• Sex and Gender: what’s the difference? Sex • Sex refers to the anatomical and physiological characteristics of maleness or femaleness.
• Sex is determined by a combination of
genetics and the presence or absence of hormones testosterone and estrogen. Gender • Gender can be divided into a number of different components relating to ideas of masculinity and femininity: gender identity, gender presentation and gender role. Gender Identity • Gender Identity: the sense of ourselves as men, women or other gendered beings. Gender Presentation • Gender Presentation: The behaviors associated with masculinity and femininity: speech, dress, movement… etc. Gender Roles • Gender Roles: the social roles expected of men and women in a particular society. Gender: Biology and Culture • Gender is determined by a large variety of factors, both biological and cultural.
• Gender socialization: the process of
learning and internalizing the norms of our gender. Transgender • Transgender: is a broad term used to describe individuals that identify with a gender that is NOT associated with their assigned birth sex…
• i.e. Males that identify as women and
females that identify as men. Third Genders • Some societies recognize there being more than two gender categories… something other than “man” and “woman”. These Third gendered people have different roles in the societies they occupy. Sexuality • Sexuality can be broadly defined as how people experience and express themselves as sexual beings.
• Sexual orientation refers to established
patterns of sexual attraction, to the same, opposite or both sexes. Sexuality • Thinking about sexuality in the form of sexual orientation: (i.e. heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual) is fairly recent concept…
• Karl-Maria Kerthbeny is responsible for
coining these terms in the late 19th century. Heteronormativity • Normative is a term used to describe behaviors and actions considered to fit the “norm.”
• Heteronormativity is the idea that being
heterosexual is natural and normal…and that other sexualities are Abnormal and Unnatural. Heteronormativity • Heteronormativity, then is something found in SOME, but not all societies.
• For example, for men in Ancient Athenian
society, it was considered normal for men to be attracted to teenaged males as well as women. This was a society that would not be described as heteronormative. Sex, Gender, Sexuality • Just like the terms “race”, “ethnicity” and “nationality” refer to different (though related concepts, sex, gender and sexuality are three different things.