Gender and Sexuality
Instructions
Read this excerpt from “Gender Identity 101: The Definitive Guide to Discussing Gender” by West Anderson:
Gender is a social construct. What I mean by that is the ways in which characteristics, interests, and behaviors are deemed “masculine” or “feminine” relies on people creating, believing, and reinforcing these divisions. The things we have been taught divide men and women are not innate differences….
Although gender markers may not be innate, they still have a real effect on our lives as we live within this gender system. In western/European society, gender is a collection of socially constructed markers that allow us to distinguish between men and women, as well as assign roles and values to these two groups….
Although gender has not looked the same in all places, at all times, during the last few hundred years (and under western influence) gender has become widely divided between two opposing options. If you are male, you must look, act, and dress according to a certain set of rules. If you are female, you must look, act, and dress according to a different set of rules. In our patriarchal, cisnormative, binary society, gender is a form of categorization and social control. It tells us how to treat and respond to others (similar to other identity markers, such as race, class, and ability). Our learned responses to gender cover a wide range of interactions….
Some people find it useful to divide gender and sex. This explanation usually goes along the line of “gender is in your brain, and sex is between your legs.” This opens up more possibilities for gender while explaining the seemingly binary differences between male and female bodies. However, this isn’t a helpful distinction in the long term for a couple of reasons. First of all, sex is much less binary than we are taught….
…[s]ex is more complicated than a simple binary, and there are many intersex conditions that complicate the belief that biology is binary and leads to a “true” gender. Not only are a wide range of genital variations possible and natural (which are often surgically changed based on social perceptions of how big and small penises and clitorises should be), but people can also have a variety of “abnormal” chromosomes, a mixture or the “opposite” kind of internal gonad tissue, and varying levels of hormones (Kessler and McKenna)….
Based on the readings and information that you find, please answer the following questions within your discussion post:
What does it mean to do something “like a girl”?
How or why is it beneficial to view these as social constructs?
For you personally, are your gender and sexual identities more matters of how you view yourself or of how others view you? Please explain.
Citation: Anderson, W. (2016, January 18). Gender identity 101: The definitive guide to discussing gender. The Body Is Not an Apology. https://thebodyisnotanapology.com/magazine/gender-identity-101-the-definitive-guide-to-discussing-gender-in-the-21st-centu/
