"The Expression of Femininity

In The Male"

BY VIRGINIA

PRINCE

The title of this paper will not disturb a group such as this, though it would upset the general public since

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femininity in a male sounds immoral and abnormal. This is because we have very artificial and semantically incorrect ideas about such matters. It will be well, therefore, to give a moment's attention to the sense in which I should like to use the words Sex and Gender. I speak of sex as a matter of anatomy and physiology and gender as a matter of psychology and sociology. Or to put it in the vernacular, sex is largely below the belt, gender is largely above it.

ness.

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Sex and Gender are, unfortunately, often used interchange- ably or in ways that lead one to think of them as inse par able masculine with maleness and feminine with female Lower animals have sex differences but only the rudiments of gender distinctions. That is, male and fe- male animals show little difference in general behaviour except in relation to the reproductive act, birth and the rearing of offspring. In the human species, however, there are many ways in which males and females differ on purely psychological and social levels not directly re- lated to their anatomical and physiological differences. Gender then, is largely a human invention and a by-prod- uct of human society. Since society is also a human phe- nomenon ( leaving out the so-called social insects) and is not biologically based and, since it exists in a great many forms and degrees, it is obviously an artificial creation of man and not the inevitable result of biolog- ical necessity. The psycho-social differences between human males and females which collectively are temed gender, are therefore also in large measure arbitrary and artificial. What is considered proper masculine or fem inine behavior or appearance in one culture or period of history may be exactly the opposite in other cultures or in the same culture at different times. This pointed out to help destroy the feeling that we all have that what IS at the moment is what should be, and hopefully eill be in the future. With this sense of inevitability and per- manence out of the way we can more easily proceed to

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