Re: gender

Not quite.  Gender refers to "feminine" vs. "masculine" behaviors,
roles, preferences, etc., that are associated with sex only as a social
construct: that is, we impose these associations.  Gender roles do not
naturally develop from sex differences.  And I would adamantly disagree
with you re: sex differences.  These are also socially constructed to
the extent that the dichotomous categorization of sex into either
all-female or all-male is, likewise, socially imposed. 

West, Candace and Don H.Zimmerman. 1987. "Doing Gender." Gender and
Society, 1, 2: 125-51.

Coventry, Martha. "The Tyranny of the Esthetic: Surgery's Most Intimate
Violation."  Pp. 183-191 in Disch, ed., Reconstructing Gender.

Lucal, Betsy. 1999. "What it Means to be Gendered Me: Life on the
Boundaries of a Dichotomous Gender System." Gender and Society. 13, 6,
pp. 781-797.


********************
Kristin Marsh
Department of Sociology
Emory University
Atlanta, Georgia  30322







Richard N Hutchinson wrote:
> 
> Mine-
> 
> I think I agree with what you're saying about gender (I'm no expert) with
> one exception:
> 
> > Regarding your last question, let me reiterate that gender is a social
> > construct. There are two biological sexes or variations between the two.
> 
> OK, so far so good.  (No Derridean "failure to communicate.")
> 
> >
> > What I know is that gender has nothing to do with the biological basis 
>of
> > sex differences.
> 
> This is where I lose you.  If you mean that the sex differences do not
> *determine any particular gender*, then fine, of course.  (Logically
> there are but 2 sexes, and an infinite number of possible genders.)  But
> gender, I thought, was precisely about how social roles are defined for
> people according to their sex.  Nothing complicated or sinister here, just
> a simple definition.  If the role is not defined in relation to sex, then
> it could be wage laborer, or episcopalian, or something else, but we
> wouldn't call it gender.  Right?  So gender in that simple way has
> everything to do with biological sex difference.
> 
> Richard