by Kimberly Wolf

Created on: April 13, 2011

The terms gender and sex are often used synonymously, when in fact, they hold vastly different meanings.  While both of these words are sometimes used to categorize masculinity or femininity, they are frequently used as interchangeable words that have the same definition. 

The term sex is used to identify masculinity or femininity on a strictly physical basis.  Sex is determined by which anatomical parts that we possess. Sexual characteristics, in turn, would be physical traits that pronounce us male or female.  Our sex is not defined by our personality or life choices. When my kids were newborns, I was always asked what the gender of my newborn baby was when someone passed us on the street or in the grocery store.  The more appropriate question to have asked is what the sex of my newborn baby was.

Gender is the societal determination of what is accepted as male and female based upon personality, appearance, and actions. Gender has nothing to do physically being male or female. We, as a human race that instinctively likes to categorize and compartmentalize, made gender up. For example, it was widely accepted that women were the caregivers and housekeepers while men brought in the money.  These are gender roles that have nothing to do with a person’s anatomical parts like sex does. 

While it can be said that gender places unfair expectations on each sex, it is now more commonplace for someone to exhibit gender characteristics that differ from their sex without being criticized.  Now longer is hairdressing a “girlie” job or a corporate executive “man’s work”.  Both sexes wear makeup, which was once considered an exclusively female gender characteristic.  I happily mow the lawn in my household, but that doesn’t deter me from enjoying more decidedly feminine hobbies such as getting my nails done. While we are making definite strides to blur the lines of gender roles and characteristics, the lines are not disintegrated.  

Sexual characteristics are needed and used to identify us as women and men. Gender characteristics are unnecessary when determining who is male or female.  Sexual characteristics are tangible and measurable evidence of one’s manhood or womanhood whereas gender characteristics are a society’s interpretation of what constitutes femininity and masculinity through ones actions, preferences and appearances.  As we move toward a more accepting society,  we can hopefully reach a better understanding of how sexual characteristics are defined and make gender characteristics obsolete.

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