• What is gender? What is sex in biological terms? Are gender and sex the same thing? Explain why or why not?
According to "Eldis" (2013), “'Gender refers to the socially constructed roles and relations between men and women, while 'sex' refers to biological characteristics which define humans as female or male.” Gender and sex are similar but they are not the same thing. I say this because a person can have the sexual characteristics of a man but still have the gender of a woman. This is known as transgender. According to Lesbian & Gay Community Services Center, Inc. (2013),”transgender," at its most basic level, is a word that applies to someone who doesn't fit within society's standards of how a woman or a man is supposed to look or act. Sex refers to biological differences, such as chromosomes, hormonal profiles, internal and external sex organs. Gender describes the characteristics that a society or culture defines as masculine or feminine. (http://www.med.monash.edu.au/gendermed/sexandgender.html) Gender is more of a social term whereas sex is a more scientific term that explains physical traits and preference.
• How do gender and sex contribute to the concepts and constructions of masculinity and femininity?
Gender and sex contribute to the concepts and constructions of masculinity and femininity is different ways, but it is culture that determines gender roles and what is considered masculine and feminine. Whether we are a man or a woman is not determined strictly by our reproductive organs, rather our gender is made up of beliefs, behaviors, and characteristics that make this determination. Do you act, talk, and behave like a man or a woman? Are you feminine? Are you masculine? Are you both? Are you neither? Sex and gender do help with the concepts and construction, however it is culture that plays the bigger role.
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