The actual difference between sex and gender, in detail.

Skadouchebag

I'm going to copy and paste some things I posted on a webconic's comments section. This completely ended a flame war.






The actual difference between sex and gender, in detail.





It would probably be a good idea for me to explain a few things. In high school psychology class I was taught that one's sex and their gender are two different things. "Sex" refers to your physical genitals, while "gender" refers to your personality and behavior and such.
In humans there are two well defined sexes: male and female. Hermaphrodites (and whatever else might be out there) have deformities and/or mutations and such, and almost always lean toward one sex or the other. (Where people who have had a sex change operation fall is left to the individual to interpret.)
Gender is not so well defined. There's "male," "female," and then a spectrum of "androgynous" which takes characteristics from both.
However, different cultures around the world assign different preferred behaviors to the two sexes. In some those of the male sex act in ways we westerners perceive as feminine and the women are masculine (ex: the women are sexually aggressive and less emotional). In some both are masculine. In some both are feminine. In some everyone's androgynous. People act those ways because that's how they're raised. Testosterone and estrogen have nothing to do with it.
There's just no logical way that [someone] could've developed healthily in the womb and still be neither male nor female in terms of sex. But [they] could easily be neither male nor female in terms of gender. Being androgynous provides a wider range of experience and viewpoints, and it is probably best for society that we try to raise our children to be androgynous.



I guess it could sometimes be 'universal,' but it's usually more like 'mixed.' Some characteristics from male, some from female. I, for example, think of myself as androgynous. I like movies that have explosions, but I can also appreciate a touching love story. I will stop to adore and/or make faces t a cute baby, but I also have *cough* somewhat of an interest in *cough* where they come from. *COUGHCOUGHISTILLWEARAPURITYRINGCOUGHCOUGH*



I forgot to mention that sexual orientation deals only with one's sex and has nothing to do with gender.

The actual difference between sex and gender, in detail.
1 Opinion