This text is the 3rd part of a discussion about gender, clarifying the nature of sex, gender, gender identity and sexuality.
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Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
You write: …the distinction between sex and gender is useful and even necessary, but there is a question of definition that seems difficult to me. For the moment I would consider gender as the cultural interpretation of sex, interpreted by different social groups and/or by individuals. And I have no doubt that it is a richness as you express it. But if one of the terms completely covers the other, conceptually, the distinction is no longer possible… (My translation from French)
The risk of tautology
To say that gender is the ‘cultural interpretation of sex’ seems to blur the distinction between gender and sex. This may explain why you suppose that there is little or no distinction between the two. (1) To be fair, you do state that gender is a ‘cultural interpretation’. As such it appears to grant individuals some freedom in the perception of their gender identity. (2) However, it still ties gender to sex.
This whole discussion points to a need to disentangle what is meant by sex, gender and sexuality.
Sex
Sex is determined by biological and genetic characteristics and generally falls into three categories, female, male and intersex. The sex at birth may subsequently be surgically modified either by personal choice or by force in so-called realignment. (3)
Gender
The World Health Organisation says of gender that it refers to the characteristics of women, men, girls and boys that are socially constructed. This includes norms, behaviours and roles associated with being a woman, man, girl or boy, as well as relationships with each other. As a social construct, gender varies from society to society and can change over time. (4) As such, gender determines social attitudes towards sex and sexuality. (5)
Gender identity
The WHO distinguishes gender from gender identity. It defines the latter as referring to a person’s deeply felt, internal and individual experience of gender. This may or may not correspond to the person’s physiology or designated sex at birth. Affirming one’s gender identity may be a source of considerable joy. It can also result in suffering when it does not correspond to the designated sex at birth or if it is not aligned with social expectations of gender. (6) (7)
Three tenets of gender identity
There are three key tenets in the discussion about gender identity:
– Gender identity is distinct from sex. (8)
– Gender identity is not limited to one of two binary options as embedded in a socially constructed notion of gender. It can be a whole range of possibilities and can vary over time.
– Sexuality, as the sexual and affective relationship of an individual with others, is to be seen in terms of gender identity, gender and sex. As such it may embrace multiple possibilities and not be fixed in time.
Read the other parts of this discussion: Part One – Sexual transition?, Part Two – Language, thought and gender.
Footnotes
(1) By equating gender with a way of viewing sex, this position is close to the conviction of many that the two cannot be separated. Others, in particular trans people, claim the right to make a clear distinction between sex and gender.
(2) The interpretation, according to you, is the work of both social groups and individuals. There is probably a need to distinguish between the two. As we see subsequently in the WHO definitions, gender is considered a construction of social groups. Whereas gender identity is composed of an individual’s deep-felt feeling and experience of themselves. These two visions can be in conflict, especially in the case of those who are trans.
(3) The personal choice, far from being ‘free’, often entails surmounting considerable barriers due to the attitude of society. As for gender realignment, it aims to make a person’s body, particularly in the case of those who are intersex, forcibly comply with dominant social norms/expectations. It is considered a crime in some countries.
(4) Note that gender also extends to encompass certain objects, in particular clothing.
(5) One wonders if this definition of gender might expand under pressure from the growing variety expressed as gender identity.
(6) If gender identity is an individual experience based largely on feelings, then challenging someone’s gender identity is tantamount to calling into question someone’s feelings or denying their identity with the resulting harm that might incur.
(7) At the same time, there’s the question of subjective and objective criteria. Gender identity, based on what are seen as purely subjective criteria, generally considered by society as less reliable, can run afoul of social organisation based on more ‘objective’ criteria. This can be poignantly seen in places and activities reserved purely to women as defined by their sex.
(8) Gender identity is not necessarily determined by sex, nor does it necessarily comply with social expectations of gender.