Sex and Gender - different things

Being an increasingly grumpy old wotsit I find myself increasingly wound up by words and the way people use them.

One of these is the transportability of the words 'sex' and 'gender' as if they were one and the same.

As I understand it sex (when not referring to coitus) relates to the biological categories of 'male' and 'female' and this is determined by a number of factors at birth, namely:

Anatomy - As a doctor friend engaged in the delivery of babies and their care once put it, "If it hasn't got a todger - it's a girl!"

Chromosones - Of the twenty-three pairs of chromosones, only one pair determine the sex of the human animal (X and Y) and XX is female and XY is male.

Reproduction - The sex of the person determines the potential they have in terms of reproduction. (note use of the word 'potential' here - not having produced progeny neither negates the sex of a person or the validity of a marriage!)

Gender, as I understand it, is more of a sociological term which although it may as a starting point have drawn upon 'sex' actually refers to gender identity (which in the case of transgendered differs from the biological reality)and equality issues. Again, my understanding is that it was in the feminist/sexual equality context the word 'gender' really became the sociological beast that we have today.

I understand that the Americans (who can be relied upon to generally abuse and misuse the English language with style and aplomb) are the root cause of the confusion between sex and gender and the thinking that they mean one and the same.

It was explained to me by a Psychologist who was working in the area of GID (Gender Identity Disorder) that rendering the words 'sex' and 'gender' as one and the same removed many complications and made transitions from one gender (where gender means the self-perceived or societally-acknowledged male or female identity) to the other less fraught with complications and trauma (for all concerned). "You can be whichever you wish," was his battle cry and for some he thought there might be a crossing over and return as the mood, situation or circumstance dictated. (I asked about those who had undergone reassignment surgery and was told that some do return to their birth sex whilst others merely become engaged in 'same-sex' relationships - and retain their new gender identity).

The interesting situation whereby one is both male and female (hermaphroditic) poses many problems in that they choice made by doctors on which was to be the sex they were labelled as being wasn't always correct. I have only (in a counselling context) encountered one person who had this problem and so assume it must be rare - but for the purpose of considering all corners of the 'sex' triangle (M/F/Herm') I have included this here too!

I hope this explains my position on the use of the two words and what I understand them to mean and hopefully the person I had a discussion with might now understand the what and why regarding my position.

Sex is fixed - gender can be a choice.

Pax

ps. I was also taught that transgender and transexual were two distinct things and whilst one might lead to the other, this was not always the case. The number of people I have counselled who were indeed transexuals but would never have countenanced becoming transgender and who were heterosexual have led me to believe that the coalescence of these two words is unhelpful for many reasons (especially the trivialisation of those who are trans).

It is especially important to get the words and the understanding fixed - ask those who have cause to remember that today is 'International Transgender Remembrance Day' - a day when those who have lost their lives because of misunderstanding and intolerance towards this issue.

Tea drunk - time to rush back out into the big wide world and meet more people, share the Gospel and seek the image of the invisible God in them :-)