[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.

[girltrouble]

i deleted it, because, well, i've been enjoying reading what everyone has posted. you know me this is usually the sort of topic i jump into with both feet, but with the reel life thread, i've been wanting to lay back more, and occasionally post stuff. i'm really enjoying this singing without adding my voice just yet, and if i did i wanted to dip my toe in...

but to be concise on what i posted and deleted, when dealing with the subject of pretty much anything that deals even tangentially with queer issues, it is useful to make some clear delineations, the most basic of which i got from a book about gender, which used some very curious (and compelling) terms. they suggested that we use the initials, SSG to stand in for the three relevant areas of sex, sexuality and gender. they often seem to overlap, but in using ssg, we can keep them relatively separate.

SEX is supposedly the most obvious, it is what is between your legs, but when we did deeper as in the case of ms. castor. going by the most colloquial means listed above, ms. castor is female if we look between her legs. (ugh, that phrase curdles in my mouth), yet we are told genetically she is intersexed, but her hormone levels are not that of a male, but that of a post hormonal woman. so does that mean hot flashes are nature's way of saying, you've got male (hormones)!? or is it just an arbitrary line in the sand? my vote is the later. basically her hormones are probably xy, but that doesn't make one female any more than having four wheels makes you a rolls royce. but lets move on to the other initials, with the caviat that our binary perception of male and female is a combination of genetics, hormones, primary and secondary sex characteristics and several other things it only appears binary because these things are ignored for simplicity's (and patriarical) sake.

SEXUALITY simply this can be boiled down to who you are attracted to. this is why male to female transexuals aren't ipso facto attracted to boys. (and why female to male ones can be) sexuality isn't tied to sex. it can change, and is more fluid that we are told.

and finally the subject of this thread, GENDER. which is probably the most complex one to explain. it is a culture's assumptive norms of sex codified. sorry english. basically it is stereotyped signs or accessories of sex. gender is technically not you. it is the signs that you give off of what is supposed to be between your legs. and this is my long winded way of saying that i think what you post is absolutely true star. gender is just as much a role as being say, mother or father. fireman, doctor, or any other role that one can quickly short hand. gender is little more than a drag. we go along with the drag or don't when it suits our purposes, but most of the time we go along.

and you always make plenty of sense moonbeams.