The Gender Debate

Gender is something that has been talked about longer than I thought. I never knew that before the twenty-first century people questioned what it means to be a male or a female. Before reading “Sexing the Body” by Anne Sterling I always thought that the debate about gender was something that occurred recently. In retrospect I think that I should’ve known that being a man or being a woman was questioned before. It was surprising to me while reading this book that women who participated in sports were seen as becoming too masculine. Due to this arising “issue” women had to prove they were women. In a degrading way women had to prance around naked in front of others so they can be determined as a female. This book makes an interesting point that just because one looks like a woman doesn’t mean that one is one or vice versa with men.

One main point that I felt really opened my eyes was the fact that the author makes a clear point that the decision of being considered a man or being considered a woman is something that was decided by society. According to societal standards a woman would have the “psychological characteristics” of women such as breasts and a vagina. This argument also collided with the fact that gender and sex are two different things. Gender in this book is defined as the psychological characteristics, which in affect are the defining features that determines if one is a man or a woman. Sex is the “internal conviction” that one is a man or a woman. We classify people based on what we perceive them to be rather than what they would define themselves as. If someone called you by the wrong name or by something you rather not be called, shouldn’t it be their duty to respect that and change how they approach you?