Wednesday, October 12, 2011

The Non-Nature Of Gender



Our culture is littered with phrases such as "Boys will be boys" and "It's a girl thing," but what do those sayings actually mean?   What does is mean to say that a child with male genitals is being a "boy" or that individuals with female genitalia are all part of a common "thing."   These terms in our society often go overlooked and accepted, but with very little thought for what it actually means.   Gender in the current United States holds very powerful connotations, but no clear definitions as to what differentiates one gender from another.   It is one thing to determine if a being is male or female, or their sex, since all you must do is check the reproductive organs, but that knowledge is meaningless on its own.   Gender is the personae that an individual ascribes to, usually based within what has been deemed acceptable by society for someone with their genitalia.     For some people gender is an immovable fact of life, something that universally and simply is, and because of that, gender based attributes are viewed as natural simply based on physical sex characteristics. However, even within our society views of gender and gender roles are radically different, and are constantly evolving, disproving that there is something innate about gender.   In order to accept gender as a concrete fact of life, it would have to remain as static and definable as the organs within the human body.   Since gender is in no way static, it in no way can be considered a natural occurrence, such as hair color, but rather a cultural phenomenon, like a hair style.
It is not uncommon to encounter hostility when attempting to disprove the innateness of gender, since gender has become so entwined in the social fabric of our society.   When someone oversteps the boundaries of "acceptable" gendered behavior, the response is at best mocking, and at worst violently aggressive.   A biological male wearing a dress is looked down upon because he has stepped beyond culturally appropriate behavior and...

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