Artifact 1: What is Sex and Gender
When many people are asked to distinguish the difference between sex and gender there is probably going to be a lot of confusion as to whether or not there is even a difference between the two. Sex is often thought of as gender. If you are born with a penis than your gender is male. If you have a vagina it is female: simple. However, a simple look at the world around us indicates that this is not always the case.
The human definition of sex is indeed generally determined scientifically through the appearance of the genitalia, a fact that isn’t always as clear as people think. My people think that the universe is limited to XY and XY chromosomes that distinguish sex, however that is not always the case. Regardless, sex is generally determined by the appearance of ones genitalia and whether it looks more like a penis or a vagina. Gender is a much more difficult concept because gender is a construction of a lot of different factors. Your sex, how you feel you want to be, how you see yourself, how your culture sees you, all play into the complex concept of gender and gender roles. One can be born male and see himself as female, meaning his sex is male but gender female. This can cause many problems for both the individual and society.
Human society has always placed a great emphasis on sex and gender roles. A man is thought of typically in many cultures as the masculine hunter. He should do manly things, talk manly, smell manly, kill, hunt. Females are thought of by many to be the nurtures, soft, helpless, in need of the strong male provider. The different sexs are taught to dress and act certain ways. There is a big collision between social norms and individuality. A female who wears male clothes and identifies as female is often seen as male by people who do not know her, which indicates the emphasis that is placed on needing to distinguish sex through gender norms. However, gender is not something that is generally always clear, such as sex, but transcends more than just anatomy. Gender resides within the human mind and is often a slave to the given sex of the person. What should matter is gender, not sex.
