[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.

[koffeewitch]

I love this thread! I've been thinking about inherent/biological aspects. I've already agreed that gender is cultural, but there are cultural traditions surrounding biological phenomena, like menstruation. And childbirth. I do wonder if we women's ability with language is now rooted in our brains because women usually did the raising/nurturing of their children (teaching children to talk/warning them of dangers). Did culture affect biology? Did thousands of years of sex-segregated tasks give us any inherent abilities for those tasks?

When I was in my early twenties I think I was afraid to talk about ANY link of gender to biology. I felt I had been shoved into a pink box for so long; I only wanted to free myself of it. In my late twenties I found myself with an unwanted pregnancy too far advanced for a legal abortion. I never wanted children. I hated children. I was furious and desperate and trapped. Then in my second trimester something happened. I felt some overwhelming, overpowering, insane love and protection for this baby I was carrying. I've since learned this is a common experience. (Childless busties will just have to take my word on this one. I would never have believed it either). Anyway, this desire did NOT come from anywhere in my personality. This was my first experience as a biological animal. As a mammalian creature. So now I'm a bit more open to the role biology can play into our personalities. I bet the peri and post-menapausal women out there could tell us some stories, too.

I've hogged this thread enough. I was hoping someone would jump in and disagree with us by now to get a different perspective going. I would welcome such a discussion with open arms (HINT HINT).