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My English Teacher Would like me to talk about Sex vs Gender

Discussion in 'Gender Identity and Expression' started by Techno Kid, May 27, 2013.

  1. Techno Kid

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    Today in class we were talking about pronoun disagreement during English and my teacher was putting the different Gender pronouns on the board "he, him, she, her". And it bothered me a little bit because it is my understanding that mixing up the terms "Gender" and "sex" could cause offence to a person under the Transgender Umbrella. So at the end of the class I talked to her about this and printed out a wiki article on the topic. She was very pleased with me for this (was a hippie in the 60s, and is still in a way hehe) and would like me to talk about it in class tomorrow.

    As I'm not Trans I just was wondering what you thought of the idea and how you think I should go about it (I'm a little afraid to be so politcal in class, but she said that she would help me if I got stuck).

    Thanks for the help beautiful people!!! (!)
     
  2. Techno Kid

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    Sorry if this is the wrong category to put this in, but could not think of anywhere else to put it.
     
  3. drwinchester

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  4. PurpleRain

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    It's simple: Sex is biology, and Gender is social.

    Sex is what you are biologically based on your genitalia so that's really simple to explain.

    Gender is a social construct based on stereotypical behavioural patterns of males and females, that's why there's something called the Gender Binary (though gender really is NOT binary at all). We think of gender in terms of girls play with dolls and boys play with trucks, and I know that isn't always the case, but typically that's what people know and believe. Because the different genders seem to align so well with a specific sex most of the time, gender and sex have become intermingled. Therefore, people think if you have a vagina you play with dolls and if you have a penis you play with trucks.

    That's the difference between Sex and Gender. Biology and abstract thought. Now I'm not saying that trans* people all wanted to play with the opposite sex's toys or anything like that, but that example is a good way to show the difference between sex and gender. If you're talking about being transgender then it's a lot more complicated. It has to do with feeling different and not feeling like your in the right body. It's more personal, but the gender binary does cause a lot of problems for trans* people making us feel like outsiders. If you need anymore information on actually being transgender you can contact me and I'll do my best to help. :grin:
     
  5. Techno Kid

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    littlememphis, this looks like a very neat idea! : D
    ...unfortunately I don't think I'll have that kind of time. :frowning2:
    Just enough time for a brief explanatory speech.

    ---------- Post added 27th May 2013 at 07:29 PM ----------

    Hey PurpleRain! Love the username by the way, super cute ^ ^
    I know every Trans person is different, but I was hoping the idea was not stupid or offensive (as a cisgender male this would be problematic for me). hehe
    From the comments so far this seems to not be the case. :slight_smile: I do wish I had more time to use littlememphis' idea though.
     
  6. Salazar

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    I'm sure that gender and sex are exactly the same thing. Anyone care to enlighten me?
     
  7. Techno Kid

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    Hi Salazar, as PurpleRain said above; sex is what you are biologically based on your genitalia and gender is a social construct based on stereotypical behavioural patterns of males and females.
     
  8. confuzzled82

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    Sex is what's between your legs. Gender is between your ears. In most people, they line up. Although most people think there are only two sexes and genders, but really they are wide spectrums, with two primary clusters. As far as sex, it's more of a linear spectrum, with male and female being near the ends. This is simplifying it some, but for gender, it's more of a 2 dimentional spectrum, with one axis being masculine, the other feminine. The clusters tend to be closer to high spots on one axis and low on the other. Generally, most males will fit in the cluster that is high on the masculine, low on the feminine, females just the opposite. There are other genders though. Generally, someone who is low on both axes would reffer to themself as agender, someone who's gender hugs the opposite axis from the one expected for their sex is transgender, and high on both axes could be bigender. Note that these are generalities, and not all inclusive. There are also people like myself who, while our body pretty solidly fits the definition of male or female, flow around the gender spectrum (thus genderfluid)
     
  9. Spurned

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    Taught in Psychology the exact same as confuzzled and PurpleRain, sex is genitalia and gender is what's between your ears. Then PurpleRain with the stereotypical "girls play with dolls, boys play with trucks", they're exactly right!
     
  10. Ettina

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    I don't agree with this. It seems to me that you're conflating two different things - gender identity and gender roles.

    Gender identity is a bit hard to explain, especially to cis people, but it's basically the feeling you have inside about what gender you are. Part of it seems to be a mental map of your body, including your sex-specific characteristics (this is what causes body dysphoria in many trans people). And another part of it seems to be based on whether you identify yourself as part of the social categories of 'male' and 'female'.

