Sex, Society, and Stereotypes: An Exploration of Gender as a Social Construct and Postgenderism

Sex, Society, and Stereotypes: An Exploration of Gender as a Social Construct and the Potential for Postgenderism in the Western Mainstream

25 May 2022

Sharp

Table of Contents

Abstract………………………………………………………………………………………..…..3

Sex, Society, and Stereotypes: An Exploration of Gender as a Social Construct and the Potential for Postgenderism in the Western Mainstream……………………………………………………..4

Works Cited………………………………………………………………………………………14

Abstract

For the duration of recorded human existence, gender has been a prevalent part of society. Gender has also divided people for as long as can be known, between patriarchal systems and prejudice towards homosexual people. Gendered society only further separates divided societies, and its existence proves unnecessary. Based on the spectrum of sex, gender proves to be non-binary through years of gender-theory and research on gender identity. Research on indigenous societies also proves the possibility and reality of gender abolition and reality. A postgenderism society is not only possible but a beneficial change to modern societies around the world.

Sex, Society, and Stereotypes: An Exploration of Gender as a Social Construct and the Potential for Postgenderism in the Western Mainstream

‘Gender is what’s in your pants’ ‘Ignore gender roles’ ‘The left wants to remove the sanctity of gender from our society’. Gender has become a politicized issue with the dawn of transgender and non-binary people coming to the forefront of political debate. Whether it is so-called ‘transgender bathroom bills’ or parents dressing their young boys in dresses, outrage over the lack of gender roles in conservative circles has become widespread, and it is necessary to evaluate what exactly they are so angry about. Sex, gender, and gender identity are all relatively new terms in the political landscape and very few know exactly what they mean as their definitions are intertwined and can be confusing to some. Sex, being a biological component of life, gender, a social component of life, and gender identity being how one experiences their own gender (American Psychological Association). While these aspects of life were for a long time considered the backbone of western society, they are becoming less and less important. Thus, the concept of gender is a socially constructed theory not based on biological sex. What society currently defines as gender is in reality the invented roles which different sexes have been forced into over the duration of human existence. Therefore, gender is not a necessary aspect of modern society.

Children could tell you whether they are a ‘girl’ or a ‘boy’ at a very young age and how they come to this understanding is often overlooked, however sexologist John Money began researching the topic in the 1950s’. Money and his peers were inspired by people with sex characteristics that were deemed ‘unusual’ by doctors at the time and wanted to explore what could happen in development that caused people to become what we now call ‘intersex’. As Money discovered, not always did an XX and XY chromosome form a fetus, but sometimes an unusual combination of XXY, XYY, or even XO. At even the very beginning of development gender is not binary, and it continues to evolve into development. Fetal hormonal sex, which is when the ovaries and/or testes form, then determines the growth of external sex characteristics. It is at this point that a fetus is deemed a ‘baby girl’ or ‘baby girl’, however sometimes it is not fully known that a fetus with a penis has XX chromosomes or a fetus with a vagina has XY chromosomes. Any sort of primary or secondary sex characteristics, internal or external, can be different than hormones and/or chromosomal combinations. It is the gender socialization based on sex that then triggers the stimulation of what Money called “Brain Sex”. Essentially, he determined that socialization and hormones creates a male or female adult mentality. While Money did not disagree with the concept of a societally constructed gender idea, he did prove genetically that sex and the formation of gender is not based on a binary system. (Fausto-Sterling, “Why Sex is not Binary”)

While the words ‘gender’ and ‘sex’ are often equated, in reality they mean drastically different things. The word sex has two meanings, both representing sexual intercourse and the distinction between males and females. Merriam Webster defines sex in the latter form as “the sum of the structural, functional, and sometimes behavioral characteristics of organisms that distinguish males and females'' (“Sex”). The word sex is used in biological contexts to describe in the most simple terms as people with a dominant hormone of estrogen and a vagina distinguished as female or the dominant hormone of testosterone and a penis determined to be male. Many people use the word gender when attempting to describe sex, when in reality gender is defined as “the behavioral, cultural, or psychological traits typically associated with one sex” (“Gender”). Therefore, while sex is biological and determined before birth, gender is based on one’s personality and character traits surrounding either one’s assigned gender at birth or what is called ‘gender identity’. It is vital to understand the difference in a conversation about gender and abolition of such, as sex and gender are not interchangeable terms.

