A More Accurate Definition of Gender.

March 5, 2010 at 7:55 am (Uncategorized)

“Gender refers to the socially constructed roles, behavior, activities and attributes that a particular society considers appropriate for men and women.”  In other words, what society has already defined for you and how you must act in order to stay in the norms.  The World Health Organization’s (WHO) definition of gender may be politically correct, but is there more to gender than this?  Jamison Green, a transsexual, seems to think so.

Green defines gender as “another system of classification that describes characteristics and behaviors that we ascribe to bodies, and we call those characteristics and behaviors ‘masculine’ or ‘feminine’.”  In his words, gender is more of how you define yourself to be, which sex you can relate with more.  One’s sense of self, or gender identity affects everyone on a daily basis, which can be very difficult for transsexuals and transgendered people.  Jamison Green asks a thought provoking question: “What’s more valid, your feelings and your certain knowledge or yourself, or your body, the thing that other people see which signals to them what they can expect from you?  Imagine what it would feel like to live with that discrepancy.”  Because of this misalignment between gender identity and outward appearance, Green might feel like the WHO’s definition of gender may need to change.  Instead, gender should be defined as the interface between our psyche and our cognitive mind/body/sex because gender is more than just what other people perceive of someone—it is also how they feel on the inside.  Without this change of how gender should be viewed, society will continue to make judgments on “confused” people in society who don’t fit into either a female or male persona.

Jamison Green seems to be reaching out in particular to anyone that hasn’t questioned gender before.  Even me just reading a few chapters of his book have already eliminated some stereotypes that I had previously held for people.  Green gives his argument as if his audience has never questioned how they know what sex they are before.  The either male or female population doesn’t really think about that on a daily basis, and Green effectively states a claim that could be different than previously thought about gender.  The scientific experiments and statistics provided in the first chapter of his book strongly appeal to logos, and it shocks the viewer of the reality of how common transgender and transsexuals there really are in the world.

Before reading this book, I had a very similar definition of gender to the WHO’s definition in my mind.  I knew there was a difference between sex and gender, and gender was the one that was more of a role played and less of a biological factor.  However, after reading this, everything I have previously thought has been eliminated.  I didn’t even realize how much variety there was in the world in regards to gender identity, and in no way would I judge them for that.  I guess just in the area I have been raised in, not many transsexuals openly displayed themselves, because this is a topic that I’m not too familiar with, but it is extremely interesting and I now want to read the rest of his book!  His book was very effective with the way that he had his audience think about gender, and how things are not always how they seem to be.