Thoughts on "sex"
May. 5th, 2003 09:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kengr(This is part of a reply I wrote on a TV/TG/TS group recently.)
What you are calling "sexual identity" is closer to what seems to be the "official" definition of gender (at least when you get into definitions that don't lump gender, sex and other stuff together under the same heading).
What you are calling "gender" doesn't really *have* a standard term. I call it "social role" as that comes closest to being a short but quickly understandable term.
As I've said in the past there are a bunch of things that society in general lumps together. And often treats as "either/or" properties, in spite of reality being very different.
physical/anatomical sex is not limited to male/female. And it has no automatic link to any of
the following.
gender/"mental sex"/"sexual identity" (I don't like that last term as it's too easily confused with
"sexual orientation". There are at least three variations here. And again, it's not related to any
of the other categories/classes.
"social role" aka masculine/feminine. Do you "act like a man"? "act like a woman"? or something else. We could use several more *recognized* choices here. As well as it being good if society would quit trying to drag gender into it to limit opportunities or treat people differently for "choosing" the "wrong" role.
Sexual orientation. A *very* complex subject.
In spite of being *aware* of some of these distinctions, the average member of the public tends
to think that they "should" all map to anatomical sex.
What you are calling "sexual identity" is closer to what seems to be the "official" definition of gender (at least when you get into definitions that don't lump gender, sex and other stuff together under the same heading).
What you are calling "gender" doesn't really *have* a standard term. I call it "social role" as that comes closest to being a short but quickly understandable term.
As I've said in the past there are a bunch of things that society in general lumps together. And often treats as "either/or" properties, in spite of reality being very different.
physical/anatomical sex is not limited to male/female. And it has no automatic link to any of
the following.
gender/"mental sex"/"sexual identity" (I don't like that last term as it's too easily confused with
"sexual orientation". There are at least three variations here. And again, it's not related to any
of the other categories/classes.
"social role" aka masculine/feminine. Do you "act like a man"? "act like a woman"? or something else. We could use several more *recognized* choices here. As well as it being good if society would quit trying to drag gender into it to limit opportunities or treat people differently for "choosing" the "wrong" role.
Sexual orientation. A *very* complex subject.
In spite of being *aware* of some of these distinctions, the average member of the public tends
to think that they "should" all map to anatomical sex.
