W14.1 Gender
The gender vs sex debate has been around for years and it has divided people from different religious beliefs and those who like scientific proof against each other. Gender is what a person projects to society through masculine and feminine attitudes- which are established differently depending on the cultural background of each individual. Every human can adopt and express the behaviors they feel more comfortable portraying in society, however, since we are born we are shaped into what is traditionally accepted as "normal", whether it's following a masculine or feminine role. People who are raised this way develop a heteronormative identity but gender still is fluid. When we talk about the term "sex" we often refer to a person's biological assignment given by an authority (medical). This is where the idea of the two sexes comes from, with females having two x chromosomes and males having XY chromosomes. Even though both sexes start teething, walking, and speaking around the same time, males growing up tend to be 10% taller, 20% heavier, and 35% stronger than females. Females start puberty two years before males do, and there is a difference between both brains. The temporal lobe (language and emotion) develops four years earlier in females and the left parietal lobe (mathematical and spatial reasoning) develops four years earlier in males. The people who chose to conform to the idea of the two sexes and two genders are denominated as cis, e.g., "A cisgender male will be assigned male at birth and thus follow the script set forth for males in his social world." Those who chose not to conform to the idea of the two sexes and two genders and decide to identify with the opposite one with the help of hormones, surgeries, etc are considered trans. Trans people had and still struggle with facing discrimination by both religious (considered a sin) and scientific communities (medical authorities consider it as a disorder that required treatment). Before the development of capitalism, women had a role that they were supposed to follow no matter what, which was household maintenance. Women would often not study nor approach any opportunity to become stay-at-home moms but as years went by, female participation at work started to grow little by little starting with food production. Women are often offered occupations with low payment making on average $17,000 less than men even if they have the same level of education. Women often end up with a so-called "pink-collared job"; pink-collared jobs are jobs considered to be a woman's work in specific fields, examples are nursing, childcare, teaching, beauty, etc.
2) New items
"Female life expectancy in the U.S. is 79.8 years; for males, it is 74.4." For me it was a known fact that women outlived men, however, I never asked myself what were the reasons behind this; the most known reasons are the fact that women produce more estrogen, a hormone that gives us protection against multiple diseases. Men produce more testosterone, a hormone that is known to increase multiple diseases. Social factors are also involved in this phenomenon as men are more likely to consume more alcoholic drinks, have constant smoking, and are prone to an unhealthy diet compared to women.
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3) Question
"What is the difference between biological sex and gender?" Sex is related to our genitalia and genetics, and biological factors that differentiate a male from a female at birth while gender is an interpretation of how a man or a woman should behave. Since gender is created by a heteronormative society it is usually expected for an individual to be a male or female however gender can be fluid and one can identify with one of those genders, both, neither or create a new category for them. According to an article published by Yale's School of Medicine, the term sex should be used as a classification and gender should be used to refer to a person's self-representation.
Zulema Gaxiola
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