are/become vestigial. And, indeed, a man's spermatocyte that approaches the ovum is only male and only half of the enterprise of procreation.

In a complementary manner, a female gradually 'sheds' attributes of her "male side", etc.

8) A human being starts off as a 'hermaphroditic' whole - just like Jung says; but naturally, with maturity, gradually becomes merely a male or female half. .

POST-AMBLE:

The above formulation regarding male-female interaction has to do with (a) procreative endeavour, rather than (b) creation or (c) reproduction.

(a) procreation involves a kind of 'thrown ahead' making of something novel - a process that is, in many ways, uncontrollable and unpredictable (notwithstanding Mendel). In nature, it almost always (no doubt someone will proffer an exception) requires one male to impregnate one female (the chromosomes of one spermatocyte entering one ovum) with subsequent conception, gestation and one form or another of birth-giving.

It may be noted that the etymology of the English word 'nature' has to do with birth-giving.

Recently, technology has been developed so that 23 chromosomes of one woman's ovum can be extracted and then introduced into the ovum of another woman that already has its own complement of 23 chromosomes - adding up to 46 chromosomes and the possibility of two females, together, procreating a child without male input. (Together they can generate a daughter but not a son.)

Some men seem to be fascinated that the human species could possibly carry on without male participation! Most females find this possibility less interesting.

(b) creative endeavour such as making a work of art or designing and building a new car or house can be carried out by one male or one female or any combination of males and females.

(c) reproduction is the process of making more of the same, eg, a factory that produces thousands of cars. A striking contemporary example of biological reproduction is the cloning of animals (and, perchance human beings) Procreation and creation, of course, involve making novel/different entities.