Oftentimes, one might hear others talk about removing so-called ‘gender norms’, and many often agree, however disagree with the removal of gender. However, without the existence of the normal patterns of behavior assigned to a gender, there is not much that truly is gender at all. Therefore, when reading about gender, it is important to think of both gender and gender roles with some similarity, closer in fact than gender and sex.

The word gender itself has an interesting history and etymology. The word originates from the Latin ‘genus’ which has several meanings including race, birth, origin, kind, sort, rank, and method (“Gender”). This word with the general meaning of classification became the English word gender to delineate subclasses in grammar which separate similar characteristics in words of a language, which sometimes are influenced by social class, manner of existence and sometimes sex (“Gender”). As society developed and the English language was created, a classification for sociocultural aspects of life was deemed necessary, which is when the word gender became a descriptor for the characteristics of a person based on their sex. Many attribute this creation of gender to an evolution of social systems involving capitalism. In order to create economic gain, division into categories and classifications is often used, and gender was a simple way to create two types of people. Due to this, it is believed by many gender studies academics that gender and division of duties are intertwined. Early on in human societies, those who needed to carry children stayed home because it was safer in order to maintain the family line. Those who wouldn’t carry children could go out and do the more dangerous job, hunting. This carried on into farming societies as well as into industrialization. However, the current idea of women working as much as men makes this concept void (Clover, Spahr).

While gender may not be incredibly prevalent in modern western society, it used to hold an incredible amount of importance in holding together societal structures. Traditionally, women were expected to stay home to do housework, cook, and take care of the children. Men were supposed to go to work for the day, come back to a nice dinner and go to bed to get ready for the next day. This concept is perhaps one of the most important aspects of the patriarchy, as it makes it impossible for women to be independent and unreliant on a man. In the United States, the first major challenge to the patriarchal system was after the World War II draft, during which men were off at war and women had to take over the workforce. Women were able to assume positions in the workforce that they originally were believed to be too weak to take (Graff). In the Victorian era, not only were women not expected to work, but also were expected to be sexually submissive at all times and only a masculine woman could make sexual decisions for themselves. Men were considered to only be dominant and if a man was submissive they were considered not only feminine but not worthy of a masculine, head of household role (Fausto-Sterling 14). This patriarchal system of responsibility and of sexuality spread through both western and eastern societies.

Gender is intertwined in every part of our society, and with that knowledge even the most prominent gender abolitionists do not believe the elimination of gender is a valuable goal. However, the existence of gender is not only unnecessary, but harmful to everyone, no matter where they fall on a “gender spectrum”. The most clear example is often the patriarchy, which is defined as “control by men of a disproportionately large share of power” by Merriam Webster (“Patriarchy”). Essentially all western societies function under patriarchal systems, based on the idea that men work and are the head of the household, and women are submissive and only do housework. This system has held back opportunities for those assigned female at birth for a long time, and while first and second wave feminism has diminished the effects of the patriarchy, it remains another gender related aspect of society that hurts many. This patriarchal system has also created sexism and misogyny against women internationally. Misogyny, or the contempt of women and thought that women have less value than men, manifests itself in many ways, through sexual assault, wgae gaps, femicides, and forced marriages. When women are thought to be less than, people are more inclined to take advantage of them in these ways. People assigned female at birth are often shamed for their menstruation, and menstruation stigma permeates society. It can be seen as something that makes someone “weak” as women in general are seen as weaker because of misogynistic and patriarchal systems. Similarly to menstruation stigma, there is also a large presence of masturbation stigma. As the patriarchal system developed women to be products of men’s pleasure, female pleasure was often overlooked. This lack of focus on female pleasure created a stigma around female masturbation, which has created shame for many women. Gender influences life in so many ways, and unfortunately many of these ways negatively affect women and those assigned female at birth.

