Sexes: Difference between revisions
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The distinction between sex and gender differentiates a person's biological sex (the anatomy of an individual's reproductive system, and secondary sex characteristics) from that person's gender, which can refer to either social roles based on the sex of the person (gender role) or personal identification of one's own gender based on an internal awareness (gender identity).<ref name="Virginia">Prince, Virginia. 2005. "Sex vs. Gender." ''International Journal of Transgenderism''. 8(4).</ref><ref name="Carlson">Neil R., Carlson. Psychology: The science of behavior. Fourth Canadian edition. isbn 978-1-57344-199-5. Pearson, 2010. P. 140–141</ref> In this model, the idea of a "biological gender" is an oxymoron: the biological aspects are not gender-related, and the gender-related aspects are not biological. In some circumstances, an individual's assigned sex and gender do not align, and the person may be [[transgender]].<ref name="Virginia"/> In other cases, an individual may have biological sex characteristics that complicate sex assignment, and the person may be intersex. | The distinction between sex and gender differentiates a person's biological sex (the anatomy of an individual's reproductive system, and secondary sex characteristics) from that person's gender, which can refer to either social roles based on the sex of the person (gender role) or personal identification of one's own gender based on an internal awareness (gender identity).<ref name="Virginia">Prince, Virginia. 2005. "Sex vs. Gender." ''International Journal of Transgenderism''. 8(4).</ref><ref name="Carlson">Neil R., Carlson. Psychology: The science of behavior. Fourth Canadian edition. isbn 978-1-57344-199-5. Pearson, 2010. P. 140–141</ref> In this model, the idea of a "biological gender" is an oxymoron: the biological aspects are not gender-related, and the gender-related aspects are not biological. In some circumstances, an individual's assigned sex and gender do not align, and the person may be [[transgender]].<ref name="Virginia"/> In other cases, an individual may have biological sex characteristics that complicate sex assignment, and the person may be intersex. | ||
The sex and gender distinction is not universal. In ordinary English, ''sex'' and ''gender'' are often used interchangeably.<ref name=udry>doi=10.2307/2061790 |first1=J. Richard |last1=Udry |date=November 1994 |title=The Nature of Gender |journal=Demography |volume=31 |issue=4 |pages=561–573 |pmid=7890091 |url=https://www.unc.edu/courses/2006fall/econ/586/001/Readings/Udry_Nature_Gender.pdf |jstor=2061790 |deadurl=no |archiveurl=http://archive.wikiwix.com/cache/20161211012757/https://www.unc.edu/courses/2006fall/econ/586/001/Readings/Udry_Nature_Gender.pdf |archivedate=2016-12-11 |df= }}</ref><ref name="haig">first1=David |last1=Haig |authorlink1=David Haig (biologist) |date=April 2004 |title=The Inexorable Rise of Gender and the Decline of Sex: Social Change in Academic Titles, 1945–2001 |journal=Archives of Sexual Behavior |volume=33 |issue=2 |pages=87–96 |pmid=15146141 |doi=10.1023/B:ASEB.0000014323.56281.0d |url=http://www.oeb.harvard.edu/faculty/haig/publications_files/04inexorablerise.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110525090802/http://www.oeb.harvard.edu/faculty/haig/Publications_files/04InexorableRise.pdf |archive-date=25 May 2011 |deadurl=yes |df= |citeseerx=10.1.1.359.9143 }}</ref> Some dictionaries and academic disciplines give them different definitions while others do not. Some languages, such as German or Finnish, have no separate words for sex and gender, and the distinction has to be made through context. On occasion, using the English word ''gender'' is appropriate.