How Science is Helping Us Understand Gender

When a baby is born, the first concern in many cultures is whether it is a boy or a girl.

Many people are unaware that some people can show both male and female traits, which can be very complicated. Despite the fact that there have been a few instances of individuals having both male and female characteristics, gender is associated with certain traits that define maleness and femaleness. A person’s idea of their gender identity can be described as whether they identify as male, female, sometimes both, or neither. Every person has a gender identity, though identifying it can be challenging, particularly when there is a disorder. While gender may begin at the assignment of the newborn’s sex it may not be always the case since there are some people that feel that their brain belong to one gender while their body belong to another. Thus gender identity is not limited to two possibilities and a child may not be identified as a male or a female instead a child could be identified as both or neither.

The concept is related to gender role, which is described with the outward personality manifestations as defined by the society.

However, gender role is a society’s construct by observing the outward characteristic of an individual or behavior. Gender identity occurs due to several experiences in peoples’ lives. These experiences differ depending on various factors such as the society, race, and culture. According to Andersen, these differences in gender identities are primarily formed under the narrow structures of stereotypes created in the society, as the systems of social control. Based on the social constructivist and the biological experiment approach, the perception of gender identity has been highlighted and hence encouraging people’s critical judgment about whom they think they are. Friedman argues “gender identity is a complex phenomenon, involving a mix of genes, hormones, and social influence. And there is no getting around the fact that biology places constraints on our capacity to re-imagine ourselves and to change.” His arguments suggest that biological make-up of human beings determines their gender identity in the society since assignment of gender at birth focuses on the visible male and female body characteristics.

Gender has been a controversial topic in a long time, and today individuals feel that gender identity is not limited to two possibilities.

Today more people are questioning their gender identity and some organizations such as the NSPCC are receiving thousands of calls from children requiring counselling for gender identity. For instance, in 2015-2016, 2796 calls were received compared with 1299 calls received in the previous year. Again, people are exploring and changing their gender identities until they achieve the identity they feel comfortable with. People have undergone surgeries to change from male to females and vice versa as they try to discover their real selves. There are several categories that did not exists a generations ago but today sex categorization consist of more than two genders in many countries. The Queensland University of Technology (QUT) conducted a new sex survey and listed 33 options under the question “Which of the following terms do you feel best describes your gender?” This is a proof that the two genders constructed by the society do not incorporate every individual living on the planet.

According to recent neuroscience research, gender identity, exist in a spectrum and fits very well within a range of biological variations.

“Georg S. Kranz and others at the Medical University of Vienna stated in a 2014 study in The Journal of Neuroscience, ”individuals that tend to classify themselves on the transsexual gender and the ones seeking for sex reassignment reveal some structural differences in their brains lying between their desired gender and their genetic sex.“ There is a need to understand the difference between gender and sex since the two are normally used interchangeably. However, in science sex is associated with male and female gonads while gender is only associated with social role. The intersex condition on a baby at birth brings out confusion and in many cases one sex is chosen to simplify social interactions, dressing, roles, and other aspects of life. Gender can be argued to be a conclusion that is reached when an individual expresses his gender identity and role. Since gender and sex cannot be interchanged, their developments are also not interchangeable since each develops differently. For instance, sexual development progresses via distinct stages such as neonatal, infancy, childhood, puberty, and adulthood. However, gender development is normally reinforced by gender role since boys tend to associate with masculine roles while girls go towards feminine roles.

Gender always begins with assignment of sex but it does not end there since an individual’s gender may involve interrelationship between the body, identity, and expression.

The internal sense of self such as female, male, or a blend of the two in addition to relationship with other people helps in defining gender identity. People express gender differently depending on their culture, society, and family perceptions. For one to feel secure with his or her gender identity, the body, identity, and expression must be in harmony.

Bibliography

Burn, Shawn Meghan. ”Gender Identification.“ The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Gender and Sexuality Studies (2016).

Friedman, Richard A. ”How Changeable Is Gender? - The New York Times.“ The New York.

Henig, Robin M. ”How Science is Helping Us Understand Gender.“ National Geographic. Last modified April 2016. http://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2017/01/how-science-helps-us-understand-gender-identity/.

Jager, Chris, Andrew Liszewski, and Leigh Anderson. ”Explained: The 33 Gender Identities Recognised By The Australian Sex Survey.“ Lifehacker Australia. July 29, 2016. Accessed May 07, 2017. https://www.lifehacker.com.au/2016/07/explained-the-33-gender-identities-recognised-by-the-2016-australian-sex-survey/.

Kranz, Georg S., Andreas Hahn, Ulrike Kaufmann, Martin Küblböck, Allan Hummer, Sebastian Ganger, Rene Seiger et al. ”White Matter Microstructure in Transsexuals and Controls Investigated by Diffusion Tensor Imaging.“ Journal of Neuroscience 34, no. 46 (2014): 15466-15475.

Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. Last modified August 22, 2015. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/23/opinion/sunday/richard-a-friedman-how-changeable-is-gender.html?_r=0.