Biological Factors That Influence Gender Identity

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Recommended: Reflections on understanding gender identity

Gender identity is a complex concept that is determined by much more than biological factors. Identity is not based solely on phenotype but rather who you are as an individual. Biological factors do play a role in identity however only to a certain extent. While gender has become a societally developed concept based off of stereotypes, one’s identity should not be limited to such shallow divisions of either male or female.
Gender is not defined by what one is but how one performs. With time an individual develops a gender by performing acts associated with certain gender norms. “Gender is no way a stable identity or locus of agency from which various acts proceed; rather, it is an identity tenuously constituted in time – an identity instituted through a stylized repetition of acts” (Butler, The Judith Butler Reader 2004, p.127). Acts that can contribute to the defining someone’s gender include certain gestures such as talking, walking, style of dressing etc. Through repetition these acts become routine and thus creates the illusion that the behavior is biologically natural. Despite this …show more content…

The way in which these gender stereotypes came about was just simply a way of adapting. “The mind is therefore equipped with ‘instincts’ that enabled our ancestors to survive and reproduce. The two sexes developed different strategies to ensure their survival and reproductive success. This explains why men and women differ psychologically: They tend to occupy different social roles.” (McLeod, S. A. (2014). Biological Theories of Gender.) Men developed certain characteristics in correspondence to women solely for the matter of survival. Each sex possessed different qualities that they used to their advantage and somewhere along the way these qualities began to define the sex and characterize the gender. This is where we discover the roots of gender

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