Gender Identity

Gender, Biology, and Essentialism

To a certain extent, all identities are social constructions. The ways in which we identify ourselves are based on how we locate ourselves within our societies. Our social status, interactions, and relationships with others inform and influence our sense of ourselves. In this view, all identities are based on a changing social context and are, therefore, open to interpretation—they retain a certain amount of flexibility and ambiguity. However, the extent to which we can redefine ourselves or create a new identity depends on the reaction of others to our attempts. We are all social creatures, existing within a complex web of interactions and relationships. Changing ourselves involves changing these relationships, with implications for others. Within these limits, however, a certain amount of flexibility and creativity is allowed socially in our self-presentations.

Gender identity, however, possesses a lower level of flexibility or ambiguity than other identities. This is because, although the creation and [Page 618]performance of gender identity is, like all other identities, the result of interaction between individual and society, it is based on the interpretation and experience of the human body. It is, perhaps more than any other identity, embodied, based on the coding of the body as male or female, masculine or feminine. The social expectations and the associated moral and behavioral standards of specific gender identities are the result of a reading of the physical or biological. Gender is read, almost instantly, on meeting, speaking to, or seeing particular individuals, and immediately it conjures up expectation of appropriate behavior and relative social status. The only other identity so intimately connected with the body is race.

This biological basis means that gender is frequently confused with “sex.” “Sex” refers to the identification of specific biological and anatomical characteristics associated with the male or the female of a particular species. As some of these biological characteristics are not readily visible, for example, the possession of particular combinations of chromosomes and hormones, sex is determined on a daily basis on the physical appearance of individuals. Male humans tend to be physically larger and more muscular than females; they tend to have deeper voices, more body and facial hair, and more defined facial features. Females are smaller and tend to be less muscular, with visible breasts and buttocks and higher pitched voices. Some individuals in every society do not possess these characteristics but are still members of one sex or the other. Also, some individuals possess characteristics of the “other” sex. However, as a general rule, it is straightforward for members of any specific cultural or social grouping to identify which sex a particular individual possesses.

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