Sex and Gender
Learning Outcomes
- Define and differentiate between sex and gender
- Discuss what is meant by gender identity; differentiate between cisgender, transgender, binary, and non-binary gender identities
Sociologists and most other social scientists view sex and gender as conceptually distinct. Sex refers to physical or physiological differences between males and females, including both primary sex characteristics (organs, chromosomes, and hormones) and secondary characteristics such as height and muscularity. Gender is a person’s deeply held internal perception of their behavior and attitudes as related to social expectations and accompanying physiological aspects of sex. A person’s sex, as determined by his or her biology, does not always correspond with his or her gender. Therefore, the terms sex and gender are not interchangeable.
Sex
A baby boy who is born with male genitalia will be identified as male. Males have a penis, testes, and XY chromosomes. During puberty, most males will experience changes in testicle, scrotum, and penis size and color, as well as voice dropping, and underarm, leg, and facial hair growth. During puberty, most females will menstruate, develop breasts that can lactate, and grow vaginal, underarm, and leg hair. Both sexes might experience increased sweating, acne, and mood changes, among other biological changes, during puberty.
Males typically have XY sex chromosomes, and females XX. These chromosomes trigger the development of the sex steroids, of which testosterone is found in higher levels in males and estradiol in higher levels in females. As you read in the opening example about Caster Semenya, some females have naturally occurring high levels of testosterone, which becomes an issue for elite athletes when milliseconds matter because increased testosterone levels can be attributed to performance boosts of 10 to 13 percent.[1]
It can also be referred to as Differences of Sexual Development (DSD). Intersex or DSD individuals were once called hermaphrodites, a term that is no longer used. According to the Human Rights Watch, approximately 1.7 percent of babies are born with chromosomes, gonads, internal or external sex organs that are atypical. Some of these are apparent at birth and others do not show themselves until puberty, and irreversible surgeries can cause infertility, pain, loss of sensation, and, more importantly, can take away an individual’s choice when they are performed on children.[2]
Link to Learning
Read and watch this NBC story about Ori, an intersex child, and how they (the neutral pronoun for Ori) feel about cosmetic surgery.
Gender
Gender is deeply cultural. Like race, it is a social construction with real consequences, particularly for those who do not conform to gender binaries. In order to describe gender as a concept, we need to expand the language we use to describe gender beyond “masculine” or “feminine.” Gender identity, or the way that one thinks about gender and self-iden