The consensus that ‘sex’ refers to biological components that define men from women while ‘gender’ refers to cultural constructs influencing masculinity and femininity is groundbreaking. Distinguishing ‘sex’ from ‘gender’ has cultivated radical ramifications that have reshaped studies of the human body and behaviour - particularly in the fields of anthropology, and science: both medical and social. This understanding provides an intellectual foundation to pioneer human studies to new paths - three of which will be addressed in this essay. In the light of medical science, the notion that gender is not intrinsic to biology has influenced the change in scientific approaches to the body; offering a rationale to surgical and hormonal treatments.
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(Rubin, 2012) This changed medical science forever. It reversed previous assumptions of medical science to refute the belief that gender is designated by physicality. Ultimately, instead of having gender reassignments being the standard approach to identity ‘misallocations,’ “body to mind adjustments” has emerged as an alternative, acceptable path. (Monstrey, 2011, p. 224) It has enabled gender ambiguous individuals whose gender identities do not ‘complement’ their sex to the previously overlooked option to modify their body to their desired physicality. The sex/gender distinction is undoubtedly a profound discovery for medical science as it paints a new concept of sex as malleable; hereby, vindicating the advancement of surgical sex …show more content…
(Curthoys, 2000, p. 21) Gender was useful as a tool to challenge to patriarchal systems integral to society in order to repudiate the assumed subordinate status of women due to their sex. Such subjectivity, feminists argued, exposed women to oppression due to traditional models that privilege men. (Henry, 2004, p. 52) However, this is readily rebutted by feminists with the vindication that gender differences are not innate sex differences but rather engineered by misconceptualised cultures. Such cultural constructs of gender took center-stage in oppressing women and were biologically unsubstantiated. In the analysis of German, she asserts that this traditional understanding has empowered feminists to reject the fallacy whereby men are innately superior under the defense that gender is a social construct. (German, 2009, p. 89) The understanding that gender differences are culturally devised, i.e. have no biological corroboration, is profound as it is a testament for feminists to show that women and men should have access to the same entitlements. It is successful in the sense that the sex/gender analysis has been of substantial use in consolidating and encouraging feminist movements to undermine the confines of groundless gender
(Rubin, 2012) This changed medical science forever. It reversed previous assumptions of medical science to refute the belief that gender is designated by physicality. Ultimately, instead of having gender reassignments being the standard approach to identity ‘misallocations,’ “body to mind adjustments” has emerged as an alternative, acceptable path. (Monstrey, 2011, p. 224) It has enabled gender ambiguous individuals whose gender identities do not ‘complement’ their sex to the previously overlooked option to modify their body to their desired physicality. The sex/gender distinction is undoubtedly a profound discovery for medical science as it paints a new concept of sex as malleable; hereby, vindicating the advancement of surgical sex …show more content…
(Curthoys, 2000, p. 21) Gender was useful as a tool to challenge to patriarchal systems integral to society in order to repudiate the assumed subordinate status of women due to their sex. Such subjectivity, feminists argued, exposed women to oppression due to traditional models that privilege men. (Henry, 2004, p. 52) However, this is readily rebutted by feminists with the vindication that gender differences are not innate sex differences but rather engineered by misconceptualised cultures. Such cultural constructs of gender took center-stage in oppressing women and were biologically unsubstantiated. In the analysis of German, she asserts that this traditional understanding has empowered feminists to reject the fallacy whereby men are innately superior under the defense that gender is a social construct. (German, 2009, p. 89) The understanding that gender differences are culturally devised, i.e. have no biological corroboration, is profound as it is a testament for feminists to show that women and men should have access to the same entitlements. It is successful in the sense that the sex/gender analysis has been of substantial use in consolidating and encouraging feminist movements to undermine the confines of groundless gender