<ref name="Bograd-2015">last1=Bograd |first1=Michele |last2=Weingarten |first2=Kaethe |title=Reflections on Feminist Family Therapy Training |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JHlsBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA69 |accessdate=11 February 2018 |series=EBL-Schweitzer |date=28 January 2015 |publisher=Routledge |location=New York |isbn=978-1-317-72776-7 |page=69 |oclc=906056635 |deadurl=no |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20180508090147/https://books.google.com/books?id=JHlsBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA69 |archivedate=8 May 2018 |df= }}</ref><ref>url=http://global.finland.fi/gender/ngo/peruskasitteet.htm|title=Peruskäsitteet|access-date=2018-02-11|deadurl=no|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20180508090148/http://global.finland.fi/gender/ngo/peruskasitteet.htm|archivedate=2018-05-08|df= (in Finnish)</ref> | The sex and gender distinction is not universal. In ordinary English, ''sex'' and ''gender'' are often used interchangeably.<ref name=udry>{{cite journal|doi=10.2307/2061790 |first1=J. Richard |last1=Udry |date=November 1994 |title=The Nature of Gender |journal=Demography |volume=31 |issue=4 |pages=561–573 |pmid=7890091 |url=https://www.unc.edu/courses/2006fall/econ/586/001/Readings/Udry_Nature_Gender.pdf |jstor=2061790 |deadurl=no |archiveurl=http://archive.wikiwix.com/cache/20161211012757/https://www.unc.edu/courses/2006fall/econ/586/001/Readings/Udry_Nature_Gender.pdf |archivedate=2016-12-11 |df= }}</ref><ref name="haig">{{cite journal|first1=David |last1=Haig |authorlink1=David Haig (biologist) |date=April 2004 |title=The Inexorable Rise of Gender and the Decline of Sex: Social Change in Academic Titles, 1945–2001 |journal=Archives of Sexual Behavior |volume=33 |issue=2 |pages=87–96 |pmid=15146141 |doi=10.1023/B:ASEB.0000014323.56281.0d |url=http://www.oeb.harvard.edu/faculty/haig/publications_files/04inexorablerise.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110525090802/http://www.oeb.harvard.edu/faculty/haig/Publications_files/04InexorableRise.pdf |archive-date=25 May 2011 |deadurl=yes |df= |citeseerx=10.1.1.359.9143 }}</ref> Some dictionaries and academic disciplines give them different definitions while others do not. Some languages, such as German or Finnish, have no separate words for sex and gender, and the distinction has to be made through context. On occasion, using the English word ''gender'' is appropriate.<ref name="Bograd-2015">{{cite journal|last1=Bograd |first1=Michele |last2=Weingarten |first2=Kaethe |title=Reflections on Feminist Family Therapy Training |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JHlsBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA69 |accessdate=11 February 2018 |series=EBL-Schweitzer |date=28 January 2015 |publisher=Routledge |location=New York |isbn=978-1-317-72776-7 |page=69 |oclc=906056635 |deadurl=no |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20180508090147/https://books.google.com/books?id=JHlsBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA69 |archivedate=8 May 2018 |df= }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://global.finland.fi/gender/ngo/peruskasitteet.htm|title=Peruskäsitteet|access-date=2018-02-11|deadurl=no|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20180508090148/http://global.finland.fi/gender/ngo/peruskasitteet.htm|archivedate=2018-05-08|df=}} (in Finnish)</ref> | ||
Among scientists, the term ''sex differences'' (as compared to ''gender differences'') is often used for sexually dimorphic traits that are thought to be evolved results of sexual selection.<ref name="Mealey, L. 2000">Mealey, L. (2000). Sex differences. NY: Academic Press.</ref><ref name="Geary, D. C. 2009">Geary, D. C. (2009) Male, Female: The Evolution of Human Sex Differences. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association</ref> | Among scientists, the term ''sex differences'' (as compared to ''gender differences'') is often used for sexually dimorphic traits that are thought to be evolved results of sexual selection.<ref name="Mealey, L. 2000">Mealey, L. (2000). Sex differences. NY: Academic Press.</ref><ref name="Geary, D. C. 2009">Geary, D. C. (2009) Male, Female: The Evolution of Human Sex Differences. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association</ref> | ||
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==Biological essentialism== | ==Biological essentialism== | ||
