In this essay I will be discussing gender and all the elements around gender, I will also look at gender identity, gender expression and biological sex.
Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining to, and differentiating between masculinity and femininity. Depending on the context, these characteristics may include biological sex. However in other contexts, including some areas of social sciences, gender includes sex or replaces it. For instance, in non-human animal research, gender is commonly used to refer to the biological of the animals. This conversion in the meaning of gender can be traced to the 1980s. In 1993 the USA’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) started to use gender instead of sex. Later, in 2011, the FDA reversed its
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This view proposes that in gender studies, the term gender should be used to refer to the social and cultural constructions of masculinities and femininities, and not to the state being a female or a male in its entireness. Gender includes gender roles, which are expectations society and people have about behaviors, thoughts, and characteristics that go along with a person’s assigned sex. For example, ideas about how men and women are expected to behave, dress, and communicate all contribute to gender. In the past people tend to have very clear ideas about what was appropriate to each sex and anyone behaving differently was regarded as abnormal. Today we accept a lot more diversity and see gender as a continuum rather than two categories. Therefore men can show feminine side and women can also show their masculine traits. Donald …show more content…
Some people especially those who identify as agender, neutrois, and intergender may wish to avoid all traits associated with gender which can be difficult to do in a society based on the gender binary.
Biological sex is a label that one is given at birth based on medical factors, including your hormones, chromosomes, and genitals. Most people are assigned male or female. When your sexual and reproductive anatomy doesn’t seem to fit the typical definitions of female or male, they may be described as intersex. Some people call the sex we are assigned at birth “biological sex” but this term doesn’t fully capture the complex biological, anatomical and chromosomal variations that can occur. Having only two options biological male or biological female might not describe what is going on inside a person’s
This is clearly not the case.”. She continues with, “Gender, like kinship, does have a biological referent, but beyond a universal recognition of male and female "packages," different cultures have chosen to associate very different behaviors, interactions, and statuses with men and women. Gender categories are arbitrary constructions of culture, and consequently, gender-appropriate behaviors vary widely from culture to culture.” (23). Gender roles are completely defined by the culture each person lives in.
This article was written to bring attention to the way men and women act because of how they were thought to think of themselves. Shaw and Lee explain how biology determines what sex a person is but a persons cultures determines how that person should act according to their gender(Shaw, Lee 124). The article brings up the point that, “a persons gender is something that a person performs daily, it is what we do rather than what we have” (Shaw, Lee 126). They ...
People often believe a person 's gender is based on their biological sex; biological sex is defined as the anatomy you are born with. Gender is the identity of a person based on their environment and how they have been influenced. Which shows that the biological makeup of a person and what gender they identify with has nothing to do with each other. Today gender and sexuality has become so fluent that gender role stereotypes should be changed too; over decades of powerful movements have been made to change stereotypes but the work is not over.
They adjusted well to their new role as males, took on 'male' jobs and married women, suggesting that biological factors can be more important than social ones in the formation of gender identity. However, gender is not necessarily a matter of biological sex as early evidence suggested that individuals would accept their sex of rearing and learn appropriate gender role behaviours. This is shown through the study of sufferers of testicular feminising syndrome, who are male in the sense that they have male chromosomes and testicles but whose bodies do not respond to the male hormone testosterone, causing them to develop a female body shape. Goldwyn (1979) studied one case of testicular feminising syndrome, Mrs DW, and found that on discovering 'she' was biologically m... ...
"In dismantling the notion that sex and gender are innate, first the two must be defined. Sex is described as the interaction between genes, hormones, behavior, and the environment. The adjectives female, male, or intersex is used when referring to sex. Gender is the social status, legal
there gender. The word “Gender” should be used less and less and individuals should be
Sexuality will also be addressed and how heterosexuality and the need for a family shaped and still shape societies norms about sexual preference. Gender is defined in the Collins English Dictionary (2003) as ‘state of being male or female’. Sociologists would argue that it is not so easily defined and that the origins of gender are constantly being investigated. Biological determinists attach biological characteristics to gender differences (Bilton et al, 2002: 132; Giddens 1998: 91). They have looked at evidence from animals, measuring hormonal make-up and anatomical differences (which defines the sex) as the reason for differences between masculinity and femininity (Giddens, 1998: 91).
Q1. What does the "sex/gender" distinction refer to? The sex/gender distinction refers to how sex refers to a person’s biological make-up, like their sex chromosomes, while gender refers to a set of characteristics given to them that are culturally defined. There are also the terms masculine and feminine that are used to indicate one’s gender, as well as their patterns of behavior and sexuality.
In order to grasp the concept of social construction of gender, it is essential to understand the difference between sex and gender. Biologically, there are only two reproductive genital organs that are determinants of sex: the vagina and the penis. Sex is established solely through biological structures; in other words, genitalia are the basis of sex. Once a sex category is determined, gender, a human categorization socially attached to sex, is assigned based on anatomy. Gender typically references social or cultural differen...
Final Paper Gender in our society is commonly understood to be male or female. However, those labeling terms are the sex of an individual, which is based on genitalia and internal organs. The misconception that gender and sex are one has altered the daily functions male and female. Therefore, our expectations of each gender is tainted.
Sex and gender are terms that are mixed up from day to day and seen as similarities rather than differences. Sex is what distinguishes people from being either male or female. It is the natural or biological variation between males and females (Browne, 1998). Some of these variations are genital, body hair, and internal and external organs. It is the make-up of chromosomes, men have one X and one Y chromosome and women have two X chromosomes, which are responsible for primary characteristics (Fulcher and Scott, 2003).
According to G. G. Bolich, “’gender’ came to represent a division into kinds based on apparently distinct and mutually exclusive sexual bodies” (2007). Thus, gender can be categorized as masculine and feminine. Sex, on the other hand, would refer to the characteristics of the human body that would determine if a person is a woman or a man. When sex is inherited characteristics, gender is perceived through interactions.
Gender is defined as “the complex interrelationship between an individual’s sex (gender biology), one’s internal sense of self as male, female, both or neither (gender identity) as well as one’s outward presentations and behaviors (gender expression) related to that perception, including their gender role” (Gender Spectrum, 2015). What this means is that societies and cultures have a set of norms that attempt to classify gender by outlining which characteristics and behaviors are associated with males and which characteristics and behaviors are associated with females. However, in all societies, there are some individuals who do not identify with the aspects of gender that are assigned to their biological sex (World Health Organization, 2015).
Gender is a complex concept, but it is essentially the characteristics between men and women, that is not based on biology but is socially constructed. Although often confused with sex, gender is not the same as sex which is the biological characteristic of a person. Gender is completely socially constructed based on the tasks, functions, and roles associated with men and women in society. The concept of gender and sex, in general, are very rigid and binary concept to a lot of people. Although not the same gender and sex are used interchangeably, especially in western society.
A very general and basic misconception is the difference between gender and sex. Gender and sex don’t refer to the same thing. Gender is sociological which refers to qualities of masculinity and femininity. Gender qualities may vary over time and culture. Sex is biological, which refers a chromosomal determination of male or female.