Thursday, October 21, 2010

Gender, Sex, and Sexuality

Is there a difference between all of these?? Absolutely. There is a distinct difference between all of these terms. Sex is whether one has male or female sexual organs. Sexuality is the sex that one is attracted to. If someone is attracted to the same sex, then he is homosexual. If someone is attracted to the opposite sex, then he is heterosexual. Gender is a bit more complicated. Gender is the way one thinks of themselves and acts according to societal norms. Gender is part of ones social construction. We start learning what gender is from the time we are kids by the way our parents talk to us, the way they treat us, how they dress us, and even what color our room is. We get exposed to social norms like this from the time we are born, and the sum of all of these cultural sexual norms determines our gender. We are all affected by these norms and we are the way we are because of them. We owe our gender much more to nuture than to nature.

3 comments:

  1. Before soc. i really categorized all of these the same but now i understand our norms affect each of these.

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  2. I totally agree that we are shown this at an early age. In fact, some families go as far as picking out toys before the baby is born, but not until they figure out the sex so they can pick out the "right" toys for that sex.

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  3. This subject about Gender, Sex, and etc. Has made me realize that everything that has happened or said or even seen to by us shaped the way we think and are thought process.

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