While in first-wave feminism, it was widely believed that the patriarchy only negatively affected women and benefited men, it can actually have negative effects on men as well. Men are often told to be manly or masculine, masculinity being defined as “the quality or nature of the male sex : the quality, state, or degree of being masculine or manly” (“Masculinity”). While any definition of masculinity is vague, it is commonly believed to be having a demeanor of strength, a lack of emotion, and an athletic personality. According to the American Psychological Association masculinity encompasses qualities of “toughness, stoicism, acquisitiveness and self-reliance” (Clay). This idea of self-reliance, while it may seem like a positive character trait to have, can often be detrimental to men’s mental health. Men are often expected to have no emotions which leads to them holding in their emotions and not communicating with their peers, family, or friends. While women are often deemed more emotional, many experts believe that this disparity causes the statistic that men die from suicide 3.88 times more than women, and that middle aged white men (perhaps the most encouraged to repress feelings) are the most at risk for suicide (“Suicide Statistics”). Men’s mental health is often overlooked, as many men don’t want to appear overly feminine and emotional, or take advantage of useful resources such as therapy and medications. These stigmas around mental health are detrimental to many men and can lead to mental illness and death. The existence of masculinity and femininity is due to gender roles and ‘norms’ which has detrimental effects on men specifically when it comes to their mental health.

An important aspect in the conversation between sex and gender is the existence of transgender people. A transgender person identifies with a gender different from that which was assigned to them at birth. When trans people are discussed they are often described as going against societal constructs, but that is not as straightforward as it seems. As discussed before, gender is defined to be a social construct, so transgender people align themselves into this social construct in a way that has not been expected from them. At the same time, they are going against everything that has been forced on them since birth, for example pink, blue, dolls, or toy trucks. This is not to say that their expression and identities are not valid, as all gender identities should be explored and expressed as desired. However it is important to confront the fact that trans identities are as valid as cisgender identities, in a complex way that is by no means clear in any definitions. If gender as a concept is a construct, then how can a person be assigned the wrong gender at birth? The true question is whether it is femininity and masculinity that people are attached to, or if it is gender identity that they are attached to, and if not a social construct, then what is gender identity? Many theorists stop with the definition of gender identity: “an individual’s self-conception as a man or woman or as a boy or girl or as some combination of man/boy and woman/girl or as someone fluctuating between man/boy and woman/girl or as someone outside those categories altogether” (Britannica). However, a full understanding of the psychological meaning of gender identity is not yet fully understood.

An aspect of humans that makes it more conceivable to understand a lack of importance in gender identity is the existence of transgender children. Transphobic people and many against the removal of gender roles argue that children are being corrupted into believing that they are a different gender, however research proves otherwise. An in-depth study at the University of Washington questioned whether gender roles were as intertwined in the lives and mentalities of transgender children as they are in cisgender children. Three-hundred transgender children, 200 of their cisgender siblings, and three-hundred cisgender children participated in the study, which evaluated the social aspect of the transgender children's upbringing and transition, and compared it to the upbringing and current gender ideas as their cisgender peers. The study concluded that there was enough evidence to support the idea that transgender children have the same amount of attachment to their gender identity as their cisgender peers based on psychiatric evaluations (“Among Transgender Children…”). However as previously stated, the attachment to gender that these children have is indisputable, but contributes to a further question of what it is that they have an attachment to. Certainly it may be easier to say ‘their gender identity’ and stop there, however because it is proven through this study that gender identity and sex are not inherently connected, nor does having a correlation between the two make a child’s gender identity more or less strong.

Evaluating the concept of gender and gender identity from a psychological standpoint is important, as these are not physiological aspects of life but psychological. The American Psychological Association separates how they define gender and gender identity. Gender is defined as “the attitudes, feelings, and behaviors that a given culture associates with a person’s biological sex” (“Understanding Gender, Sex, and Gender Identity''). In other words, depending on the culture, gender is the attributes society assigns to a given sex. The American Psychological Association defines gender identity as “how one understands and experiences one’s own gender” (“Understanding Gender, Sex, and Gender Identity''). The definition of gender identity is much more interpretive, but alludes to the idea that it is how one perceives their gender, which given the earlier definition could depend on the cultural aspects surrounding them. Given these definitions, transgender people are those who do not conform with the attributes given to them with their AGAB (assigned gender at birth), and whose gender identity does not align with their AGAB. Transgender people also feel a dysphoria towards their AGAB, whereas others could reject the attributes assigned to their given sex without feeling dysphoria or any need to transition, for example the idea of a girl that hates dresses being a “tomboy”.

