this post was submitted on 14 Jan 2024
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I'd love to go to that kind of party, where rainbow cake is served along with a slice of anthropological oration. But even though I'm gay (and therefore supposed to accept every odd idea that comes along, apparently), I'm not sure gender is a "social construct" alone. There are so many other things that can play into it including hormones and body image and psychological stuff - yet I still feel it was so much easier and breezier when we could just call ourselves men or women or he or she. *(not that I'm against people calling themselves whatever else they want).
Oh! I'm going to present the following in good faith.
You're referring to sex. Sex is biological, gender is a concept. Sex is related to your hormones and your healthcare and what's in your pants, but the idea of masculinity or femininity being tied to specific behaviors or clothes is a social construct. (Gender.)
IE; I'm a woman. Very much a woman. Super secure in that. I've got all the parts, enjoy having them. When I go to the gym or when I drink my cousins under the table or when I work on a car, those things shouldn't be tied to an idea of being masculine, because I'm not suddenly more masculine for doing them. I'm definitely still a woman the whole time. That's the difference here, is that there's a concept of gender which is different than sex.
I'm not sure your explanation really argues that gender is entirely a social construct. You identify strongly as being a woman. It doesn't matter how many things you do that society views as masculine. You innately feel like a woman. So it isn't an identity that society really defines. There's something more to it.
What if we swap "gender" for "cool"? I think it's pretty inarguable that's a social construct. I think I'm cool, and while walking around in socks and sandals isn't cool, I know I'm cool nonetheless.
Yes, gender is inherently associated with sex, and correlates with it the majority of the time, but it's not defined by it. This is similar to driving and being an adult - most adults drive, and most drivers are adults, but some grow up on farms, driving as kids, others live in live in accessible cities and never get their license.
Baby sex parties all around!...
Yeah, unfortunately the wide use of sex ruins it when dealing with babies and reveals. There's a reason people use gender and not sex for those parties lol.
Sex reveal party!
Gender reveal party!
Baby sex reveal party!
Baby gender reveal party!
The joys of linguistics.
Of course it's not devoid of the effects of sexual dimorphism. It's just that how one's sex determines societal roles and stereotypes (a closer definition of gender), shouldn't be so rigid and unmovable.
I agree we need to move beyond stereotypical old fashioned ideals of what is feminine or masculine, those have always been so narrow and actually many times were totally lies. I hope we can embrace sometime the idea that we're all people with multitudes of possibility and behavioral traits, and we are all full of change and huge potential.
Body image and psychological stuff still fall under societal influence rather than biological influence, and the hormones we produce are fundamentally a sex thing, not a gender thing.
Something being a social construct doesn't mean it doesn't have a tangible influence on how people feel, it just means that it isn't based on intrinsic biological fact. What constitutes being a "man" or a "woman" differs between cultures and between people, it is often tied to biology because of societal expectations and association, but it doesn't actually come from biology. Something like pink being a girl's colour or women wearing makeup or men drinking beers instead of daquiris, those are all arbitrary performances people put on based on what society tells them men or women should do. Even the pronouns he/she were invented, some languages don't have gendered pronouns by default like English does. None of that comes from biology, biology doesn't tell us what pronouns we use or what we should wear.
I agree with you totally. There are more factors in gender than just body image or genetics alone. Also I wonder - what happens if you're a girl in western society, but you don't like the color pink? When you go to Toys 'R Us, doesn't it feel weird that all the girls toys are pink and in pink boxes - but you don't see boys toys in blue boxes or just with one predominant color.
(That's appropo of nothing, just something I've been wondering about for awhile).
Wow careful with that logical thinking buddy, we don't like that here \s
Careful with them thar backslarshes, city boy, this ere is furwudslash country.