[culturehandy]

I pitched this in the Community Forum and it was well recieved.

This thread is all about the politics and cross cultural and societal views on gender.

I started thinking increasingly about gender when the media frenzy about Caster Semenya emerged. It is my opinion that the only reason people questioned Ms. Semenya's gender is because she appeared to be "masculine". That is, she looked masculine according to the ideas of society at large. Had she had softer, more "feminine" features, questions of her gender would not have come up.

So, what is gender? We know that there is sex, your biological sex, but gender is a social construct.

[jsmith]

I don't think it comes down to nature v. nurture. I don't think anything comes down to that. It's always a combination of the two, not one or the other. I think some behaviors/attributes that are allegedly peculiar to one gender or the other are biologically based. SOME. But I think that most attributes that our society deems "masculine" or "feminine" are simply social constructs with no good basis in reason.
I agree with the poster who suggested we all fit on a continuum ranging from black to white, with gray in between. I know that I've thought about my own attributes, to which gender they allegedly belong, and why I choose to embrace or obliterate these attributes. There are things about me which are distinctly "feminine", and things which are distinctly "masculine" (as defined by society). I don't behave in a certain way simply because society says it's what is appropriate for a woman, or actively try to go against social mores. I do what I'm comfortable with, and to hell with everything else.
If I ever have kids, I'll make sure to raise them without impressing gender stereotypes on them. I think parents who do this are doing the future a great favor.