Sex and Gender

Many people confuse the definition of gender and sex. “Gender, on the other hand, refers to the meanings, values, and characteristics that people ascribe to different sexes. Sex is a biological concept, determined on the basis of individual 's primary sex characteristics.” (Blackstone) Society gives social cues on the appropriate behavior for each sex. For example, women are to exert more feminine traits such as dependent, emotional, passive, innocent, nurturing, and/ or self-critical. On the other hand, men are to behave more masculine such as independent, non-emotional, aggressive, competitive,

We might want to trust that everybody is thought to be equivalents, paying little heed to sexual orientation. Both guys and females have properties that are vital commitments to our every day lives and to our general public or any general public. Men and ladies both assume parts in the public eye and inside the home, yet these parts are thought to be altogether different. Men ladies still are not generally considered as equivalents, even nowadays. Despite the fact that sex balance has made considerable progress in the previous couple of decades, regardless we have a mountain to move to accomplish uniformity and stop sexual orientation predisposition

With sex and gender being such a predominate factor in determining our position in society, it is difficult to hinder ourselves from distinguishing certain characteristics and attributes to be masculine (male) or feminine(female). Is is paramount to distinguish the differences between sex and gender. Sex is determined by our hormones and anatomy while gender is the social meanings, behaviors, and expectations attached to a given sex by society (Logg, Lecture Notes, Fall 2015). Generally speaking, labels are immensely restricting to members of society who fail to fit into their perceived gender roles considering that it enforces the idea of the binary gender system where it is only socially acceptable to identify as a male or female based on your sex. Sex and gender is something that has not been closely examined by social scientist to prove or disprove if the binary gender system is evident in human nature. Social scientists should research and challenge commonly held beliefs about sex and gender due to the negative effects it has on society.

The current research aims to examine gender differences in sexual fluidity. We also seek to examine the degree of sexual fluidity in heterosexually identified women, as well as the effect of gender expression on an individual’s attraction. Lastly, we aim to examine the degree of inconsistencies in a woman’s attraction’s, fantasies, and behavior. We hypothesize three different outcomes. First, we predict that women will be more sexually fluid in their attractions, fantasies, and behavior than men. Second, we predict that women who self-report their gender expression as feminine are more likely to be attracted to women whose gender expression is androgynous. Lastly, we predict that there will be discrepancies between a woman’s attractions,

Stereotypes are very apparent in today’s world and greatly affect the viewpoint of a large majority of the people. Based on a study of gender stereotypes and gender roles in 15 countries, these “normalities” are set into a child’s brain by the age of 10. It’s very easy to assume something about someone based on their exterior traits, but sometimes assumptions can be more than an innocent mistake.

We have all been characterized as either a boy or a girl. But is it because of our anatomy? Or is our society and cultures the ones who build our identity? Well for starters, society has its own image for what is considered as masculine or feminine. This is where gender roles come in; it becomes a limit of your true identity, growing stereotypes that you are supposed to fit into. It all begins from the day you are born. In the hospital, scientifically your sex is determined, meaning you are biologically divided based on your body parts. From that first day society takes its part in giving a pink blanket distinguishing that you are a girl or a blue one for boys. So what does it mean to be a boy or a girl? In our modern days, gender signifies what associates us with what people think, feel and expect of us. It is becoming a problem for humans to decipher their true selves with society always giving them principles to follow. They are constantly being nurtured into these genders, and on that note, if you decide to be different from what is

Sex and gender were constantly contested and formulated by several theorists in ranging disciplines obtaining an interest of sex and gender distinctions. Several people commonly group sex and gender as comparable aspects, in stating that women are human females whereas men are human males. (first reader) However this perspective has been challenged and contested by feminist theorist in formulating and endorsing a clear concise distinction between the two concepts. Analytically sex depicts human females and males depending on biological features such as sex organs, chromosomes, hormones and other physical

"In twentieth-century Western culture gender and sexuality represent two analytic axes that may productively be imagined as being as distinct from one another as, say, gender and class, or class and race. Distinct that is to say, no more than minimally, but nonetheless usefully" (Epistemology of the Closet, 1990, p. 30).

