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The polarity of the sexes is rooted in the genic sex. The qualities which constitute masculinity and femininity are psychobiological secondary (sex) characteristics. They are epigenetic phenomena evolved from the interaction of man's biological givens with the civilization. The polarity of the sexes changes in our civilization faster than before. The potential for psychological change is in the process of identification primarily of the infants of both sexes with the mother. Socioeconomic and cultural changes bear influence on the structure of the family and promote the equalization of the sexes.
There was a time not so long ago when the polarity of the sexes was taken for granted. Historians, anthropologists, and simple travelers noted that the qualities which constitute masculinity and femininity were changing with the times, that they differed, in some respects, according to traditions and culture. Psychologists hardly took these phenomena into account. They knew that the terms, masculinity and femininity, referred to gender characteristics of the sex. He who is born a boy will be masculine; she who is born a girl will be feminine. No-one was concerned about the “distance between the sexes.” This appeared embodied in the attitude of the relationship between the sexes; it was incorporated in