Sex and gender is an area of great confusion
and disagreement.
But if we decide to use our concepts consistently,
at least we can separate the confusions from the
disagreements.
1. One’s biological sex used to be a
straight-forward matter:
Each human being was either a female or a male.
But science has now discovered some individuals
who cannot clearly be described as either female or male.
And when one’s biological sex is not carefully
distinguished
from such things as sex-roles and gender-personalities
(which are clearly social in origin),
some thinkers assume that sex itself is a cultural
construct.
2. Male/Female Self-Designation is our
sex as we understand it:
I am a boy/girl. I am a man/woman. I am
male/female.
Usually male/female self-concepts are quite obvious,
except when people believe they are the other sex from their
bodies.
Such ‘transsexualism’ needs to be explored more
fully.
3. Sex-roles are the behavioral patterns
expected of us because we are either women or men.
Each culture has strong sex-based expectations for its members.
But in advanced societies, the most rigid sex-roles are now
softening.
The expression “sex-roles” used to cover the next two phenomena,
gender-personalities and sexual orientation,
but the following distinctions will clarify our thinking.
4. Gender-personalities are the
personal, emotional responses
that are socialized into us beginning in our first year of
life.
If we were girls, our parents taught us how to be
‘feminine’.
If we were boys, our parents taught us how to be
‘masculine’.
But within the two gender-types, there are thousands of
variations,
resulting in thousands of possible gender-patterns.
5. Sexual orientation refers to the sex
of one’s desired sex-partner
as discovered in one’s imprinted sexual fantasies.
Our ‘sex-scripts’ were imprinted during our first two decades of
life.
And once these sexual scenarios have been put into our heads,
there is probably no way to change them.
6. Cross-dressing means wearing the
clothes of the other sex:
Men dress like women; women dress like men.
Most of us dress in the clothes appropriate for our
sexes.
But there are a few people who dress and behave like the other
sex.
There are several possible reasons for such
‘transvestism’.
INTRODUCTION for VARIATIONS OF SEX &
GENDER
by James
Park
3
Created
1-11-2009; Revised