Sociology Study Guide Unit 3 Gender & Sexuality

Gender & Sexuality Key Terms: ● Gender - Characteristics of women, men, boys, and girls that are social constructs. ● Sex - The male or female category that living species are sorted into based on their reproductive functions. ● Sexuality - A person’s identity in relation to the gender or genders to which they are typically attracted; sexual orientation. ● Asexual - Someone who doesn’t experience sexual attraction. ● Aromantic - Someone who doesn’t experience romantic attraction. ● Queer - Sexuality or gender identity that does correspond to established ideas of sexuality and gender, especially heterosexual norms. ● Non-binary - A person who does not identify as a man or a woman; they are outside the gender binary. ● Intersex - A person who has both male and female organs or other sexual characteristics. ● Gender dysphoria - Discomfort or distress experienced by someone because their gender identity does not match their biological sex. Gender Vs. Sex ● To many, gender and sex are the same thing. In reality, they are different things because gender is a social construct while sex is biological because it is based on your reproductive organs. ● Society created the woman identity to mean someone who is feminine, nurturing, submissive, emotional, and domesticated. On the other hand, the man identity was created to mean someone who is masculine, logical, ambitious, aggressive, and strong. ● Gender is traits and behaviors that are associated with a certain appearance despite someone’s appearance not always correlating with their behavior or gender identity. Just because you may perceive someone as a woman, that does not mean they actually are a woman. They could be a man with feminine features or they could be a non-binary person that doesn’t identify as either gender. ● Cisgender people identify with the gender that they were assigned based on their sex. Transgender people, on the other hand, do not identify with the gender they were assigned based on their sex. It is for this reason that non-binary people are also transgender. Someone may have female genitalia but identify as a man. It is because of cases such as these that sex and gender are different things. What does it mean to be a man or a woman? ● Gender expression and gender identity are different things. A masculine woman is still a woman despite her clothes or behavior. A feminine non-binary person is still non-binary despite their feminine appearance leading you to initially perceive them as a woman. While someone’s gender expression does sometimes correlate with their gender identity, that isn’t always the case. ● Because someone can still identify as a man or woman despite not matching the traits that are associated with their gender, people may wonder what it means to be a certain gender in the first place. The truth is that gender is what you make it. Human beings are too complicated to fit into simple binaries. ● Just because you identify as one of the gender binaries does not mean you have to limit yourself to the behavior and gender expression that is associated with said gender. You can create your own definition of what it means to be a man or a woman. That doesn’t make you any less of one. Sexual Vs. Romantic Attraction ● Similar to how people can confuse gender and sex, the same mistake can be made with sexual and romantic attraction. While some people are only romantically and sexually attracted to one gender, that isn’t always the case for others. ○ For example, someone can be romantically attracted to women but only sexually attracted to men. They wouldn’t technically be bisexual or biromantic because their romantic and sexual attraction is only reserved for one gender. Not everyone’s sexuality can be defined by a single label. Pronouns Vs. Gender Vs. Sexuality ● People often equate pronouns to gender, but the truth is that the two do not always correspond. While there is a good chance that someone who goes by she/her pronouns identifies as a girl, there is also a chance that they identify as a boy or are non-binary. ● Pronouns are not always indicative of someone’s gender. A cisgender woman can only go by they/them pronouns and still identify as a woman. Pronouns are more about what someone feels comfortable being addressed as, not necessarily what their gender is. ● With that being said, someone’s pronouns and gender identity are not always indicative of their sexuality either. Many define a lesbian as someone who identifies as a woman and is only romantically attracted to women. However, the actual definition of a lesbian is a non-man that is only romantically attracted to women. Therefore, even if someone was assigned male at birth and is perceived as such, they can call themselves a lesbian if they are non-binary, because they are not a man. ● In addition, a non-binary person who goes by he/him or he/they pronouns can still identify as a lesbian because they are still not a man. In conclusion, pronouns do not equal gender and gender does not equal sexuality, although this can sometimes be the case. Social Vs. Systematic Discrimination ● Sexism and homophobia are not only perpetuated systematically but also socially, through social attitudes. ○ For example, blaming a woman for being sexually assaulted because of her clothing is sexist and shifts the responsibility away from the person who assaulted her. ● Another example is using gay as an insult. While this might just be a joke to some, little actions such as this contribute to the stigmatization of homosexuality. Similar harm is being done when straight girls pretend to be queer for male attention. Both situations invalidate homosexuality. Social attitudes must also be adjusted in order to eradicate sexism and homophobia. Focusing only on systematic change is not enough.