[lit-ideas] Re: Sex or gender?
- From: Judy Evans <judithevans1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 11 Nov 2005 22:55:14 +0000
I've no great problem with this -- I simply want to keep sex as a biological
designation and gender as something else. I prefer to think of gender
as a social construct, admittedly.
I suspect any classification system will encounter problems of, well,
classification. My beef's with the endless questionnaire
GENDER: MALE or FEMALE
also with the way even some academics use "gender" as a substitute for
"sex". There was once some kind of reason given for that (not one I
accepted) but now I think people have just stopped thinking
(obviously I exempt you from stopping thinking and also from not being
a person!)
Judy
Friday, November 11, 2005, 10:19:08 PM, John Wager wrote:
>>
JW> I usually tell my students that there are four variables:
JW> 1. One's biological sex, through chromosomes and/or genitals
JW> 2. One's gender, that is, one's psychological identification as a member
JW> of one sex or the other. One can biologically be a male and still
JW> experience one's self as a female. I think this may be why we ask about
JW> "gender." Do you really want to know about a person's chromosomes and
JW> genitals, or their psychological identification of themselves?
JW> 3. One's degree of fitting the social expectations for gender and sex,
JW> that is, the degree to which one's mannerisms, behavior, dress, etc. is
JW> "masculine" or "feminine." These are very much social constructs, and
JW> may or may not correspond with one's sex and gender identification.
JW> 4. One's sexual orientation, that is, to whom one is typically attracted.
JW> Here's where it sometimes gets tricky. Suppose someone is biologically
JW> a male, yet experiences themself as a female. And then suppose they are
JW> attracted to men. Are they heterosexual women, or homosexual men? Or
JW> suppose that one is biologically male, but experiences themself as a
JW> female, and is then attracted to women. Is that "man" a lesbian, or is
JW> that "man" a heterosexual male?
--
Judy Evans, Cardiff, UK
mailto:judithevans1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
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