What would society be like if sex couldn't be told apart until puberty?

Gender roles have been historically assigned at birth. As soon as parents establish the sex of their children, they are molded into certain social categories. But what if humans didn't display sexual characteristics until adolescence?

My story is set on a fictional world very similar to ours in the Late Middle Ages/Early Modern Period, and populated by "humans". The main deviation from human standard biology is that their reproductive organs don't appear until puberty. These young people have no sex, and once they reach puberty, they become either male or female and take on their respective roles in a (more or less) patriarcal society.

My question is primarily focused on how a medieval/early modern society would be affected by this, specially when it comes to education and an early stage of life. I've come to a few interesting points:

• Names: Would people only use unisex names like Taylor or Lindsay? Or perhaps would they adopt an "adult, gendered name" when they grew up, leaving their baby neuter name behind (maybe something related to nicknames or even posthumous names)?

• Heredity: When dealing with lands, material goods or even royal titles how could a cautious parent be sure of his/her true heir? (Think about the classic "Henry VIII dilemma"). Would he have to wait for 12 or 13 years until the kid "becomes" a boy or a girl? Would he secure his legacy by having many children?

• Education: I assume parents would prefer a boy and would educate the kid as so, in their particular craft for peasants or merchants, or for ruling and hunting if they are from a noble family. What would happen when the fittest kid becomes a girl?

• Gender neutral people: Let's say that external changes are caused by hormones, just like real biology does. What if, in some cases, certain people wouldn't be able to produce enough amount of hormones to develop as male or female? Would they be expected to behave as women, or maybe as monks, somehow related to religion and celibacy?

• Sexing: Even though I think this is more interesting if there's no way to tell if a child is a boy or a girl, I'm curious about methods of "sexing people". What do you think?

Would this society be more equal? Would there still be gender roles? Or, since this situation has existed since Prehistory, would they never arrive to a patriarcal society like that? I hope this question isn't too broad, I've broken down the question into smaller question in order to avoid that. Feel free of answer only one bit, and of course, you can bring up any other topic I might have left out.

Thank you very much!

posted about 6 years ago

MoholyNagy‭

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