Study Task 2

Feminist Perspectives on Sex and Gender

Published May 12, 2008.

Tone of voice:

•       Formal 

Key Points:

•       Gender terminology: There is a distinction between the terms ‘sex’ and ‘gender’. Sex refers to biological features and gender refers to social factors.
•      Gender socialisation: feminine and masculine gender-norms are engrained in society and we are influences by these throughout our lives.
•       Gender Realism: woman share certain characteristics or a common condition/ criterion that defines their gender.
•       Sex models, sexual dimorphism & intersexes: there is a lot of biological research that suggest that feminists are wrong to believe that humans are strictly male or female.
•       Women as a group: in order for women to end gender inequality and women’s oppression there must be something that binds all women together as a group, even though many feminists don’t support this idea. This is problematic.

Key Quotes:

•      “Provisionally: ’sex’ denotes human females and males depending on biological features (chromosomes, sex organs, hormones and other physical features); ‘gender’ denotes women and men depending on social factors (social role, position, behaviour and identity).”
•       “Feminism should aim to create a “genderless (though not sexless) society, in which one’s sexual anatomy is irrelevant to who one is, what one does, and with whom one makes love” (Rubin 1975, 204).”
•       “Social leaning theorists hold that a huge array of different influences socialise us as women and men. this being the case, it is extremely difficult to counter gender socialisation.”
•       “women as a group are assumed to share some characteristic, feature, experience, common condition or criterion that defines their gender and the possession of which makes some individuals women (as opposed to, say, men).”
•       “in order to respond to oppression of women in general, feminists must understand them as a category in some sense.”

Summary:

The article discusses a few different ideas on feminist’s perspectives on sex and gender and how this is relevant to the idea of ending women’s oppression.

It first begins to discuss the difference between the terms ‘sex’ and ‘gender’. Sex is said to refer to an individuals biological features whereas gender is determined on the basis of social factors. Though these are seen to compliment each other in most cases. The text suggests that feminism should “aim to create a genderless (though not sexless) society”.

The text then goes on to discuss gender socialisation, which is the idea that an individual’s gender is determined as a result of social and cultural upbringing. Certain ideas about gender are now engrained into society, creating what we know as feminine and masculine gender-norms. This refers to the idea that certain behaviours and characteristics are associated with a particular gender and these must be conformed to in order to fit into society.  As a result, parents subconsciously treat their children in certain ways. Children are then influenced with these ideas throughout their life, and this has resulted in gender socialisation. The text states that feminists should attempt to diminish the idea of social roles in order to create a more equal society.  

The text then mentions the idea of woman as a group. It discusses how feminists are against the idea that women can be defined as women due to social roles, behaviours and bodily features but still want to make demands on behalf of women. The text questions how this can be possible as “in order to respond to oppression of woman in general, feminists must understand them as a category in some sense.”

In conclusion, the text discusses how gender distinction is still an on-going issue that needs to be addressed and whether or not distinguishing the difference between gender and sex is helpful in feminist’s aims to end women’s oppression.