When you meet somebody, what is the first thing we see? Is it their hair color, skin color, clothes, or perhaps shoes? Maybe it’s something that is so ingrained into our system that we don’t even recognize that that particular aspect is the first thing we see. Upon first meeting someone, we initially base how we are going to interact with them by looking at whether or not they are a boy or a girl. Consequently, this interaction is also based on whether or not we identify with the same gender as the person we are communicating with. Upon first interaction, the dynamic between two individuals is largely determined by the gender of each individual.
For both males and females to be affected by gender and for it to shape their interactions, there has to be an agreed perception of what gender is and what it entails. Most people would have the same answer if asked the following questions: What is your gender? What is your sex? The concepts of sex and gender are synonymous to most people. This is a common misconception that is being brought to light as the transgender and transsexual community are speaking up. The alignment of one’s sex and one’s gender is not necessary, nor is it guaranteed. Further understanding and exploration of what the concepts of sex and gender really are is crucial in creating a more progressive and tolerant society.
To start, sex is based on anatomy, determined by the genitalia that one possess. Simply put, a male is defined to be a person with a penis, and a female is defined to be a person with a vagina. This is not the same thing as labeling a person to be a “boy” or a “girl” – those terms define gender, not sex. Gender is a social construct, that has attached itself to sex. The social labeling of things as ‘masculine’ or ‘feminine’ corresponds with gender, not with sex. The attachment of certain character traits to a certain set of genitalia intermingles the concepts of sex and gender, presenting them as a unanimous force, when in reality they are not necessarily correlated. This forms stereotypes and gender roles, pigeon holing individuals into acting in certain ways in order to fit a standard.
Many are becoming more and more aware of the discrepancy between sex and gender, voicing their opinions on the creation of gender and its ties to sex. Students at NYU were questioned about their understanding of sex and gender, and their opinions on the construct of gender and here is what they anonymously shared with us:
“Gender is the performative characteristics that have been assigned through socially constructed norms over time to respective male/female categories. It is reinforced through culture and learned.”
“Gender is a social construct which is supposed to define the way in which different sexes interact with each other.”
“Though the exploration of gender identity is very important, the construction of gender can be really dangerous because it forces people into the gender binary of masculine/feminine and can be really damaging to people on both sides of the binary. Hyper-masculinity forces men to become really desensitized and distance themselves from their emotions and women can be easily discouraged from certain activities because they aren’t feminine enough.”
What do you think about sex and gender? How important is gender as an identity? Or is it the construct of gender detrimental because of its close association to sex?
Tell us what you think!