Physical Body And Genitali The Biological Perspective

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

DNA provides humans with distinctive reproductive organs that we classify as biological sex. Though there is some variance between typical male and female sex organs, such as intersex, this category is first established in the physical domain and does not experience fluid interpretation. As society developed, constructs were adopted that were meant to accommodate the distinctions in biological sex. This is the system of genders, which exists as an identity and expression. Originally, biological sex dictated identity and then rigidly led to expression.

Relevant Terminology: Gender identity: refers to an individual’s sense of gender, may be different from one’s assigned gender at birth

Gender is defined as being male or female as defined by roles, social status, and attitude. The perception of oneself and what characterizes gender identity. Included in gender identity is hormone and behavior interaction, along with the examination of psychological, biological, and environmental influences on sexual separation.

Apart from the features mentioned above, the core assumption of the psychoanalytic perspective is that a person’s personality depends on childhood experiences. In this psychosexual development theory, Freud assumed that all children go through five stages. These are the oral stage, anal stage, phallic stage, latency stage and genital stage. He believed that a fixation would occur if a child experienced extreme problems or pleasure. (Eysenck, 1994)

One's gender identity is someone's brain gender, it does not always match their biological sex. A common misconception is that transgender people choose their gender identity. This is wrong; gender identity is just one piece of each individual’s unique make-up, much like their hair colour or skin colour. Just as a person cannot choose what traits they are born with, a person cannot choose to be

The passage below from The Feminist Local and Global Theory Perspective Reader suggests that biological terms of male and female are not self-determined but pre-assigned. Once a person is assigned an anatomical category (in this case only being male or female) what they do with this information is how they are pre-determined to act. This cycle perpetuates the reoccurring gender roles that have been inevitably causing both males and females to be oppressed. Consequently, this is unlikely to change since until recently this is how things have always been when it comes to gender and sex. Throughout the reading the topics of both sex and gender are introduced on differently levels of complexity.

Freud believed during this stage all needs are satisfied orally or through the mouth; for example, eating and drinking. The anal stage takes place during the second year of life. During this stage the battle between control and letting go begins. The phallic stage takes place during the third and fifth years of life. During this stage a child develops a fixation with the genitals. Freud’s psychosexual stages focus on developmental changes in the first 5 years of life and transformation of the id.

The formation of gender identity is not completely understood as it is much more complex than just getting a sperm and egg cell to join; an XX or an XY genotype is only the first part in gender identity. There are many biological, psychological and sociological factors involved. The biological includes chromosomes, gonads, prenatal hormones, internal accessory organs, external genital appearance. The psychological includes assigned gender role and gender identity. The sociological could come from family, mass media and society (Kenyon, PhD, 2006). Sammons (2007) states that biological psychology

The biological perspective on gender, as discussed in class, argue that gender differences come from evolved biological differences that will not vary through time and across culture. Gender is not performed differently because of cultural or societal definitions, but because gender is innately different due to evolution, brain differences and development, and sex hormones. For example, it is argued that slut shaming and values on male promiscuity come from the fitness advantage a man fertilizing as many eggs as possible would have. There has been a lot of research on brain differences between men and women, and also on how different levels of sex hormones would explain men and women’s different levels of aggression, empathy, and competitiveness. Where the biological perspective argues that the way one “does” gender is innate, the sociological perspective argues that gender is performative and based off of socially defined ideas of

Freud believed that an individual’s personality is formed through five psychosexual developmental stages. The oral stage which is formed in the first year of life is preoccupied with oral activities. The anal stage involves bowel function and control, and occurs during the second year of life. The phallic stage which occurs at approximately the third year to the fifth

The nature side of the debate states that gender is biological. This would explain the strong relationship between the person’s sex and their gender. The theory is that because each sex shares the same physiology and anatomy, they have many psychological traits in common too. In the same way that genetics and hormones determine an individual’s sex, they also determine whether a person will behave in a more feminine or masculine way. Males are born

(Sterling 1993:21) Fausto-Sterling further critiques the biological understandings of gender/sex by believing that sex is socially constructed because nature does not decide on who is seen as a male or female physically. Rather, doctors decide for the children what will be deemed as "normal heterosexual males or females," (Sterling 1993: 22) by the inhabitants of society.

Sigmund Freud's "Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality", written in 1905, attempted to trace the course of the development of the sexual instinct in human beings from infancy to maturity. This instinct is not simply an animal instinct but is specific to both human culture and the form of conscious and unconscious life we live within it. For Freud sexuality is infinitely complicated and far-reaching in its effects and forms the basis of self-identity and interactions. His Third Essay discusses the transformations of puberty in both males and females. Part four of this essay focuses on the differentiation between male and female sexuality. Freud states in this part that 'as far as the autoerotic and masturbatory manifestations of sexuality

First, although we believe there are only two sexes, there are actually five (Fausto-Sterling, 1993). There are hermaphrodites who have one testes and one ovary, merms that have male genitalia and some ovaries, ferms that have ovaries and some male genitalia, and then man and woman (Fausto-Sterling, 1993). Also, one in every four births are intersex (Fausto-Sterling, 1993). We want these gender nonconforming people to be “fixed” surgically because they no longer fit into our social norms, and threaten what we think to be true about gender, however they are more common than many think (Fausto-Sterling, 1993).