Sex and Gender
A couple days ago I had a conversation (argument) with a friend about whether gender is the same thing as sex. I began by arguing that they were the same thing, being male or female simply means having the correct anatomical equipment. This, he vehemently denied claiming that gender refers to social roles while sex is a biological distinction. Now, it is always hard for me to admit that I am wrong, but according to the New Oxford English Dictionary, gender is:
the state of being male or female (typically used with reference to social and cultural differences rather than biological ones) : traditional concepts of gender | [as adj. ] gender roles. • the members of one or other sex : differences between the genders are encouraged from an early age.
So, I am admitting that gender and sex are not the same thing. However, my friend was using this distinction to say that sex in no way determines gender. He believes that a person can be biologically a male and genderlarity (genderly?) a female because of this distinction. And it is not just him, but many people in our culture have taken this distinction to mean we are given carte blanche on what gender we are. But is this right? Sex and gender are distinct but does that mean that they have no more relation than my having a Bassett Hound named Smokey (as in Okey Dokey Smokey) and my being a member of the American Philosophical Society? I think that this is a totally untenable view. It seems clear to me that sex may not be the same as gender but it sure as hell is important to it making some combinations of sex and gender wrong (maybe even impossible, i.e. if some is biologically a man, and thinks that his gender is female, he is simply wrong in that assupmtion).
But I could be wrong.