Well I'm too late to really join in the more obscure discussions that have drifted on, but here's a slightly different view.

To quote Ian Dury;-
I'm from Essex
as if you couldn't tell
My given name was Micky, I come from Billericay
and I'm doing very well

I am from Essex, but I am not of Essex. I always felt like a stranger there, there is a truth in the stereotype of Essex attitudes that I did not share. When I went to university in Manchester I felt more at home there within a couple of months than I ever did back home.

But more than that, my principal culture is male. It is extraordinary the extent to which the genders co-exist in almost parallel universes. We are brought up with different expectations and behavioural patterns, we are encouraged, trained, en-cultured to be different sorts of people. That's over and above the actual differences in our nature and how hormones impact it.

I notice this now as I discover the extent to which I don't behave properly, I don't react as a woman should. I don't share certain assumptions, I don't have certain points of view. I wasn't brought up as a girl, I didn't imbibe those expectations, I wasn't trained for those behaviours and...well {shrug}

keep to the Fen Causeway