The Distinction Between The Terms ' Sex ' And ' Gender '

Although men and women have significant biological differences, the question whether gender-specific labels stems from these biological differences or are gender constructed remains a polarised nature versus nurture debate. Whether it is through the process of socialisation or genetic make-up, “gender identity” is given from a person’s birth, determining how a person culturally interacts and the expectations society places on them. Along with a “gender identity” comes a whole set of “norms”, “values” and so-called “gender characteristics”, which are supposed to define the differences between a male and a female. According to the World Health Organisation (n.d.), the term “sex” is often used to define the biological and physiological

Gender has been described as masculine or feminine characteristics that encompass gender identity sex as well as social roles (Nobelius 2004). According to sexologist John Money, there is a difference between gender as a role and the biologically of differences in sex (Udry 1994). Within scholarly disciplines, cultures and contexts, gender frequently has its own mean, contextual frame of reference and the manner in which it is used to describe a variety of issues and characteristics. The sociocultural codes, conventions and the suggested and literal rules that accompany the notion of gender are vast and diverse. There has been and continues to be much scholarly debate regarding the idea of gender and how it has been viewed historically; as well as changes in the grammatical use of the

Judith Butler (Gender Trouble, 1990) argues that rather than sex determining gender-gender determines sex. Sex is shaped by gender discourses which give us scripts to perform according to whether we are biologically classed as male or female. The continual performance of these scripts on a daily basis is what makes us male or female. The classic example of this is the third sex, yes, the third sex and that is the transgender( born male in a female’s body or

When I saw this, I knew we had to take a moment and think about it, sex is biological, gender is a man created social construction. It tends to start at birth when a child is called either a male or female. It happens when we give a child a name according to their gender. For example, a girl would be named Jennifer and a boy would be named Adrian. As growing we are influenced by what’s around us. As children our parents and our community taught us how we are supposed to dress, how we should appear to other people and our actions according to our “genders”. Gender construction is assigning roles, characteristics, jobs, and names to our sexes. We are not born men and women, yet we become

Individuals and society are deeply intertwined in an intimate and reciprocal relationship. Individuals are the imperative building blocks of society and concurrently hinge on society for their own existence. Few can argue against society’s pivotal role in shaping identities and creating norms that heavily influence and dictate how people behave. It goes without being said, one of society’s greatest creations, is gender. Yet many still rigidly perceive gender as a biological construction, or the bodily division between male and female. Connell (2009) proposed that gender is rather a socially constructed concept which is instituted subconsciously and performed on a daily basis. This essay will explicate Connell’s definition of gender through

In discussing whether the distinction between sex and gender can be defined I am going to use the early distinction between the two and how this has been socially constructed to identify if there is a distinction. Additionally, I am going to use a variety of feminist influences since the 1960’s, to draw upon the main issues when defining sex and gender. I will investigate the implications of defining sex and gender by looking at sexism. I hope this will enable me to define a faultless distinction between sex and gender.

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

Three objectives will be tried to achieve in this paper: 1) Explicate the distinction between sex and gender. 2) I will go through the Sally Haslanger’s argument which supports the distinction, and Rachel Williams’ argument which objects the sex and gender distinction. 3) I will examine that the necessity of having the sex and gender distinction in the society. I suggest that the necessity of having the sex and gender distinction is perspective-sensitive, which means that the necessity of having the distinction is different under different perspectives. I will examine the necessity in two perspectives: i) personal, and ii) social. I claim that the people do not necessarily need the S/G (sex and gender) distinction in the personal

Until the 1970s, “sex was known as or related to being a male or either a female. It was also referred as the sex roles, sex differences or sex changer operation. People saw gender as being masculine and feminine in certain cultures, like the French and Spanish. Now people see sex in two ways, either in the biological way or the social factors. Johnson explains the differences between the biological way and the social factors and the meaning of a male and female has changed over time and differ by culture. Female and male roles was established by cultural and biological factors by people around the world. It also has to do with the way people were brought up by parents and society as a whole.

