Navami K Week FIVE

Reading: BEARDS, BREASTS, AND BODIES Doing Sex in a Gendered World by RAINE DOZIER

The author starts by clarifying our perceptions of gender and sex and the continuous dichotomy that exists between them, especially in the minds of people. Gender and sex are most often used as interchangeable terminologies, mainly because of the perceptions that most people have regarding these two terms. Nobody teaches us that they are different terms and this becomes a problem later on when these terminologies are put into usage without being politically correct. Although they are ‘inexplicably connected’ like the author mentions, these two words have no common descendants, rather are very different in their approaches and usage. The author says that ‘gender’ as a topic has been severely researched upon and critically analyzed by several scholars mainly because of the vast scope of interpretation that this word has. The author further cites, “Both Nicholson (1994) and Delphy (1993) challenged the view that gender derives from sex and, in a sense, posited the opposite: That “gender is the knowledge that establishes meanings for bodily differences” Again the connotations with which these words are being used in important, along with understanding the context of these words in light of what is going on in the world currently.  

But what is sex? sex is assigned based on a genital inspection at birth, but biological sex is a complex constellation of chromosomes, hormones, genitalia, and reproductive organs. sex is both a physical attribute and socially constructed. 

How is different from gender? Lorber (1994, 1999) attempted to uncouple masculinity and femininity from sex category by developing subcategories of gender including gender status (being taken for a man or woman), gender identity (sense of self as a man or woman), and gender display (being feminine and/or masculine). Even with this delineation, Lorber, like West and Zimmerman (1987), consistently slipped into assumptions of the “natural” link between categories. 

All this can only mean that the concepts of sex, sexuality, and gender are overarching topics of contentions that are to be read together with respect to one another. 

The perceptions of sexuality and attraction also change on the basis of personal preferences including the way someone likes a particular hairstyle, face structure, sexual identity, weight, height, color, intellect, fragrance, etc. All these change the way that people feel about a person and how their attraction varies. 

What is the idea of Sexual orientation and Gender identity and how are they linked? Sexual behavior is another site that more clearly explicates the relationship between sex and gender. Sexual orientation is based not solely on the object of sexual and erotic attraction, but also on the sex category and gender performance created in the context of sexual interaction. The performance of gender is crucial in the sexual arena for two reasons: First, because sexuality is expressed through the body, which may or may not align with an individual’s gender identity and, second, because heterosexual intercourse can symbolize the social inequalities between men and women. 

What the author finally tries to say is that Trans people are in the unique position of experiencing social interaction as both women and men and illustrate the relativity of attributing behavior as masculine or feminine. Sexual orientation is based not exclusively on object attraction but also on the gendered meanings created in sexual and romantic interaction. Sexual orientation can be seen as fluid, depending on both the perceived sex of the individuals and the gender organization of the relationship. 

People are not simply held accountable for a gender performance based on their sex; the gendered meaning of behavior is dependent on sex attribution. Whether behavior is defined as masculine or feminine, laudable or annoying, is dependent on the sex category. Doing gender, then, does not simply involve performing appropriate masculinity or femininity based on the sex category. Doing gender involves a balance of both doing sex and performing masculinity and femininity. When there is no confusion or ambiguity in the sex performance, individuals are able to have more diverse expressions of masculinity and femininity.