Gender and Sex

Other examples include people who consider themselves gender nonconforming, multigendered, androgynous, third gender, and two-spirit people” (2014, p.1). Gender is cultural and is the term to use when referring to women and men as social groups. Sex is biological; used when the biological distinction is predominant. Sigmund Freud a neurologist, claimed that “anatomy is destiny, that is, one 's gender

When it comes to ethical identity I think of personality and core values and I think that changing from a man or women would shift those values greater than changing from Irish to American. Women and men are so complex due to how society has created gendered expectations starting at birth, that it seems almost impossible for someone who is “raise as a girl” or “raised as a boy” to not have adopted many values and traits because he or she is that gender. Although, it does seem clear that race and ethnicity also play a role in one’s ethical identity, just a smaller

Whereas, Devor focuses mainly on the idea that gender behavior is portrayed mainly among two different categories: masculinity and femininity, the expectation that society has put upon male and female disregarding any biological traits. Furthermore, both could agree with the idea that society has an effect on how an individual should act based on their gender. Yet, additionally Devor would most likely disagree with Blum regarding the assumption that a biological factor is involved in this following case, but I reside on Blum’s case. Although society is indeed one of the major contributions as to how one should act, as Devor states, biology is somewhat like a foundation that leads to how one should behave as they grow and acknowledge their gender difference as well, residing on Blum’s argument. Aaron Devor’s argument reflects completely on the concept that society is the major development of how each gender should act placing them in two categories that configures which is which.

He is saying that ses refers to you being male or female, while gender is more about the pronouns you use. Femininity and masculinity determine your gender, but your sex is determined biologically. “The public response to feminism has been ferociously defensive precisely because feminism touches such a deep nerve of truth and the denial that keeps us from it. If feminism were truly ridiculous, it would be ignored. But it isn 't ridiculous, and so provokes a vigorous backlash.”(Johnson) Johnson is talking about feminism and the backlash it gets for being around.

These characteristics, amongst others, are what the society actually expects from individuals based on their sex, but it does not mean that it is imperative for a girl to be feminine or a boy to be masculine which implies that gender is independent of sex. Robert Stoller, an American psychoanalyst, is the first person to have made this observation. While gender is closely linked to sex, they do not have the same meaning. Stoller differentiated between sex and gender by stating that the physical characteristics of a being makes him either a male or a female contrary to gender which makes an individual either masculine or feminine. In other words, it means that sex is what we are born with; either a male or a female and is difficult to change, whereas gender is the character given to us by the society.

The term gender is used to describe the collection of characteristics that the society or a culture uses to differentiate between masculinity and femininity. The characteristics used to characterize gender hence depend on the context of the society and include sex. However, unlike some people mistake, there is a significant difference between gender and sex. This confusion is attributed to the fact that sex is the most common characteristic used to define gender roles in most communities. However, while sex refers to a biological characteristic of being male and female, gender differentiate people depending on the roles the society gives them.

While the terms “gender” and “sex” are often used interchangeably, the two words have significantly different definitions. One could argue that sex refers to biological essentialism and the idea that we are who we are because of our genetic material. On the other hand, gender is associated with the social constructionist theory, which argues that the way we are is dependent on our race, class, and sexuality. Because each person is different in their race, class, and sexuality, their gender becomes socially constructed. To argue that gender is not socially constructed would be to say that all people, for example, that are biologically female have the same goals.

Sex is defined as the biological and physiological characteristics, which can be simplified to as being male or female (World Health Organization website). However, gender is defined as the “socially constructed roles, behaviors, activities, and attributes that a given society considers appropriate for men and women” (World Health Organization website). This means that sex is based on the physical biology of a person, while gender is based on the social roles that the person is expected to adhere to. Linguistic determinism is a theory that says “that language may determine thought,” and it was supported by “cognitive differences that resulted in people who speak in languages with different grammatical structure” (Wasserman and Weseley). Linguistic relativity has greater support, and it refers to “the idea that language can reflect and preserve existing social structures and influence perceptions of reality” (Wasserman and Weseley).

My prediction was that the sales associate would more than likely treat me differently than they would a typical female customer. Prior ... ... middle of paper ... ...ure that tells you how to define the genders, their differences are inconsequential. Men and women both have masculine and feminine qualities, there is no pure form of either of these. Not only that, but what we define them by is dictated by our culture and merely a social construct. We act the way we are expected to, and if we don’t we are shunned as being deviant for crossing these gender norms.

Transsexuals were biologically the same but chose to be a different gender. Thus the distinction between sex and gender was made. Moreover, it has then been developed to explain the common hierarchal dominance of males over females. This social constructivist stance taken by Stoller is very similar to de Beauvoir. It separates the biological (sex) from the social (gender).