Gender is constructed meaning assigned to sex, not given by biology

Evidence

Gender will be treated here as the complex ways that men and women come to identify themselves as masculine or feminine via the reproduction, exchange, and even resistance to strong root metaphors that create our definitions of these terms. … This definition differentiates gender from sex, which refers to the specific biological differences between males and females—differences for example in genitalia, chromosomes, hormones, reproductive organs, and so on. We acknowledge that these biological differences exist. In fact, though this is not commonly discussed, we also acknowledge that sex differences can come in more forms than the two we normally think of—male and female—though these are often the only forms recognized in modern Western cultures. In fact, intersex is a concept used to refer to combina - tions of physical features (genitalia) or to describe an individual who has biological characteristics of both the male and female sexes and thus cannot be classified as either one or the other. … The important point for this chapter is that gender differences (including important differences in social, political, and economic power among men and women) are created from the representations and meanings that get assigned to these biological differences, meanings that have been passed down, internalized, and exchanged historically through complex discursive systems and presented, even experienced, as if they were biological or natural. — Rebecca A. Martusewicz, Jeff Edmundson, and John Lupinacci, EcoJustice Education, 673

Categorization

• DEFINE: Precise definitional distinctions between gender, sex, intersex, sexuality, and the key claim that gender meanings get naturalized as biology — textbook terminology worth keeping.
• XREF: Connects to Bowers’ root-metaphor theory and to the polyad’s listening/observation-as-method thread: gender meaning is discursively reproduced. — connects to: Early women’s education advocates kept reason masculine and only expanded the feminine sphere — Rebecca A. Martusewicz, Jeff Edmundson, and John Lupinacci, EcoJustice Education: Toward Diverse,…, 708; The female body functions as a metaphor for inferiority used to police male gender. — Rebecca A. Martusewicz, Jeff Edmundson, and John Lupinacci, EcoJustice Education: Toward Diverse,…, 785; Gender can be distinguished from sex and nature without dualism — Val Plumwood, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, 762 (+7 more)

Broader Connections

• Womanhood is socially constructed, not biologically destined #corroborates (0.98) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 676
• Biology does not condemn women to inferiority; meaning applied to differences does #corroborates (0.97) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1978
• The meaning of sexual positions is socially constructed, not biologically fixed #expands (0.92) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1978
• Gender differences are learned developmental outcomes, not natural expressions #corroborates (0.88) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 668
• Gender is a social power structure rather than a genetic trait. #expands (0.80)
• Gender is social structure while sex is genetic endowment #expands (0.78)
• Puberty’s meaning differs by sex because it announces different futures. #qualifies (0.72) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 760