Gender Issues

Historically, gender has been defined as the behavioral presentation associated with being a particular sex: male or female. This definition has been associated with a person’s genitalia. For example, individuals with penises are assigned male sex and therefore a masculine gender; individuals born with a vulva are conversely assigned female sex and therefore a feminine gender. The conflation of sex and gender has led to the identification of all individuals with a penis as male and therefore masculine, identified as a “man.” For women the same conflation has occurred: Born with a vulva means female, which means feminine, which means woman. In modern medical terms, individuals who, at birth, have genitalia that cannot be clearly defined as a penis or vulva are defined as intersex, ...