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Defeminization and masculinization are the processes that a fetus goes through to become a male.
It has often been said by biologists that in sexual differentiation in mammals, the female is the "default" developmental pathway, in the sense that elimination of any of several gene actions necessary for formation of male genitalia leads to the development of external female genitalia. Two processes: defeminization, and masculinization, are involved in producing male typical morphology and behavior.
Defeminization involves the suppression of the development of female typical morphology and behavioural predispositions. Masculinization involves the production of male typical morphology and behavioural predispositions. Both defeminization and masculinization are required for a mammalian zygote to become a fully reproductively functional male.
A brief version of the female default paradigm can be stated as follows: