Sex and Gender

We define sex as being the biological and physiological characteristics of a person. There are many sex characteristics. Women menstruate, men don’t, and men have testicles, while women don’t. Gender is referred to as the socially constructed roles, activities, and attributes that a given society believes to be appropriate for a man or woman. There are also many gender characteristics. Women typically earn less money than a man in a particular work setting, in Viet Nam, more men typically smoke than women, men are the only ones allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia, and women are typically distinguished with more housework. I believe masculinity to be aggressive, rational, strong, and dominant. Femininity is more the passive, loving, and intuitive of a person. People “do gender” mostly by the way they are brought up. For example, the type of clothes they dress you in and the way they decorate your room or nursery. I learned to do gender by my parents. They made my room into a girly, pink room and dressed me in girly clothes and bought me many dolls, Barbies, and any other feminine toy. Gender ranking reinforces sexism because you are ranked by your sex and gender. For example, men play football and women play field hockey. Sexism is primarily based on gender. Women are made fun of or laughed at when wanting to try out for a masculine sport. While, when men tryout for a feminine sport they are laughed at in a joking manner, typically not in a manner of being made fun of.