Before you begin, please answer this question in as many ways as you can (brainstorm):
1. Besides being different physically, how would your life be different if you were born a different sex?
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Besides social class and race, another area of inequality that sociologists frequently examine is gender. Similar to race, our society often uses the term gender erroneously. Because of that, society makes assumptions about gender and biology that are more a social construct than biology.
Operationalizing terms: What is gender and why is it confusing?
Oftentimes, gender is confused and misunderstood because we are limited by our language. We use the terms "male" and "female" to refer to both sex and gender. Then, to add to the confusion, oftentimes sexuality is genderized. Many people use the term "gay" or other pejoratives to mean that someone or something is not masculine. So all three of these terms are confused with each other. But, sex, sexuality, and gender are different terms that technically refer to different aspects of who we are as individuals.
Oftentimes, gender is confused and misunderstood because we are limited by our language. We use the terms "male" and "female" to refer to both sex and gender. Then, to add to the confusion, oftentimes sexuality is genderized. Many people use the term "gay" or other pejoratives to mean that someone or something is not masculine. So all three of these terms are confused with each other. But, sex, sexuality, and gender are different terms that technically refer to different aspects of who we are as individuals.
Professionals like doctors, psychologists, sociologists, social workers, and others who study people have written and researched about the differences of these terms extensively. Sex is the biology that someone is born with. Most often, a person's sex is assigned based on their reproductive parts. People are also born with an aptitude for a sexuality. As they get older, the sexuality becomes sexual attraction such as heterosexual or homosexual attraction. These are part of our biological makeup, our nature. Most researchers have concluded that these can't be changed. "Gender" however, is not biological. It is a social construction that we learn from an early age and we often take it for granted. Gender is how we think we should act based on our sex and sexuality. In sum:
- Sex is the biology individuals are born with and often assigned at birth.
- Sexuality is the biological aptitude an individual is born with for attraction.
- Gender is how an individual reacts to these two. This is not biological but instead a social construct. Gender can be an inner identity/feeling or an outward expression
2. Do you understand the difference between the terms "sex", "sexuality" and "gender" and why these differences create confusion?
What does it mean that gender is a social construction?
Sex and Sexuality are determined by our nature, but gender is a social construction. Think about how you answered that question at the top of this post. Most of the ways your life would have been different are examples of society treating people differently based on their sex (and sexuality). This constructs a certain way of being. So, for example, if I am a heterosexual male, how should I act? What colors should I like? What clothes should I wear? How should I talk? What sports should I play? Is it okay for me to cry? To be rough? To like violence? To be sensitive? And so on... These are all our gender and they are all learned reactions.
Gender reveal parties are one example of how our language uses male/female to refer to both sex and gender - do these parties really reveal a child's gender? Will the child be masculine/feminine? How do we know?
Because gender is a social construct, it can be examined with a sociological imagination to show that it is different depending on where or when you examine it. Click on the following post and read about how gender and cheerleading has changed:
"The Manly Origins of Cheerleading" from Soc Images shows how cheerleading has changed from being considered very masculine to feminine to something in between.
What does it mean that gender is a social construction?
Sex and Sexuality are determined by our nature, but gender is a social construction. Think about how you answered that question at the top of this post. Most of the ways your life would have been different are examples of society treating people differently based on their sex (and sexuality). This constructs a certain way of being. So, for example, if I am a heterosexual male, how should I act? What colors should I like? What clothes should I wear? How should I talk? What sports should I play? Is it okay for me to cry? To be rough? To like violence? To be sensitive? And so on... These are all our gender and they are all learned reactions.
Gender reveal parties are one example of how our language uses male/female to refer to both sex and gender - do these parties really reveal a child's gender? Will the child be masculine/feminine? How do we know?
"Nature has no edges. It is not binary."
Our culture boxes people into two very narrow, opposite ways of being. It doesn't allow for any expression of sex, sexuality, or gender along the continuum.
However, in actuality, sexual orientation, gender expression, gender identity are all fluid on a continuum:
What is a binary and how does it contribute to the confusion?