The feminist movement, as well as the anti-feminist reaction, has sparked an incline in the study of gender, sex, sexuality, and the differences between what is considered ‘male’ and/or ‘female’. To define the origin and legitimacy of gender, begin first by understanding ‘biological sex’, the binary (male vs female) in which our society as selected our cultures gender roles. Chromosomes (male: XY, female: XX), genitalia (male: penis, female:

Throughout today 's society, almost every aspect of someone’s actions is based on whether or not he or she fits into the social norms that have been created. It is now clear that males are the dominant figures in our society. Norms in society do not just come randomly to one 's life; they start since a child is born. When a child is born the first question asked by the parents, family, and friends is the gender of the child, whether it is a girl or a boy. In contrast, the terms sex and gender have always been interdependent terms but have distinct meanings. Sex is male and female while gender is masculine and feminine. In essence, sex refers to the biological differences and hormonal profiles. For example females have boobs and males do not. In the other hand, gender describes the characteristics that a society or culture present as masculine or feminine. For example, the color blue is for boys and pink is for girls which not has always been the case. The article from the publication Earnshaw 's Infants ' Department “The generally accepted rule is pink for the boys, and blue for the girls. The reason is that pink, being a more decided and stronger color, is more suitable for the boy, while blue, which is more delicate and dainty, is prettier for the girl”. Jayme Poisson, a journalist, in her article Parents Keep Child 's Gender Secret she describes a family who has decided to raise their child named Storm without revealing their gender, in order for Storm to feel free to

The boundaries of gender are expansive. Many theorists have debated the etiology of gender and the norms within a gender. Recently, given the expansion of the types of genders these theories have been studied more closely. Thus it has been offered that gender is both natural and socialized. There are biological and social factors that play into the identity of a person.

As evident from the generalized patterns found in differences in behaviour and outlook observed between the sexes, it may be tempting, as has been done in the past, to conclude that gender is an unavoidable aspect of human existence as determined purely from one 's genes. Indeed, human physiology is subject to sexual dimorphism; statistically significant differences in brain size and rate of maturation of specific substructures in the brain exist between males and females (Giedd, Castellanos, Rajapakese, Vaituzis, & Rapoport, 1997), yet these physical differences fail to explain how individuals form their concept of their own gender, and why they tend to conform to their perceived gender roles as defined by the society in which they live, when these roles are ever-changing. Thus, it is important to differentiate between the physical and nonphysical traits, and how the labels of femininity and masculinity should not confuse the two aspects. As defined by Unger (1979), “sex” would be used to refer to the biological differences in males and females, while “gender” describes socioculturally determined, nonphysiological traits which are arbitrarily designated as being appropriate for either females or males. With more recent awareness and interest in matters of gender nonconformity and individual gender identity, new research now explains how these concepts of gender are shaped by social influences (Perry

As I mentioned above, the topic I chose to research is gender. Often times people use the terms ‘sex’ and ‘gender’ interchangeably, but they are not the same thing. Sex is biological; either you are a male or a female. It is based on things such as DNA, hormones, genitalia, etc. The term sex is very rigid, whereas the term gender is much more fluid. It could take into account biological factors, but it doesn’t always. Gender refers to the ‘physical, behavioral, and personality traits that a group or culture consider to be normal, natural, right and good for its male and female members (Ferris, The Real World: An Introduction to Sociology, 2014).’ Gender determines how society influences our understanding and perception of differences between being ‘masculine’ or ‘feminine.’ Gender is something that is socially constructed and is learned as we grow.

In order to answer the question above this essay will discuss in depth what exactly sex is and what gender is and the differences between the two terms. The research carried out will display that we live in a patriarchal society without a doubt as we look at how gender links to inequality in society. A patriarchal society can be clearly seen from the gender inequality in the labour force which is paid labour and also in unpaid labour which occurs in the household. Another area the answer will reflect on is how gender inequality links to education which overall links to society. Finally the answer below will show how the media also portrays gender inequality and how it affects the people in society.