Reflection Paper: Sex, Gender, and Social Construction Social Essay (Essay Sample)

Reflection Paper: Sex, Gender, and Social Construction
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Gender and sex are common terms that people use in daily basis. Sex has been traditionally defined as the biological as well as the anatomical features that are used to classify people as either male or female. The anatomical and the biological characteristics can be both the external and internal sex organ, hormones, chromosomes, and other secondary sex traits like breasts facial air. At times, confusion arises when a person possesses attributes that cut across the unclear boundaries of binary female/male sexes, for instance, genitalia that cannot be associated with male or the female. For this reason, some people have branded as intersex –something that has been considered as a social construct. Gender and sex at times are used interchangeably, but there is a difference between the terms. Gender refers to the non-physiological aspects –behavior, and appearance –that is used to determine the masculinity or the feminism of a person. Androgynous upbringing makes it more confusing to understand the ideology of gender, sex, and relationship. While nature –biology –is assumed as the only factor that determines the traditional conventions of gender and sex, nurture –socialization has been found to have an influence on the whole idea of gender, transgender, sex, intersex, assigned sex, gender and sex identities, gender roles, and sexual and gender orientations.