Women who identified as bisexual and unlabeled tended to find themselves more attracted towards men more than women due to social factors, one being the

The author defines “sex-typed” as a group that possesses gender characteristics that we typically assign to other genders. That being said gay men are typically perceived to be more feminine than straight men. The author also discusses lesbians but for the sake of this study I will only be covering the other. The author also explores how people perceive the level of masculinity and femininity of people whose sexual orientation is ambiguous, and whether there is a difference in perception depending on whether the target is male or female. The results from this study suggests that people 's perceptions of the degree to which a bisexual individual is masculine or feminine depend on how masculinity and femininity are measured in their communities. However, there is also some support for the concept that bisexual people are generally perceived to be androgynous as opposed to cross sex-typed.

Sexual orientation refers to an individual’s array of sexual, emotional or romantic attractions to men, women or both sexes. Categories of sexual orientation typically have included attraction to members of one’s own sex (gay men or lesbians), attraction to members of the other sex (heterosexuals), and attraction to members of both sexes (bisexuals). While these categories continue to be widely used, research has suggested that sexual orientation does not always appear in such definable categories and instead occurs on a continuum (e.g., Kinsey, Pomeroy, Martin, & Gebhard, 1953; Klein, 1993; Klein, Sepekoff, & Wolff, 1985; Shiveley & DeCecco, 1977) These ranges of behaviors have brought out several controversies, mainly targeted at the LGBT

Growing up, I always believed that there was not a difference between a person’s sex and gender. Before learning about sex and gender throughout my school career, I would have defined sex as a category in which you are born into based on what reproductive organ you are born with, which is slightly correct. Yet, I would have defined gender in the same manner, using them interchangeably just as most people, not knowing how complicated the terms really are. The appropriate definition of sex referred to a person’s biological status and categorized as male, female, or intersex. Gender relates to the attitudes, feelings, and behaviors that a given culture associates with a person’s biological sex. (apa.org) I remember I would see things on tv about people who say they were born with a body part that was different from what they felt like they were on the inside, yet I never thought too much about it considering my mother always called it foolishness and unreal. I had always heard the stereotype that girls were to act like girls and boys were to act like boys. There was no in between, but if there was, it was not normal.

This paper explores various articles and their take on how children perceive and develop their genders. The articles explore the ways in which children express themselves and fall into specific gender roles or stereotypes. The manner in which children are gendered and taught to think in gendered terms is looked into as well. This paper also aims to clarify the difference between sex and gender, and the impact that outside forces such as parents, media, school, and society place pressures and rules on how children see themselves and are expected to behave in our culture.

Gender identity is not the only component that people will use to identify themselves. There are five different components when it comes to how one will identify themselves in our society. Gender identity is how we identify themselves whereas there is gender expression which how we look or express ourselves. The next component are the sex we are assigned at birth which is either female or male, but some may decide to identify as something else with that comes with the next component which is who we are sexually attracted to. We may be born a male and society may tell us we have to like women but in the end we can be more sexually attracted to a male while being emotionally attracted to a women. There are many different aspects in which one will choose to identify themselves as which gives people more open space to choose what they are comfortable with.

In Western society, the two biological sexes, male and female, are recognized by masculine and feminine attributes. The advancement towards understanding what makes up innate human traits, such as the distinction between sexes, applies directly to gender role theory, where it is analyzed and debated in various disciplines. From a firm feminist viewpoint, Germaine Greer asserts in “Masculinity” that the cultural influence of gender roles are socialized into the sexes while explaining how masculinity’s overbearing constitution creates a polarity between the sexes, thus determining females as lesser individuals within the given social order. Judith Butler focuses not necessarily on whether gender is essential or constructed in “Undoing Gender”, but rather she proposes the greater question of what dictates our humanity, making it aware through the unique case of David Reimer. Although Greer and Butler both criticize gender’s structure and ideology, Butler further expands her argument to consider what sort of “intelligibility” (743) manifests within and outside of the individual when the expected gender norms do not conform to society’s standards.