    In contrast, gender roles refer to the idea that certain genders are supposed to behave in certain ways - ideas that individual members of that gender may or may not obey. For example, you can be a cis female trucker who never wears a dress and had no interest in dolls as a girl. Someone like that feels that the category of 'female' includes herself, but does not feel a desire to act in accordance with the stereotypes of that category.
     
  11. Just Jess

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    It's definitely something we're learning more about every day.

    You have had some awesome answers already, but this is something I'm finding out I really like to talk about, so here's me chiming in.

    There are some people that give us an opportunity to figure out exactly what the differences are. Some people, for instance, are born with XY chromosomes, but their bodies never accept a chemical called testosterone, so they have female sex organs (but no ovaries and they can't yet get pregnant). Many people in this position would tell you that they are girls.

    Other people have intersex conditions that doctors try to "fix". They grow up with female sex organs, and live as girls, but some of them will tell you that they are boys, or sometimes something that isn't a boy or a girl. There are also people born male that have had their sex organs destroyed in accidents at birth. And even though the look like girls and grow up as girls, a lot of them know they are really boys without ever having been told.

    And still some other people are born with XXY chromosomes. A famous example of someone like this who had male sex organs and grew up in a male role before transitioning to female was Chloe Prince.

    So in all of these cases, you have three things that ended up not matching up just right: what sex organs a person has, what sex a person lives their life as, and what sex a person feels they are inside. The first two can be changed, but the third one can't. And it shouldn't be changed; it's part of who you are! If you were in a cartoon and you switched bodies with people, your gender would come with you. Even if you were in a boy's body, if you started out a girl, you would still be a girl. With some people their gender identity changes on its own sometimes, just like with some people their orientation changes sometimes. But it's still a natural change, and forcing it is still wrong and usually impossible anyway.

    Some people change the first two things to feel more comfortable with the third thing being mismatched. I am one of those people. I have felt like a girl since I was very young, and once upon a time my expression and identity were lined up for me. Then there were consequences to my living like a girl and I started trying to be a boy all the time. I tried to live as one and succeeded, only dressing up in private, but it turned out to be a bad idea in my case. The effects that my male sex organs have had on my body are also very depressing and weird, and I don't feel like my brain is set up to handle the chemicals my body is giving it a lot of the time. This feeling is every day, no matter how much I try to ignore it or live as a man. I tried for years. It has also made it harder for me to have a normal relationship with a partner.

    Other people just feel a need to change the gender they live as. Or to put this another way, just because you know you are a boy, doesn't mean that living as one is right for you. It's really hard for these people, because they face a lot of stigma when they dress and act like the other gender. The social part of being a boy or a girl is kind of like a tightrope, and it's very easy to fall off. Worse, even if you stay on the rope, you might not be happy with where you end up. Many straight men find out they need a little more freedom in how they express themselves, especially when they are making love.

    People like me - my sex organs and role are wrong for me - have a lot in common with the people we were just talking about - their role is wrong at least some of the time - and face a lot of the same problems. We may be "crossdressing" for different reasons but it's just as hard no matter what your reasons are. There are also some people that think it shouldn't be hard, or feel more comfortable blurring the lines a little. And we all make up the TG community.

    But that just covers the second and third thing. What about sex organs.

    I can only say why I feel like mine are wrong. First, mine make a chemical called "testosterone". It makes my body look more and more male every day. Second, I do plan on being a girl all the time some day, and having boy sex organs would make things like using the bathroom and swimming harder. And last, kind of personal, but the way my body naturally wants to make love is something that's very difficult to do with boy sex organs. Usually I have to make do with trying to make my partner happy.

    So why is it so hard to change sex organs? The big reason this is so controversial is because some people a long time ago decided to do this. They didn't have as much of a mismatch between what they have and who they are as they thought they did. What happened was, they ended up with a mismatch after the surgery. It's ironic and a little sad. They went in for surgery designed to cure being trans, and instead it turned them trans.

    Now you may be thinking "okay just change back". And I am someone that thinks changing back or "detransition" should be easier for people. But there are two problems here. The first is that we are talking about painful surgery, and all surgery has risks and is expensive. And the second is that the change takes years of commitment both ways.

    So hopefully that helped clear stuff up a little and wasn't too boring :slight_smile:
     
  12. Techno Kid

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    Hi cassie29, the class discussion was today and it went really well! thanks for taking the time to write all this down, I hope it can help to enlighten some people!! : D
    I also would like to thank you for sharing your personal story with me. :slight_smile:
    and it was not boring at all! ^ ^