by John Winter

Created on: November 04, 2009   Last Updated: November 05, 2009

The question of where our identity comes from is age old, but put in certain contexts the answers can be much simpler than you might initially think. Does our initial composition define the gender role we play, or is that role defined by outside pressures? If the answer is both, which influence then expresses dominance over the other?

Society's part in gender identification, logically is universal to all peoples living in that society. Therefore, when the question of biology v.s society is posed, it can be posed to procure whichever answer it wants, simply by changing the demographic of the question. On a larger scale, when multiple individuals are involved, society expresses more dominance over their identity than biology does by way of being the larger mean, because though society's influence is equal for all, biology's influence is localized to each separate individual. Therefore, if the question of which (Biological or Societal) influence expresses dominance over the other, the answer is that in any one individual, biology is the dominant factor in determining gender identity. If, however, you were to ask which expressed dominance over multiple people, or an entire society of people, societal influence naturally is the dominant force.

This formula can be applied to an array of questions, and yet is quite invariably true. Your biological make-up is your hardwiring, and it is a factor in determining how- and how much- you will respond to social influence. Therefore, no one individual is ever dominantly influenced by society when developing a gender identity.

Alternately, social influence is nevertheless a constant and equal factor in determining the gender identity of all the individuals that make up that society, and since the biology of each individual only affects each separate individual, social influence then becomes the dominant force in determining the gender identity- not of each of its separate parts- but of itself as a whole.

It would be erroneous to think that your biology is not the dominant factor in determining your gender identity. As stated, biology factors in to how much you can even be affected by social pressure, and whether it is a lot or a little then becomes incidental to the fact that your biology has made you as such. However, it is equally as fallacious to assume that your biology has the dominant effect on the gender identity of other individuals in your society. The dominance then comes from social influences that encompass each individual as part of a whole, and affects each individual whereas each separate biological make-up affects only one individual.

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