Some people have already abandoned gender as an idea within themselves, they identify as non-binary. Non-binary is a label that can be defined as “people who feel their gender cannot be defined within the margins of gender binary. Instead, they understand their gender in a way that goes beyond simply identifying as either a man or woman” (“Non-binary inclusion”). Non-binary, as an umbrella term also encompasses identities such as, but not limited to, genderqueer, genderfluid, agender, and gender non-conforming. While they may seem similar, non-binary and intersex people, while often overlapping, are not at all the same. Intersex people have physical primary or secondary sex characteristics that when discovered distinguish them as intersex, whereas non-binary people discover themselves similarly to transgender people, in a more psychological way. It is also important to distinguish non-binary people from two-spirit people, an identity within some indigenous communities which refers to a more spiritual connection between both the masculine and feminine aspects of oneself. The integration of two-spirit people into indigenous societies clearly exemplifies the ability of society and culture to adapt to a lack of gender (“Two Spirit Community”). Unlike the two-spirit community, non-binary people generally have a more secular approach to their ‘gender identity’ or lack thereof. Toni Foxx, a 27 year old genderfluid person who lives some days presenting feminine and some days masculine says that “I enjoy being both, and I took ownership of it” (Palmer). Non-binary people do not feel it is necessary to fall into a box of man or woman, preferring to live without a gender or fluctuating between two, and while some consider themselves transgender, others do not (“Non-binary inclusion”). While living in heavily gendered societies can be challenging, non-binary people find ways to live day-to-day in an ungendered identity.

Conservatives in the United States believe that gender is incredibly important to holding together American Society. A good example of their outrage over the rejection of traditional gender roles lies in the controversy surrounding Harry Styles wearing a dress on the cover of Vogue. Harry Styles was famously the first man on the cover of Vogue, and also wore a long traditionally “feminine” dress. Many famous conservative commentators disapproved of this choice, most notably Candace Owens. She tweeted to a large audience of three million followers “There is no society that can survive without strong men. The East knows this. In the west, the steady feminization of our men at the same time that Marxism is being taught to our children is not a coincidence. It is an outright attack. Bring back manly men” (“Candace Owens, Harry Styles' Vogue Cover and the Tyranny of the Gender Binary”). Owens not only dislikes what he is wearing, but equates it to his strength and the weakness of the west as a whole. The argument is inherently flawed, as there is no evidence that his garments have any connection to his strength. In addition, she is basing her claim on the patriarchal idea that women, whom she equates with females, are naturally reliant on strong “manly men” in order to be successful. The idea that men cannot wear dresses, with no particular proof or evidence, lends credence to the argument that these arbitrary rules of gender that are placed on humans are not only trivial but harmful to people with a desire to step outside gender norms.

Quite obviously, institutional and more importantly cultural change does not happen overnight. It is not expected by prominent gender abolitionists that societies would have an easy or immediate change to a genderless way of living, however a slow transition to this goal is feasible. In the wake of what some call ‘fourth wave feminism’ which focuses on removing stereotypes and embracing intersectional activism, a genderless society seems more and more possible. A transition to postgenderism would likely come in multiple phases, starting with the present. Presently in more urban and progressive areas, things like gender neutral bathrooms begin to change the landscape around gender. Secondly, removing expected and assumed gender from culture could create a more gender fluid space. Finally a society could then function without the constructs of gender at all. Nothing at that point would be divided into ‘men’s’ and ‘women’s’, toiletries, clothing, bathrooms, names and more could operate without the connection that they currently have to gender.

Gender is not innate, not ingrained in us as birth, but as we grow and develop in order to divide us, establish economic and capitalistic roles, and create a patriarchal society. While gender creates some community and is a large part of many people’s identities, these aspects were only formed because of oppression and the separation of sexes into gender roles. The abolition of gender roles continues to be controversial in conservative media, while it is largely accepted as an obvious goal in liberal media. While roles that individuals fulfill are important, for example ‘the person who cooks and the person who does the dishes’, these roles do not have any connection to sex. The lack of clarity into what gender is besides its similarity to the phrase ‘gender roles’ makes it an arbitrary societal construct which the world could benefit from losing.

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