I do think that it's important to be able to acknowledge the difference between sex and gender, or rather the difference between how society sexes people, our own genders, and how society genders us.
I think of gendering as looking at someone and assigning them "man" or "woman".
I think of sexing as looking at someone and putting "F" or "M" on the birth certificate, and then doing what it takes to ensure that the documentation matches the person.
Of course no one is born a man or a woman, and I think that language (like woman-born-woman) is ridiculous, and it implies an entire lifetime's structured socialization springing into existence at the moment of birth. It also implies that we're all programmable robots that passively receive all socialization thrown our way, and that we don't interact with it, reject it, claim it, make it ours, analyze it, think about it, live with it, try to escape it.
I think that under most circumstances, speaking of sex is not really relevant.
I also think that the gender binary is used to support the social construction of sex and the social construction of sex is used to support the gender binary. I don't believe that there is an underlying true biological reality that defines what everyone's sex is or should be, and I think that saying there is interferes with and damages everyone's ability to relate properly to their bodies. I would prefer that "male" and "female" be removed entirely and that we find some other way to discuss how people are born with the equipment to sire or bear children, and not define our own or anyone else's entire lives around this against anyone's will, ever.
I hope that made sense - I think the separation of gender and sex aren't that clear-cut for me, either, but I think it's important to be able to talk about them, to talk about how they reinforce each other, and how one is exalted over the other as a policing tool.
Thank you for hugs.
And I agree about having cis LGB people having their identities rejected, but they really have a choice when they do this - do they counter society's attempts to reject their identities, or do they turn around and blame another marginalized group for that rejection? I see it as the latter - and I see them as, well, picking up the tools they identify with (cissexist tools) and using them to attack trans people, simply because at least cis straight and cis LGB people can agree that trans people ar just weird, and maybe if we went away life would be simpler for everyone.
It's like, when heterosexual people reject me as a lesbian, they tell me I just need a good man to make me into a woman. When cissexual people reject me as a woman, they tell me that I'm supposed to be a man and stop being such a deceptive faker.
no subject
Date: 2009-07-25 02:34 am (UTC)I do think that it's important to be able to acknowledge the difference between sex and gender, or rather the difference between how society sexes people, our own genders, and how society genders us.
I think of gendering as looking at someone and assigning them "man" or "woman".
I think of sexing as looking at someone and putting "F" or "M" on the birth certificate, and then doing what it takes to ensure that the documentation matches the person.
Of course no one is born a man or a woman, and I think that language (like woman-born-woman) is ridiculous, and it implies an entire lifetime's structured socialization springing into existence at the moment of birth. It also implies that we're all programmable robots that passively receive all socialization thrown our way, and that we don't interact with it, reject it, claim it, make it ours, analyze it, think about it, live with it, try to escape it.
I think that under most circumstances, speaking of sex is not really relevant.
I also think that the gender binary is used to support the social construction of sex and the social construction of sex is used to support the gender binary. I don't believe that there is an underlying true biological reality that defines what everyone's sex is or should be, and I think that saying there is interferes with and damages everyone's ability to relate properly to their bodies. I would prefer that "male" and "female" be removed entirely and that we find some other way to discuss how people are born with the equipment to sire or bear children, and not define our own or anyone else's entire lives around this against anyone's will, ever.
I hope that made sense - I think the separation of gender and sex aren't that clear-cut for me, either, but I think it's important to be able to talk about them, to talk about how they reinforce each other, and how one is exalted over the other as a policing tool.
Thank you for hugs.
And I agree about having cis LGB people having their identities rejected, but they really have a choice when they do this - do they counter society's attempts to reject their identities, or do they turn around and blame another marginalized group for that rejection? I see it as the latter - and I see them as, well, picking up the tools they identify with (cissexist tools) and using them to attack trans people, simply because at least cis straight and cis LGB people can agree that trans people ar just weird, and maybe if we went away life would be simpler for everyone.
It's like, when heterosexual people reject me as a lesbian, they tell me I just need a good man to make me into a woman. When cissexual people reject me as a woman, they tell me that I'm supposed to be a man and stop being such a deceptive faker.