I am confused by this notion of gender as a “social construct”. So I googled and the AI device came up with this:
“Calling gender a social construct means that the roles, behaviors, and attributes associated with being a man, woman, or other gender are created, defined, and enforced by society rather than being fixed by biological,, genetic, or physiological laws. It implies that gendered expectations are socially, culturally, and historically specific, meaning they change over time and vary between cultures.”
This strikes me as a banality. Surely by now we have long abandoned the notion of how men are supposed to behave and ditto the women? Ironically, when you abandon the link of physical/biological sex with gender then you are reduced to going back to those old obsolete ideas.
We are also drifting close to the notion of “gender identity” which I reject as meaningless. The bottom line is that if gender isn’t connected to (and in fact means the same thing as) physical/biological sex then I don’t know what gender is supposed to mean.
To say that “the roles, behaviors, and attributes associated with being a man, woman, or other gender are created, defined, and enforced by society rather than being fixed by biological,, genetic, or physiological laws” is true… apart from that “other gender” thing. I know of no other gender unless it’s some “in-between” gender.
Which takes us back to that biological sex matter. That’s what gender is.
I seem to have written a long essay here, I suppose to work this problem out.
I do not want to derail the discussion of your article which only briefly touched on Gender. It seems that this topic always takes over. A bit of a pedant alert!
I think each individual, whatever their sex, should be free to behave as they feel is natural to them.
Some behaviours will be feminine and some masculine and each individual has an individual spectrum of masculine and feminine attributes which may influence the way they express themselves socially.
I take gender to be a concept, a mental distinction between maleness and femaleness.
I think the term "gender identity" has been created to allow for those people who identify preferentially with the opposite sex to their biological sex. This means they wish to live socially in a chosen gender role, not their biological sex role - to be of another "sort," (the original meaning of gender - from Latin Genus - a type, kind, category, or sort.)
So "gender identity" cannot mean biological sex, as it specifically refers to a socially chosen role. A woman may chose a male gender identity. You cannot change sex, as your chromosomes will always be XX or XY, you can only change your gender identity.
I suppose this is why the term "gender identity" was created and used, as sex identity would be a misnomer here, sex being a biological category and permanent.
I think the older terms - masculine and feminine - are better used as descriptors of social behaviours or psychological attributes, though they do not need to be aligned with males or females, some men can have very feminine characteristics.
These behaviours are not entirely socially or culturally constructed as animals also exhibit masculine and feminine attributes and responses, but cannot have a psychological concept of gender. They do however possess biological sex.
Everyone that owns an animal is aware that the animal's sex influences its behaviour, drives, affection, and aggression. Sex and sexually driven behaviours are not "fluid" or a "social construct" as some extremists claim, as animals' sexual behaviours are biologically fixed and they have no trouble telling each other apart - without any concept of gender, relying solely on sex.
Animals are normally very definitely male or female and some species exhibit such strong male aggression they need to be physically neutered to render them tractable.
Remember that humans are animals too.
The original meaning of gender referred to nouns.
The word "gender" has its roots in the Latin term "genus," which translates to "kind" or "sort." This etymology reflects the original meaning of gender as a classification or category
Early Usage: Initially, "gender" referred to a kind or sort of things, not specifically related to biological sex.
Grammatical Context: By the late 14th century, the term began to be associated with grammatical categories, distinguishing between masculine, feminine, and neuter forms in language.
In contemporary usage, "gender" encompasses a range of social, psychological, and cultural aspects related to being male, female, or identifying outside the binary framework. This shift reflects broader societal changes and the recognition of gender as a complex construct influenced by various factors beyond biological sex.
If anyone is wondering why I deleted a comment there, it's because I linked to my transgender article forgetting the link was already in the article above anyway.
Please do not write "physical gender." The term is biological sex.
"Gender" ought not to mean anything other than a social construct.
Do not be squeamish about writing "sex" when that term is needed.
Differentiating between sex and gender solves the problem.
I am confused by this notion of gender as a “social construct”. So I googled and the AI device came up with this:
“Calling gender a social construct means that the roles, behaviors, and attributes associated with being a man, woman, or other gender are created, defined, and enforced by society rather than being fixed by biological,, genetic, or physiological laws. It implies that gendered expectations are socially, culturally, and historically specific, meaning they change over time and vary between cultures.”
This strikes me as a banality. Surely by now we have long abandoned the notion of how men are supposed to behave and ditto the women? Ironically, when you abandon the link of physical/biological sex with gender then you are reduced to going back to those old obsolete ideas.
We are also drifting close to the notion of “gender identity” which I reject as meaningless. The bottom line is that if gender isn’t connected to (and in fact means the same thing as) physical/biological sex then I don’t know what gender is supposed to mean.
To clarify:
To say that “the roles, behaviors, and attributes associated with being a man, woman, or other gender are created, defined, and enforced by society rather than being fixed by biological,, genetic, or physiological laws” is true… apart from that “other gender” thing. I know of no other gender unless it’s some “in-between” gender.
Which takes us back to that biological sex matter. That’s what gender is.
I seem to have written a long essay here, I suppose to work this problem out.
I do not want to derail the discussion of your article which only briefly touched on Gender. It seems that this topic always takes over. A bit of a pedant alert!
I think each individual, whatever their sex, should be free to behave as they feel is natural to them.
Some behaviours will be feminine and some masculine and each individual has an individual spectrum of masculine and feminine attributes which may influence the way they express themselves socially.
I take gender to be a concept, a mental distinction between maleness and femaleness.
I think the term "gender identity" has been created to allow for those people who identify preferentially with the opposite sex to their biological sex. This means they wish to live socially in a chosen gender role, not their biological sex role - to be of another "sort," (the original meaning of gender - from Latin Genus - a type, kind, category, or sort.)
So "gender identity" cannot mean biological sex, as it specifically refers to a socially chosen role. A woman may chose a male gender identity. You cannot change sex, as your chromosomes will always be XX or XY, you can only change your gender identity.
I suppose this is why the term "gender identity" was created and used, as sex identity would be a misnomer here, sex being a biological category and permanent.
I think the older terms - masculine and feminine - are better used as descriptors of social behaviours or psychological attributes, though they do not need to be aligned with males or females, some men can have very feminine characteristics.
These behaviours are not entirely socially or culturally constructed as animals also exhibit masculine and feminine attributes and responses, but cannot have a psychological concept of gender. They do however possess biological sex.
Everyone that owns an animal is aware that the animal's sex influences its behaviour, drives, affection, and aggression. Sex and sexually driven behaviours are not "fluid" or a "social construct" as some extremists claim, as animals' sexual behaviours are biologically fixed and they have no trouble telling each other apart - without any concept of gender, relying solely on sex.
Animals are normally very definitely male or female and some species exhibit such strong male aggression they need to be physically neutered to render them tractable.
Remember that humans are animals too.
The original meaning of gender referred to nouns.
The word "gender" has its roots in the Latin term "genus," which translates to "kind" or "sort." This etymology reflects the original meaning of gender as a classification or category
Early Usage: Initially, "gender" referred to a kind or sort of things, not specifically related to biological sex.
Grammatical Context: By the late 14th century, the term began to be associated with grammatical categories, distinguishing between masculine, feminine, and neuter forms in language.
In contemporary usage, "gender" encompasses a range of social, psychological, and cultural aspects related to being male, female, or identifying outside the binary framework. This shift reflects broader societal changes and the recognition of gender as a complex construct influenced by various factors beyond biological sex.
If anyone is wondering why I deleted a comment there, it's because I linked to my transgender article forgetting the link was already in the article above anyway.