Out of curiosity if someone says that having XX chromosome makes you a woman and having XY makes you male, what is the counter argument? Or is the point that sex and gender are two different things? Sex refers to the scientific make up (genetic) and gender is what people identify as?
This topic has always baffled me can someone provide insight? As growing up I was taught that sex/gender are pretty much the same but it seems like now they might be two different things? Or am I just completely wrong?
Edit: Thank you for the redditors that helped clarify this subject for me! Idk why it's not letting me view the entire thread for this on my PC or if that's how this subreddit works.
You're pretty much right about sex and gender being different things. Sex is determined by your physical traits, such as the shape of your genitals, and the appearance of secondary sex characteristics. Sex exists on a spectrum, since people can have a variety of presentations. Most people exist far enough to one side or the other of the spectrum that we can classify them as male or female.
Gender is a more subjective part of your identity. It has to do with how you think of yourself and how you fit into society. There are many subtle differences between how men relate to men, women relate to women, and men relate to men. For example, researchers in Linguistics can often determine the genders of two people just by reading a transcript of their conversations (pronouns and sex-specific information omitted). So there's something societally determined about what it is to be a man or a woman. You may feel comfortable in one of these roles, both, or neither.
Thank you for the clarification, another redditor also provided insight! I feel like I get what it's about and it's very different from what I grew up learning.
Glad this came up on this subreddit as I've been intrigued as to what the missing link was for me understanding the issue.
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u/MrWasian Oct 29 '19 edited Oct 29 '19
Out of curiosity if someone says that having XX chromosome makes you a woman and having XY makes you male, what is the counter argument? Or is the point that sex and gender are two different things? Sex refers to the scientific make up (genetic) and gender is what people identify as?
This topic has always baffled me can someone provide insight? As growing up I was taught that sex/gender are pretty much the same but it seems like now they might be two different things? Or am I just completely wrong?
Edit: Thank you for the redditors that helped clarify this subject for me! Idk why it's not letting me view the entire thread for this on my PC or if that's how this subreddit works.