Sex, Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, And Gender Role

Sex, gender- gender roles and gender identity, are words that one might assume to mean the same but in reality they don’t. It is an incorrect assumption and everyone should understand the difference. They each have their own distinct meaning, for a reason and purpose. The definitions are concrete and make sense once a person hears and applies them.

Although there might be constraints to deciding whether the individual at birth is a male or female, I believe that surgery to overcome intersexual conditions of a newborn, or even a premature child, should be decided by the individual once they grow and develop to the appropriate age, possibly at around of 18-25 years of age. In concern of moral rights, the own individual should have the personal opinion or say over the doctors or parents.

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

Gender and gender roles are a somewhat complicated idea to understand. Contrary to popular belief, gender and sex are two different things in that “gender is not inherently nor solely connected to one’s physical anatomy” (“Understanding Gender”). When parents automatically assign their child a gender based on their sex organs, it leaves very little room for change later in the child’s life, because children born with female sex organs are not necessarily girls, just as children born with male sex organs are not necessarily boys. Rather, gender is based on mindset, personal identity, outward presentations, and behavior of the individual. Binary genders, or the broadly

Traditionally speaking, most people view sex and gender as interchangeable, synonymous, and biological. As more studies and research are done, more professionals are realizing the vital difference between the two terms. Sex, according to sociologist Doctor Zuleyka Zevallos, is the “biological traits that societies use to assign people into the category of either male or female, whether it be through a focus on chromosomes, genitalia, or some other physical ascription”. She goes on to say that the definition of gender is “the cultural meanings attached to men and women’s roles; and how individuals understand their identities including, but not limited to, being a man, woman, transgender, intersex, gender queer, and other gender identities” (Zeyallos, 2014). We see sex as something we are assigned at birth due to the body parts we are born with, and we see gender as the way one identifies with their assigned sex. In the majority of cases, assigned sex and gender identity line up, but less often it does not. In these cases, we see individuals who are transgender, gender queer, gender fluid, and more. More people are coming forward about these different ways they are experiencing gender, so many people assume these ways of experiencing gender are new.

First, it is shocking that some people will not even know if they are intersex. There have been occurrences where people have lived their entire lives without knowing they were intersex. Another interesting point on the site is that men can have “aphallia”, which means that they are born without a penis but have typical male anatomy (http://www.isna.org/faq/conditions/aphalia). Lastly, it was very surprising that in the past, doctors operated on children without consent to make them either male or female because they felt it was “necessary”

Gender identity, as defined in Webster’s Dictionary is, “the totality of physical and behavioral traits that are designated by a culture as masculine or feminine” (Webster, 2014). The first words said in the delivery room are often “it’s a boy!” or “it’s a girl!” Intersex children, who fall in between the scientific gender spectrum for male or female, are put through genital mutilation surgery and hormone treatment to abide by one of the two categories. Children who are born with an intersex condition where reproductive or sexual anatomy that do not fit typical females or a typical male’s norms should not have sex assignment surgery performed. This should be decided by the child when they are mature enough to make that decision for themselves. This is morally wrong because the social and cultural need to place intersex individual’s into the category of one sex or the other can have negative impact on their mental and physical health and many of the surgeries done on intersexed infants were done more for the benefit of parents, healthcare practitioners, and society, than for the infant. In the long run, this surgery done at such a young age can cause an unstable quality of life filled with shame and a feeling of exclusion from society along with the possibility of losing sexual functions. I will be mentioning evidence of cases that demonstrate that it’s impossible for intersex individuals who have had sex reassignment surgery that it did not help them identify with the rest

It begins before a child takes their first breath, and it continues throughout their life. People are classified, we are classified. We are classified, categorized, ordered, divided, indexed and ranked. This lifelong occurrence classifies us in numerous ways, which influence, if not assign or destine, many aspects of the lives in which we live. The things that make up the people who we are, the things that make us, “us,” are often the same things that are exploited to categorize us. We are categorized by our race, religion, ethnicity, education, geographic location, disability, age, biological sex, sexual orientation and gender. We are categorized by who we identify as, who we are, our gender identity. We are categorized by who we who are attracted to, who we love, our sexual orientation. Who we are and how we are classified are unavoidably intertwined. As the person we grow to become, and the

To go even deeper into the problem of representation, it is nearly impossible to produce accurate statistics or even accurate studies on intersexed people because of the secrecy surrounding their conditions. Many people are kept in the dark as to their "ambiguous genitalia." The Intersex Society of North America has deemed this secrecy a "conspiracy of silence," and have begun to make moves towards revolutionizing the treatment of intersexed babies. Rather than immediately perform plastic surgery on a child's "ambiguous" sex organs, the Intersex Society of

Gender identity display people’s understanding of themselves according to cultural definitions of female and male. In this essay I will attempt to enhance our understanding by exploring different aspects of gender identity, gender roles & sexual identity issues. Relying mostly on my research that is conducted in the U.S.

Are issues of diversity represented fairly, realistically and accurately or problematically in Australian schools in regards to issues of gender, sexuality and sexual identity.

The condition and conclusion to act hastily to decide the sex of an individual is complicated, and most in the western medical fraternity believe that it should take place

Many parents voice a fear about their child learning about gender, gender identity, and sexual orientation. They think that hearing, seeing, or learning these things will influence their child. According to research, however, no matter how often children are exposed to these topics they still will make their own decisions later on in life on the matter. Often parents are upset when they hear their children are learning about these terms because they do not know the dictionaries definitions for these words are. According to webster; gender is the state of being male or female, the word typically used to reference social and cultural differences rather than biological ones. Gender identity is a person’s perception of having a particular gender that may not correspond with the sex they were given at birth. Sexual orientation is a person’s sexual identity in relation to the gender to which they are attracted. Many times a person’s sexual orientation can be labeled as heterosexual, homosexual, or bisexual. Diversity is an important lesson to teach children especially at a young age. To understand how to best teach diversity about gender in a classroom background information, teaching strategies, and student’s understanding of diversity is important.

The words ‘sex’ and ‘gender’ are commonly confused with each other in regular, everyday conversations when the two have very different meanings. The term ‘sex’ refers to the biological and physiological characteristics of a person, such as male or female; ‘gender’ is a social construction that refers to masculine or feminine roles in society ( Nordqvist). For

Aside from the fact that doctors are making "gender" decisions in delivery rooms - as they are presented with a newborn having both sex organs (sometimes a reptilian tail) with perhaps one more prominent than another) where the decision is left to the doctor 's discretion. But what if the doctor 's call is a mistake? What if genetic testing of these children could more accurately determine what sex they are - taking the guesswork out of a lifelong decision that the individual is required to live with?