Sex Gender, Article Review Example

While people have had perennial interest in concepts such as sex and gender, precise definitions have remained elusive.  This is not only because the difficulty of capturing their essence, but also in the fact that these concepts mean different things to different people.  Overall, the most useful demarcation line might be that concepts such as sex appear to be (more) biologically contingent, while concepts such as gender and sexuality depend more on environmental forces.

The definitions of terms such as sex and gender are primarily a product of their origin.  That is, sex appears to be, at least initially, a biological concept because males and females are born with different body structures and capacities: women can birth children; men cannot.  Gender, on the other hand, seems more environmental in nature.  That is, individuals who have a notion of the masculine or feminine ideal usually acquire it from people or cultural influences. I would also argue that a concept such as gender is molded by the consciousness; this also seems to be true regarding the notion of sexuality.  Thus, the concepts of sex and sexuality differ in that, with all apologies to Foucault, there is an external power dynamic that sears an individual’s conscious and underlies an individual’s notion of sexuality. The notion of sexuality is also not derived in a solipsistic bubble but through interactions and experiences with other humans.  Overall, I don’t think one can make generalizations regarding how all individuals feel about these concepts, or how they influence all individuals.  Indeed, I am quite sure that a heterosexual male and homosexual male would have differing notions of these concepts, with differing weights given to each one.  Thus, to someone who remarked “sex is socially constructed” I would reply that the basis of sex is certainly not social, but the conscious self may turn it into such a concept.