Debating Sex and Gender and After Identity

A person’s sex is determined on the basis of three fundamental human physiognomies, chromosomes (XX for a female and XY for a male), gonads (ovaries for females and testes for males) and the obvious being genitals (vagina for a females and a penis for males). However socially, gender identity is formulated on the grounds of stereotypical roles from both

The idea of race and gender is an idea that has been socially constructed. Society has created roles for race and gender, they are determined by what society thinks is appropriate for the gender or race. Some people argue that certain behavior roles are based on gender where as others may believe that it is based on race. I will first discuss how in today’s society we promote to stop racism yet it is still happening everyday, and people are just blind to see it. Creating a role for race is racism, some people do not understand that. I will then talk about gender, how it is socially constructed, and labeling “roles” for men and women. I will also discuss how race and gender intersect in the formation of identities. How gender and race is socially constructed, us people have the power to change it but we use our power to look past it and pretend like it does not exist. Majority of society has been blinded to the fact gender and racial roles do not exist, society has created it and now we think it is the norm.

I would like to focus my response to the reading in Gabbidon & Greene, Chapter 1, generally around the idea of social construction. Furthermore, I would like to specially provide responses to discussion questions number one and two as posed in the conclusion of chapter one. Discussion question number one asks to “Explain the origin of race and its implications for race and crime.” Discussion question number two asks “Do you believe there are distinct races?” I will also provide perspective on issues surrounding the term “minorities”.

In “A Conceptual Framework for Understanding Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality”, Lynn Weber claims that categories such as race and gender are socially constructed. In this paper, I will defend Weber’s claim with a particular focus on gender and gender identity, with gender being defined as a state of masculinity or femininity which is either based on the sex of a person or on their personal identification (Oxford Dictionaries). I will first explore the for and against arguments to Weber’s position, then in my own response, I will argue that gender is a social construct as gendered behaviour is learned over time, and that gender is contextual in nature. Additionally, I will explore the implications of the social construction of gender in

Race and gender are socially constructed. In spite of being a biological factor, gender is considered as a social construct. The males are considered superior to the females in many societies. The more a gender has been treated in a certain manner, the more one succumbs to the same environment. Different people expresses that a gender is superior to another but they do not consider the biological factors associated with the same. Gender is socially constructed because of the views which have been created in theories or the culture around us (Glenn and Nakano, 1999). The social construction of gender has

When considering gender and sex, a layman’s idea of these terms might be very different than a sociologist’s. There is an important distinction: sex, in terms of being “male” or “female,” is purely the physical biological characteristic differences – primarily anatomical differences. (There are also rare cases of “intersexual” individuals as outlined in the Navarro article, “When Gender Isn’t a Given”.) Gender, on the other hand, is an often misconstrued concept that is commonly mistaken as synonymous with sex. A non-sociologist might surmise the following, “men act masculine and women act feminine, therefore, it must follow that gender is inherent to sex,” however, this is not necessarily the case.

“The social construction of gender comes out of the general school of thought entitled social constructionism. Social constructionism proposes that everything people "know" or see as "reality" is partially, if not entirely, socially situated. To say that something is socially constructed does not mitigate the power of the concept. These basic theories of social constructionism can be applied to any issue of study pertaining to human life, including gender. This is

Haslanger makes sure to distinguish colour from race. Colour is solely a biological component signifying differentiated skin tone. Race is a social concept ascribed to colour. This distinguishing is also applied to the words sex and gender respectively. Haslanger deliberately makes this case to investigate whether or not concepts of race and gender are justified for practical use. These concepts serve as a premise for Haslanger’s overall

In Debating Sex and Gender and After Identity, Dr. Warnke presents various arguments that demonstrate how sex, gender, and race are all social constructs. Do you agree or disagree with her argument, and why?

This reading centers around the idea of gender being a social contrast rather than being biological. The reading argues that what we perceive as man and woman has little to do with the biological make up of a being and more so the role that being plays in society. Judith Lorber gives examples of two men she recalled seeing in New York. Both men were caring for children. One was carrying the baby on his chest and the other had the baby in the stroller. She could tell that both individuals were male almost instantaneously. But why? When she looked at the babies in which they were holding the job was not as easy. Was the baby male or female? This raised the question that maybe we identify gender by social signs and imagery rather than

As defined by the encyclopedia, a social construct is “an idea or notion that appears to be natural and obvious to people who accept it, but may or may not represent reality, so it remains largely an invention or artifice of a given society.” In this definition, it is important to direct all attention to the phrase may not represent reality. At some point, society decides to deem something its definition, and from that point on, who cares about what it truly means to be straight, black, white, gay, a woman, a man, and so on? Reality tells us that “all human beings are 99.9 percent identical in their genetic makeup” (National Human Genome

We have learned this week that since gender and race can be easily distinguished; they can both fall under social construction (Healey & O’Brien, 2015, p. 18).

Demographic forms customarily request the gender or sex of the individual completing the form. Many of these demographic forms use the terms gender and sex interchangeably when referring to the categories of male and female. Michael Kimmel clarifies that “sex” refers to the biological male and female criteria of chromosomes, chemical organization, and genitalia while “gender” refers to the differences and expectations associated with each sex (Kimmel, 2013, p. 3). Differential socialization is the theory that attributes these gender differences to the social treatment of males and females. Kimmel suggests, “We acquire the traits, behaviors, and attitudes that our culture defines as ‘masculine’ or ‘feminine.’ We are not necessarily born different: We become different through this process of socialization” (Kimmel, 2013, p. 4). West, Zimmerman, and McCaughey all write on the implications of gender as a social construct and likewise indicated the impact that gender expectations and stereotypes have had on society.

First of all I am going to begin with defining sex and gender. Sex in a sociological perspective is defined as the biological and physiological differences between men and women which are contrasted in terms of reproductive function(Abercrombie et al 2000 :313). On the other hand gender is sociologically conceived as the social roles allocated to men and women in society that is to say gender is learned not innate. However previously it was believed that sex determined gender thus the differences between men and

Sex refers to the biological and physiological characteristics between men and women, assigning them a role in reproduction, while gender refers to behaviors, roles, expectations, and activities in society that are culturally and socially constructed differences between males and females. Sex refers to male or female, while gender refers to masculine or feminine. Moreover, the differences in the sexes do not vary throughout the world, but differences in gender do. One is able to see such differences throughout various elements of society such as through mass media and objects. To explain these sex and gender differences one must understand the three main sociological perspectives, which include, structural functionalist,