The form of sexism called biological essentialism is the belief that your body is the main thing that makes you who you are. It is supposed to define you forever, no matter what you change about yourself, think about yourself, or anything. It says the gender you were assigned at birth must be your only real gender. Biological essentialism is used to justify most forms of sexism. It is harmful to virtually everyone, of any sex or gender. Some [[transgender exclusionists]] use biological essentialism to discriminate against transgender and nonbinary people. | The form of sexism called biological essentialism is the belief that your body is the main thing that makes you who you are. It is supposed to define you forever, no matter what you change about yourself, think about yourself, or anything. It says the gender you were assigned at birth must be your only real gender. Biological essentialism is used to justify most forms of sexism. It is harmful to virtually everyone, of any sex or gender.<ref name="Weiss">{{Cite web |title=How Gender Essentialism Hurts Us All |last=Weiss |first=Suzannah |work=Bustle |date=13 March 2017 |access-date=16 February 2021 |url= https://www.bustle.com/p/7-ways-gender-essentialism-hurts-everyone-43897}}</ref> Some [[transgender exclusionists]] use biological essentialism to discriminate against transgender and nonbinary people. | ||
==Assigned gender at birth== | ==Assigned gender at birth== | ||
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When people speak of a person's "sex", usually what they really mean is their assigned gender at birth. This is because a person's sex is much more difficult to determine than most people believe. For example, chromosomes are part of defining someone's sex, but most people never get their chromosomes tested. A baby's assigned gender at birth is based on only one thing: the presence or absence of what a doctor thinks is probably a penis. This will be the only basis of that child's [[legal gender]]. As the person grows up, the doctor's guess about their sex can turn out to be wrong, because some intersex conditions only become clear once a person has gone through puberty. Even then, the person might have unusual chromosomes or internal reproductive organs without ever knowing about it. | When people speak of a person's "sex", usually what they really mean is their assigned gender at birth. This is because a person's sex is much more difficult to determine than most people believe. For example, chromosomes are part of defining someone's sex, but most people never get their chromosomes tested. A baby's assigned gender at birth is based on only one thing: the presence or absence of what a doctor thinks is probably a penis. This will be the only basis of that child's [[legal gender]]. As the person grows up, the doctor's guess about their sex can turn out to be wrong, because some intersex conditions only become clear once a person has gone through puberty. Even then, the person might have unusual chromosomes or internal reproductive organs without ever knowing about it. | ||
"Sex identity" can mean either how a person categorizes their own physical sex,<ref>"LGBTQI Terminology." [http://www.lgbt.ucla.edu/documents/LGBTTerminology.pdf]</ref><ref> | "Sex identity" can mean either how a person categorizes their own physical sex,<ref>"LGBTQI Terminology." [http://www.lgbt.ucla.edu/documents/LGBTTerminology.pdf] {{dead link}}</ref><ref>{{cite web| title=LGBT resources: Definition of terms |url=http://geneq.berkeley.edu/lgbt_resources_definiton_of_terms |archive-url =}}</ref> or it can mean how other people categorize that person's sex.<ref name="TGQTG">{{cite web| title=Trans, Genderqueer, and Queer Terms Glossary| url= http://lgbt.wisc.edu/documents/Trans_and_queer_glossary.pdf |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20170210021940/https://lgbt.wisc.edu/documents/Trans_and_queer_glossary.pdf |archive-date = 10 February 2017}}</ref> | ||
