When I talk about gendered violence, I am usually talking about violence against a certain gender (and in the case of the WRC, I’m talking about violence because of a perceived violation of traditional gender roles). But why even make the distinction between talking about ‘Sexual Violence’ and ‘Gender Violence’? For one, when we mention ‘sex’ people tend to think about an action rather than a biological term, and not all violence against women is done in a sexual way. Second, I think it is really important for us to distinguish between the two terms.
How many forms have you ever had to fill out where they asked you to choose ‘male’ or ‘female’? What’s the first thing that people ask when a baby’s born? Identifying the sex of a human being is really important to us. However, there is a growing awareness about making a distinction between asking and talking about gender versus talking about sex. And the first step to discussion is understanding the terms involved:
Sex is used to label a person’s biological characteristics, which are divided into three categories: male (with male sex organs, chromosomes, and hormones), female (with female sex organs, chromosomes, and hormones), and intersex (with ‘ambiguous’ or male and female sex organs, chromosomes, and hormones).
Gender is used to label a person’s behaviour according to socially assigned norms. We normally refer to this as ‘masculinity’ or ‘femininity’.
Why does this matter? Really, it is an issue of how we view relations between genders. If we think that everything is set in stone, and that being born female or male means that you will act and think a certain way, then arguments can be made that gender inequality is the ‘nature of things’. By making a difference between sex and gender we try and acknowledge that certain behaviours or traits are socially constructed. Therefore, females aren’t naturally submissive or are victims nor are males naturally dominant or abusive. Rather, inequality and abuse is the result of historical, social, environmental, political and economic influences. As well, it acknowledges that there aren’t just two categories that people are born into: they can be born male or female, and have their bodies reflect that, but identify as the so-called opposing gender.
Sex & gender term cheat sheet:
Sex: characteristics (anatomical, genetic & hormonal) socially identified as male, female or intersex.
Gender: behaviors/norms socially assigned to males & females; masculinity & femininity.
Gender identity: internal sense of gender as man or woman, which may not conform to birth sex.
Gender expression: external signs of “femininity” or “masculinity” via clothing, comportment, etc…
Gender non-conformity: to reject assignment of distinct norms and behaviors to men & women
Genderqueer: freedom and openness of gender expression and sexual orientation, regardless of birth sex or societal norms/expectations. Often working actively to question and redefine established concepts and definitions of gender and sexual orientation.
Transgender: person who transcends behaviors/norms socially assigned to men & women; person who rejects gender binary; gender variant person; person whose gender identity/expression does not conform to birth sex.
www.soysaucecarnival.com/haiku_images/gender_boundaries.png
For more information on this check out:
- The World Health Organization’s distinction between sex and gender
- An awesome article at gurl.com looking at gender (and there’s tons of other links to check out too!)
- If you’re curious about the third sex mentioned above (intersex) there is a ton of information on the Intersex Society of North America’s website
