sex and gender

Traditional understanding of the relationship between sex and gender is that gendered constructs, relationships and phenomena could be explained by biological, ‘sex’ reasons - “Things are the way they are by virtue of the fact that men are men and women are women - a division perceived to be natural and rooted in biology, producing in turn profound psychological, behavioural and social consequences” - The way society is structured along the lines of gender is therefore in accordance with biology (sex) - Those who advocate biological essentialism and determinism put forward the argument that human behaviour (aka gender, masculine and feminine behaviour) lies in our cells, our biology - Social and political arrangements naturally flow from biological differences - Geddes and Thompson - Argued that social, psychological and behavioural traits were caused by metabolic states. Women, being ‘anabolic’, meant that they conserved energy, making them passive and uninterested in politics. Men, being ‘katabolic’ meant that they were more active and thus more interested in socio-political issues, thereby explaining the reasons for women playing a minimised role in politics - “What was decided among the prehistoric Protozoa cannot be annulled by Act of Parliament” - Women’s efforts to enter the public sphere were therefore misguided and unfounded as it violated “laws of nature” - Biological, sex facts explaining differences in behaviour as well as socio-political arrangements, a key element of gender - Clarke - Women should be exempted from higher education because of the tremendous demands placed on them to reproduce - If they went to college, they would not be able to reproduce - More contemporary examples - 1970s —> as women will be hormonally unable on a monthly basis, they are not fit for jobs such as that of airline pilots as they would not be able to perform the job properly due to their sexed characteristics - “Societal arrangements between women and men (gender inequality) seem to stem directly and inevitably from the differences between us. Biological arguments reassure us that what is is what should be, that the social is natural. Finally, such reassurances tell us that these existing inequalities are not our fault, that no one is to blame.” (Kimmel)

eminists have argued for a distinction between sex and gender to counter biological determinism - Saw that behavioural and psychological differences had social (gender) rather than biological (sex) causes - By establishing a disconnect between sex and gender, feminists were able to argue for social change since these inequalities would have lost its biological, scientific grounding, establishing them as social constructs that can be changed - Gayle Rubin - Gender as the “socially imposed division of the sexes” - Although biological, sex differences are fixed, gender differences are the oppressive results of social interventions that dictate how women and men behave - Simone du Beauvoir - One is not born, but rather becomes a women - “social discrimination produces in women moral and intellectual effects so profound that they appear to be caused by nature” - Margaret Mead - Conducted a cross-cultural study on gender in three very different societies in Papua New Guinea - Found significant variations in the definitions of masculinity and femininity (if sex naturally implied gender roles and notions as posited by biological determinists, then this would not be possible since a biological female living in London would have the same sexual anatomy as a biological female living in one of these societies in Papua New Guinea, yet social norms and expectations differ —> seems to be a disconnect between sex and gender) - In two of the cultures, there were remarkable similarities between women and men, both took on the role of homemaking, appeared gentle, passive (‘feminine’ attitudes) - In one of the cultures, gender roles were switched with biological males taking on more feminine roles and biological females taking on more masculine roles - Biological facts and characteristics are seen to be neutral, do not entail an answer to the normative questions that surrounds understandings of gender