The Difference Between Sex & Gender— 5 Clarifying Examples
A Playful Guide Through the Wilderness of Sex & Gender
Trying to disentangle sex & gender feels a bit like trying to diffuse a bomb. Without proper training.
And — I’m a straight, white, man.
God help us.
Sex & gender can be minefields. Problems include:
- Notable disagreement among academics regarding the definition of gender.
- Sex & gender being used interchangeably in everyday speech.
- Gender having a loaded history. Prominent men have consistently used dubious interpretations of sex differences that put limiting frames on women.
- It being unclear the extent to which biology influences gendered behaviour.
- Minority sex and gender groups having many complex issues to contend with — including exclusion, harassment and discrimination.
Conflation can be a problem too. When issues are grouped — emotions rise.
The key in preventing topics from becoming too charged is to tease issues apart and deal more with specifics. Well-intentioned humour can ease tensions too.
Or, if humour fails and you find yourself in the throws of feminine warrior energy — kittens can be used to break the tension.
Admittedly, this is untested.
OK — sex?
Sex
Obviously, sex is used in two ways. Dividing humans into male and female was the original meaning (late 14c).
Intercourse meaning ‘communication to and fro’ became common in the mid 15c and sexual intercourse began to see use in the late 18c.
Then, because nobody wants to say ‘sexual intercourse’ more than they have to, sex started to be used as a verb in the 20c.
“Won’t this get confusing?” — I assume somebody asked sensibly.
“Naaaaa…it’ll be fine.”
It has not been fine.
In general terms, sex refers to the biological differences between males and females. Anatomical, genetic, hormonal etc.
Biological sex differences can be categorical (like sex chromosomes XX, XY etc) or continuous (like hormone levels).
At least six types of sex chromosomes can be found in healthy people:
- X — Roughly 1 in 2,000 to 1 in 5,000 people
- XX — Most common form of female
- XXY — Roughly 1 in 500 to 1 in 1,000 people
- XY — Most common form of male
- XYY — Roughly 1 out of 1,000 people
- XXXY — Roughly 1 in 18,000 to 1 in 50,000 births
Beyond this, variations are exceptionally rare.
The presence of a Y chromosome triggers male development. Complications can result in mismatches between sex chromosomes, anatomy and other sex-based physiology. These fall under the umbrella of intersex.
Ex #1
Men tending to have bigger feet than women is a sex difference.
Sex Differences
Sex chromosomes are part of a much fuller picture. Biological elements that map to masculinity and femininity vary dramatically from person to person.
We‘re a complex mix of both.
How does this show in our physiology?
Hormones reveal some insights. Men tend to have higher levels of testosterone and women higher levels of oestrogen. How do these affect our experiences? What role do they play in conducting behaviour? What other biochemical elements impact our associations of masculinity and femininity?
These are the types of questions sex researchers are beginning to shed light on.
Ex #2
Women tend to have higher levels of estrogen than men — sex difference.
Gender
Gender tends to refer to cultural expectations, attitudes and behaviours associated with men and women. It’s harder to conceptualise and used in different ways.
With gender, the intent is to emphasise how society and culture shape roles and behaviours.
SAGER guidelines, popular with research journals, use this phrasing:
Ex #3
Men wear shirts to work refers to gender.
Understanding Gender
The meanings of men, women, male, female, masculine, feminine etc, change when referring to sex or gender.
Men tending to have bigger feet than women is true across cultures and throughout history. Men wearing shirts to work is cultural. Here men changes meaning.
Phrases like, ‘Man-up. Behave like a lady. Perfect gentleman. Strong independent woman.’ etc, are used to shape gender. They incentivise sex-based behaviour.
Of course — biology also incentivises sex-based behaviour. Attraction is a powerful force here. Our actions are determined during the conflict between biological and cultural incentives.
Ex #4
Women growing less facial hair than men is a sex difference.
But, men facing a lot less pressure than women when it comes to removing facial hair, is a gender difference.
Gendered Associations
It’s important to understand — some of our deepest intuitions about gender can be misleading.
Ex #5
Blue can feel inherently masculine.
But rewind 100 years:
“The generally accepted rule is pink for the boys and blue for the girls. The reason is that pink, being a more decided and stronger color, is more suitable for the boy, while blue, which is more delicate and dainty, is prettier for the girl.”