Some [[activism|activists]] advocate for society to cease assigning gender at birth. For example, author and lawyer [[wikipedia:Martine Rothblatt|Martine Rothblatt]] wrote: "As we gradually free ourselves from stamping newborn babies as one sex or the other, gender expectations will become self-defining and the full cultural liberation of all people can occur at last."<ref>{{cite journal|title=Gender Manifesto: a selection from The Apartheid of Sex |journal=TV/TS Tapestry Journal |date=Spring 1995 |number=71 |page=33 |url=https://archive.org/details/tvtstapestry7119unse/ |publisher= International Foundation for Gender Education}}</ref> In 2020, several MDs published an opinion piece in the New England Journal of Medicine stating that "Sex designations on birth certificates offer no clinical utility, and they can be harmful for intersex and transgender people. Moving such designations below the line of demarcation wouldn't compromise the birth certificate's public health function but could avoid harm."<ref name="ShteylerClarke2020">{{cite journal|last1=Shteyler|first1=Vadim M.|last2=Clarke|first2=Jessica A.|last3=Adashi|first3=Eli Y.|title=Failed Assignments — Rethinking Sex Designations on Birth Certificates|journal=New England Journal of Medicine|volume=383|issue=25|year=2020|pages=2399–2401|issn=0028-4793|doi=10.1056/NEJMp2025974}}</ref> | Some [[activism|activists]] advocate for society to cease assigning gender at birth. For example, author and lawyer [[wikipedia:Martine Rothblatt|Martine Rothblatt]] wrote: "As we gradually free ourselves from stamping newborn babies as one sex or the other, gender expectations will become self-defining and the full cultural liberation of all people can occur at last."<ref>{{cite journal|title=Gender Manifesto: a selection from The Apartheid of Sex |journal=TV/TS Tapestry Journal |date=Spring 1995 |number=71 |page=33 |url=https://archive.org/details/tvtstapestry7119unse/ |publisher= International Foundation for Gender Education}}</ref> In 2020, several MDs published an opinion piece in the New England Journal of Medicine stating that "Sex designations on birth certificates offer no clinical utility, and they can be harmful for intersex and transgender people. Moving such designations below the line of demarcation wouldn't compromise the birth certificate's public health function but could avoid harm."<ref name="ShteylerClarke2020">{{cite journal|last1=Shteyler|first1=Vadim M.|last2=Clarke|first2=Jessica A.|last3=Adashi|first3=Eli Y.|title=Failed Assignments — Rethinking Sex Designations on Birth Certificates|journal=New England Journal of Medicine|volume=383|issue=25|year=2020|pages=2399–2401|issn=0028-4793|doi=10.1056/NEJMp2025974}}</ref> | ||
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* '''Genetic girl''' and '''genetic boy''' aren't good things to call someone, for similar reasons as "biological sex". "Genetic" refers to chromosomes, but doctors usually don't check babies' chromosomes at birth. During pregnancy, some OBGYN practices offer fetal genetic testing and use the sex chromosome result to assign a gender, but chromosomes aren't part of how gender is assigned at birth. Even adults only rarely get to find out what their chromosomes are. Doctors only do that test if they think it might answer questions certain kinds of challenges with health and fertility. Intersex conditions prove that there is no guarantee that a person's assigned gender might match their chromosomes. | * '''Genetic girl''' and '''genetic boy''' aren't good things to call someone, for similar reasons as "biological sex". "Genetic" refers to chromosomes, but doctors usually don't check babies' chromosomes at birth. During pregnancy, some OBGYN practices offer fetal genetic testing and use the sex chromosome result to assign a gender, but chromosomes aren't part of how gender is assigned at birth. Even adults only rarely get to find out what their chromosomes are. Doctors only do that test if they think it might answer questions certain kinds of challenges with health and fertility. Intersex conditions prove that there is no guarantee that a person's assigned gender might match their chromosomes. | ||
* '''Natal sex''' (as in '''natal female''' and '''natal male'''). This means the sex that a person supposedly had when they were born.<ref | * '''Natal sex''' (as in '''natal female''' and '''natal male'''). This means the sex that a person supposedly had when they were born.<ref name="TGQTG" /> Because of the problems in determining a baby's actual sex, a more accurate phrase is "assigned at birth" or one of its variants. | ||
==Dyadic sexes== | ==Dyadic sexes== | ||