Proceedings of the Global Conference on Gender Studies
Year: 2023
DOI:
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Gender and Sex in the Structure of Feminist Theories: A Concept and a Development
Hanan Bishara
ABSTRACT:
In general, the concept of ‘gender’ refers to the distinction between the ‘male’ and the ‘female’ on the regular basis of the social role of each category, under the influence of the prevailing social values. The concept of ‘Sex’ or biological kind means, “the biological, physiological, and psychological differences between the two sexes regarding the differences of chromosomes and hormones and internal and external sexual organs, and consequently, ‘Sex’ is characterized by ‘predestination’ and ‘aesthetics’. The differences between the woman and the man are fixed and eternal. This condition is called ‘sexual dimorphism’, namely, ‘duplication’ or ‘duality’, which indicates the existence of two kinds of the same category, which differ from each other in several properties. To express the biological differences between the two sexes, sociologists employ the term ‘Sex-Category’ or ‘Sex-Assignment’, which describe the operations through which social meanings are given to the biological category (male, female). Thus, we find that the concept of ‘gender’ has a dynamic meaning, where the role that men and women play extremely vary from one culture to another, and one social group to another within the same culture. Ethnic race, social class, economic circumstances, and age are factors that influence the actions that are considered appropriate for women. Roughly, we can say that ‘sex’ is the concept that we give to our mother tongue, through which we speak and figure out our desires, while ‘gender’ indicates the cultural practices or media that enable these desires to be achieved.
keywords: gender, sex, male, female, sexual dimorphism, social role