What is Gender ?

From the Syllabus

Gender is the state of being male or female (typically used with reference to social and cultural differences rather than biological ones). The term gender is usually seen through a binary lens, either you are one or the other but never both. This maybe true for some people however this is not the case for all individuals. Some people assume that sex and gender are one in the same but this is NOT TRUE.

Your sex is determined by biology whereas gender is socially constructed. Society leads us to believe that having a penis means that your gender is male. If you have a vagina than your gender is female. These notions leaves many people out in the cold. What happens to those who either have both sex organs or those who don't feel as though their sex organs match what their gender expression is?

Why Must We Remember that Gender is Socially Constructed and Is Neither a Binary Nor a Biological Determination?  This question is quite loaded and shapes a fundamental way that we talk about gender in non-oppressive, inclusive, and socially conscious ways.  
 
We have two reading strategies for this class. Sometimes, we all read the same thing.  We call that a communal assignment.  At other times, we use a method called a Jigsaw.  The jigsaw is a popular strategy for collaborative assignments.  It means that the article/text that you read will be different from your colleagues and so, in turn, you need to educate your colleagues about what you have studied. Whenever you do a jigsaw assignment, make sure that you choose the reading assignment that you like MOST.  Make your choice based on the title and then peruse the reading.  If you don’t like it, go back and choose a different reading.  Form an intellectual dialogue with your reading--- don’t just choose anything to get the assignment done and over with. 

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Society's construct of gender

Did you ever wonder who made up the notion of blue for boys and pink for girls? Where did the ideas that boys don't cry or girls should play with dolls come from? Such gender socialization is done before a child is even born. We have all played victim to this. Who hasn't bought a gendered baby gift or attended a pink princess's one year-old birthday party?

Understanding gender isn't as easy as one may think. Gender is on a spectrum. Being able to define one’s own identity and to have society respect it is the prime reason why the gender binary is a principle that we must do away with. One should have the sole right to make their own decisions including the right to use which ever bathroom one feels most comfortable using. However we aren’t permitted to live in a world that is free from patriarchal and binary gender systems.

Society distorts facts and wants people to prove their manhood or their womanhood. What is a display of womanhood? What is a display of manhood?  Is it only physical? Do  breasts prove that someone is a woman?  Does being able to produce working sperm mean that you are a real man? What about the mother of two who had to have a double mastectomy after finding out she had breast cancer? Does she not qualify as a woman anymore because she lost her breast?  These questions and more are dilemmas caused by a false binary.

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