Humans tend to be dualistic in their understanding of the world (and thus, their language). So much of our understanding is oversimplified into dualism: light and dark, wet and dry, tall and short, etc... But the reality is that there is so much in between these concepts. The same is true in terms of "gender". Our culture pushes people to the edges of the continuum below. This creates a duality for sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression. This duality is often referred to as a "gender" binary.
Humans tend to be dualistic in their understanding of the world (and thus, their language). So much of our understanding is oversimplified into dualism: light and dark, wet and dry, tall and short, etc... But the reality is that there is so much in between these concepts. The same is true in terms of "gender". Our culture pushes people to the edges of the continuum below. This creates a duality for sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression. This duality is often referred to as a "gender" binary.
A socially constructed binary
However, in actuality, sexual orientation, gender expression, gender identity are all fluid on a continuum:
Evidence for the continuum
What is the evidence that gender changes over time?- Sex - Scientific American explains the continuum here. And they provide a useful graphic here or here.
- Sex - One example of the spectrum of sex is the IAAF's 2018 proposal of new rules that would exclude some female runners from competing in women's Olympic events. Guardian article here.
- Gender - The Gender Spectrum website also provides resources and an explanation.
- Here is a terrific program about gender from National Geographic called The Gender Revolution. It has an in-depth explanation of transgender as well as some of the latest science about sex and gender.
- Here is a Guardian article about shattering the myth of the gendered brain.
- For more info, this is a great blog from Dr. Zevallos, an Australian sociologist from a Latin-Australian background.
- Some cultures have acknowledged a non-binary gender for centuries such as India's Hijra and two-spirit people from American Indians.
- The-Be-you-tiful-intiative started by a fellow SHS student.
- It's pronounced metrosexual, a free online resource for learning & teaching about gender, sexuality, & social justice created by Sam Killermann.
- From the BBC, this article details the changes in pitch for women's voices and the dynamic effects of nature and nurture on each other.
Because gender is a social construct, it can be examined with a sociological imagination to show that it is different depending on where or when you examine it. Click on the following post and read about how gender and cheerleading has changed:
"The Manly Origins of Cheerleading" from Soc Images shows how cheerleading has changed from being considered very masculine to feminine to something in between.
“It’s really a story of what happened to neutral clothing,” says Paoletti, who has explored the meaning of children’s clothing for 30 years. For centuries, she says, children wore dainty white dresses up to age 6. “What was once a matter of practicality—you dress your baby in white dresses and diapers; white cotton can be bleached—became a matter of ‘Oh my God, if I dress my baby in the wrong thing, they’ll grow up perverted,’ ” Paoletti says.The march toward gender-specific clothes was neither linear nor rapid. Pink and blue arrived, along with other pastels, as colors for babies in the mid-19th century, yet the two colors were not promoted as gender signifiers until just before World War I—and even then, it took time for popular culture to sort things out. For example, a June 1918 article from the trade publication Earnshaw’s Infants’ Department said, “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.”
A third example of the changing social construct is heels for men.
4. How has our notion of gender changed over time? Use your sociological imagination to explain how one of the examples above is evidence for gender being a social construction.
For more information:
Scene On Radio did an excellent 10-part series podcast is about gender from the
Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University distributed by PRX. The series attempts to answer: What’s up with this male-dominated world? How did we get sexism, patriarchy, misogyny in the first place? How can we get better at seeing it, and what can we do about it? Co-hosts John Biewen and Celeste Headlee explore those questions and more. This is an excellent podcast about the social construction of gender:
4. How has our notion of gender changed over time? Use your sociological imagination to explain how one of the examples above is evidence for gender being a social construction.
For more information:
Scene On Radio did an excellent 10-part series podcast is about gender from the
Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University distributed by PRX. The series attempts to answer: What’s up with this male-dominated world? How did we get sexism, patriarchy, misogyny in the first place? How can we get better at seeing it, and what can we do about it? Co-hosts John Biewen and Celeste Headlee explore those questions and more. This is an excellent podcast about the social construction of gender:
This 2018 episode of Hidden Brain explains how the differences between men and women are created by society.
For more info. see Ferris and Stein pgs 243-247
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