Earnshaw’s Infants’ Department, 1918.
So clearly, these are gendered associations. They are flexible and evolve.
Assigning colours to genders has pros and cons:
Consistency helps us to navigate information. If SAGER had used green for masculine and blue for feminine — we’d find it harder to process.
On the other hand, feeling manipulated into choosing gender-specific toys, doesn’t sit well with many people.
Pink may be on the way out.
Note the difference between gendered colours and gendered grooming habits. Colours may be arbitrary societal choices. Whereas grooming habits have clear links to sex differences. Both are shaped by culture — so fall under the umbrella of gender.
Crossed Wires
Of course, in everyday conversation, sex & gender are used interchangeably all the time.
Gender can also refer to a person’s gender identity. The sex they feel themselves to be or the gender they identify with. This expands identity options beyond male and female. Allowing people to find better fitting descriptions for their sex-based identities. This is separate from male and female as sex categories.
Feels like progress.
But — there’s a problem.
We now have multiple words with multiple meanings. Adding confusion to an already confusing topic. I’d wager semantics are responsible for the vast majority of sex & gender disagreements.
Add to this — we’re talking about identity. Any perceived threats to our identity tend to trigger strong emotions.
And — there are societal wounds that are still healing. Throughout history, gender has been used to impose limiting beliefs on women.
Nietzche claimed,
“When a woman has scholarly inclinations there is usually something wrong with her sexuality.”
Seriously Nietzche? Facepalm.
These gender blind spots have been enormously harmful.
Combine this with the harassment faced by LGBTQIA+ groups and individuals.
Gender can be a powder keg of pain and confusion.
Resolving Conflict
Minimising generalisations and being specific with language can ease conflicts. It’s also worth noticing: if someone is angry — they are usually shielding vulnerability. Identity can be a vulnerable place for all of us. Connecting with each other’s vulnerabilities opens doors to resolution.
For those of you thinking, ‘Less vulnerability — more kittens!’, I’m with you:
Are Social Constructionist Feminists Changing the Meaning of Words to Fit with Their Narrative?
I heard this claim last week. The answer is — yes. But not recently and not in the way it may seem.
Before 1955, gender was used for masculine and feminine in grammatical contexts and sex used elsewhere.
Nice and clear.
In 1955, sexologist John Money introduced gender to differentiate between biological sex and gender as a role.
A new word might have been nice!
In the 1970s, many feminists adopted the notion of gender as a social construct and its use became widespread. Somewhere along the line — meanings were blurred in everyday speech.
So, it’s not like feminists are trying to change the word gender now. Academics and policymakers are just making conscious efforts to apply the intended distinction.
Fair enough.
Looking Forward
Considered use of gender is important. We want to facilitate choice and alleviate pressure.
More can — less should.
Swing dancing offers a great example of gender neutrality in action. Giving everyone free choice to lead or follow creates a fun, inclusive and freeing environment. Many people choose to do both.
On the other hand, to create effective incentives, we may need a deeper understanding of the dance between biology and culture.
For example — an educator in Iceland developed a program for kindergarten girls that she calls dare training. It’s born from understanding that girls often need encouragement to take risks and tend to feel more comfortable doing so in all-female environments.
We want girls to go out of the safe zone. We want to teach them to be noisy, to teach them to scream and jump, and take place. To use their voice!
Margrét Pála Ólafsdóttir
This approach has the potential to reduce inequalities where risk-taking plays a large role in success.
Summary
I’ll close with an overly homonymous recap of this whole linguistical muddle.
- Things started to get confusing when sex moved from being used solely for sex and started to be used for sex.
- Similarly, intercourse began to be used for intercourse.
- Then — Money made everything more complicated.
- Gender moved from being used specifically for gender and started to be used for gender. Also, when referring to gender identity, many people use gender.
- For various reasons, people became uncomfortable using sex for sex and began to use gender.
- This is problematic because we need to be able to differentiate and positively shape the use of gender.
- Finally, to develop more effective incentives — we may need a deeper understanding of the intercourse between sex and gender.
If you’re confused — you’re not alone!
These are complicated issues.
And English is silly.
