Transvestia

My subject this afternoon is "Sex and the Gender

Role". Sex is a subject of universal interest and one which involves nearly all aspects of life. But sex is also a confused subject and one of the big causes of confusion is that Gender is not properly distinguished from Sex. Let us therefore, in the interest of better communication start out with a few definitions. "Sex" is a matter of anatomy and physiology and it has to do with reproduction. The proper words to use when referring to sex are "male" and "female". Gender on the other hand, is a matter of psychology and sociology. It has to do with what we do and how we do it, social customs and expectations, pro- hibitions and attitudes. The proper words to use when referring to Gender are "man' and "woman", and the ad- jectives are "masculine" and "feminine". If one listens in on conversations he will be surprised at the frequency with which these words are misused. Misuse of terms means poor communication and therefore a confused trans- fer of ideas.

Sex distinctions appear at the bottom of the evol- utionary ladder, even bacteria exist in two sexes. But Gender does not appear until the highest mammals and not much of it there. However, when early man emerged from his animal ancestors and began to live in social groups, Gender distinctions began. Men in their study of animals, however, finding no Gender to speak of, have more or less transferred the animal findings to man and have therefore overlooked Gender, considering it all wrapped up in the term "sex". This is adequate for studying animals, but not for a social creature like man- kind.

In animals the differences in behaviour between the two sexes are almost entirely related directly or indirect- ly to reproduction. Other than this their day to day be- haviour is almost exactly alike. In man this is not so. Even in primitive societies the differences in the roles of the male and female are great. The males are taught to act, think, wear, and express certain traits and not the opposite. Females are taught just the reverse. Both sexes are discouraged from giving expression to or acting out the accepted patterns of the opposite sex.

Since, in the animals that we study to learn about

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