Gender and Sex

 
            We are all in college but some people still do not know the difference between sex and gender and use them interchangeably; the only issue with this is the difference is important. Today, people are expressing gender and sex differently than ever before. There are over fifty different sex and gender terms people use to identify themselves in relation to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, plus (LGBT+) community. This is important to sexual health because how people identify will determine who they are emotionally and physically attracted to and how they approach the topic of sex.
            “Sex” has more than one meaning: it could mean sexual activity or the reproductive organs that we have. There are physically only two sexes a person could have, male or female, but how a person feels about their sex and how they chose to express that can be wildly different. I was born female and express myself as such but for others, their journey is more difficult. Because they were born with one set of reproductive organs but they do not feel that they are the sex they were assigned at birth. This process can be stressful, confusing, emotional, and it will affect each person differently. Sex is different than gender, gender is geared more toward the traits of being masculine and feminine as well as the identities we express. Gender identity is the way we feel in terms of masculine (male) and feminine (female). Some people have the sex of one gender but they identify more with the other but gender identity does not fit into two categories, it is scale and how people identify can fall anywhere on that line.
            I first started learning about sex, gender, and identity in high school but it was until I was in college that I become an ally after going through Safe Zone Training. The Safe Zone Project branch that we have Eastern Illinois University offers three training programs. The Safe Zone Project (2018), “Safe Zone trainings are opportunities to learn about LGBTQ+ identities, gender and sexuality, and unlearn prejudice. People go through Safe Zone training and are taught to openly talk about and being supportive of LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer/Questioning +) individuals and identities”.
A tool commonly used to explain sex and gender is the gender bread person (pictured above).
Thomas (2016) writes:
The Genderbread Person, now in its third revision, is a clear and comprehensible tool easily available to the public. The Genderbread Person deconstructs gender and sexuality to clarify the differences and interrelationships but, critically not interconnectedness, of five dimensions of human identity and behavior. The graphic emphasizes the distinct, disconnected spectrums of gender identity, gender expression, biological sex, sexual attraction, and romantic attraction along which people might place themselves
            We need to be aware of other people’s sex and identity to avoid offending someone but the real issue is the threat people receive for identifying as anything other than straight or expressing themselves as anything other than the socially constructed roles of the sex they were assigned at birth. People of the LGBT+ community are often out casted, assaulted, raped, murdered, etc. Park. and Mykhyalyshyn (2016), “L.G.B.T. people are twice as likely to be targeted as African-Americans, and the rate of hate crimes against them has surpassed that of crimes against Jews”. Dastagir (2017), “The gruesome attack at a gay nightclub in Orlando was the worst mass shooting in U.S. history. Yet even without those 49 victims, 2016 was the deadliest year on record for the LGBTQ community”. The LGBT+ community”.



References
Dastagir, A. E. (2017, June 12). 2016 was the deadliest year on record for the LGBTQ community. USA Today. Retrieved from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2017/06/12/2016-deadliest-year-lgbtq-pulse/373840001/
Park, H. & Mykhyalyshyn, I. (2016, June 16). L.G.B.T. People Are More Likely to Be Targets of Hate Crimes Than Any Other Minority Group. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/06/16/us/hate-crimes-against-lgbt.html
Safe Zone Project. (2018). Retrieved from http://thesafezoneproject.com/

Thomas, M. (2016, November 22). The Genderbread Person 3.0. Public Health Post. Retrieved from https://www.publichealthpost.org/databyte/genderbread-person/

Comments

  1. Whitney HillFebruary 23, 2018 at 2:31 PM

    I agree that people often mix up the meaning of what sex and gender is. In my Human Sexuality class (I think we have that class together), we partially discuss the matter of how sex and gender comes into play when you're talking about the LGBT+ Community. This post really helped me make that connection. I too have my fair share of mixing up the two terms sometimes, so this information really helped me to learn how to distinguish the two more easily. I also found it interesting that they are over 50 different sex and gender terms people use to identify themselves, and I'm only familiar with a handful of them.

    I really enjoyed your post and I'm looking forward to what you write about next!

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownFebruary 24, 2018 at 4:12 PM

    Morgan,

    I do like the fact that you've included the Gingerbread Person, it does give useful information to those who may not understand gender and identity. It is important to also understand that it is not always just male or female, there are those who do not identify with either of those options. Gender is fluid and it's a spectrum, people fall in the middle and in between not on one side or the other. Also it's okay to ask, I know it may feel weird to ask but it's much better to do so than to assume who someone is. Great post overall.

    Cheyenne

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ashley HoffmannMarch 7, 2018 at 9:56 AM

    The genderbread person really caught my eye and made your blog even more interesting! It does give useful information and makes it more clear. You picked a good infographic to use. I agree people do get sex and gender confused, and the past couple years has been a really big change for us. It is important to know all of this information before assuming something about a person or mixing up the terms. You did a great job writing this post, and I am excited to learn more information in your next one!

    ReplyDelete
  4. UnknownMarch 7, 2018 at 8:40 PM

    First off Morgan, I would like to say how I love that you included The Genderbread Person because it is a really good model for helping a person figure out who they are. Another thing that I would like to mention is that it's great that you are explaining the difference between gender and sex because there are people out in the world who thinks it's the same thing. I've had to inform so many people during my time being in college that gender and sex are not the same at all. It would be good if other people read this post because it's very informative and well written.

    ReplyDelete

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