"Natural" Gender Differences

Paper Summary:

In this article, the writer discusses that the concepts of gender, femininity and masculinity are all socially constructed, in that they cannot be concretely defined in absolute terms. The writer notes that there are numerous examples within the literature to explain how the genders differ, but there are very few to no differences that show conclusively that these differences are natural, or innate. The writer maintains that gender is a social construct, and as such, society has also constructed the differences between the genders. At the level of society at large, gender operates to govern over the relations among groups and the access to resources. At an interacting level between individuals, gender allows us to categorize individuals based on their gender and to derive differences based on these categories. The writer discusses that as such, gender is a self-fulfilling prophecy, along with any and all proposed differences that exist between the genders. The writer concludes that in reality, however, the majority of gender differences, if not all of them, are socially constructed and do not exist innately.

From the Paper:

"Thus, instead of being mutually exclusive constructs, it is now accepted that an individual can be high in both femininity and masculinity. Thus, with the ability of humans to span the spectrums of masculinity and femininity within their own identity and behaviour, it becomes quite clear that there really are very few characteristics, which can be deemed inherently masculine or feminine. In fact, it's quite arguable that there are no such characteristics.
"The differences that exist between masculinity and femininity are all produced by societal definitions. Society defines femininity and masculinity to be nearly polar opposites, but societal definitions do not force any one individual to become either feminine or masculine based on their natural biological sex. Thus, to find any true differences between the genders it is necessary to go beyond socially constructed concepts and to look at actually physical differences, besides the obvious."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Crawford, M. (1995) Talking Differences. London, Sage.
• Johnson, O.K. (2004). The Sexual Spectrum, Exploring Human Diversity. Vancouver: Raincoat Books.

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