[ **up: [[Gender]] | [[Sex (Biology)]]** ] --- # Gender vs. sex [[2024-0815. Although the terms sex and gender are frequently used interchangeably, these words have different contexts and meanings.|Although the terms sex and gender are frequently used interchangeably, these words have different contexts and meanings.]][^1] --- ## Gender is socially constructed [[2024-0815. Gender is socially constructed; it operates as a way to identify and categorise certain behavioural, cultural, and psychological traits.|'Gender is socially constructed and operates as a way to identify and categorize certain behavioral, cultural, and psychological traits as belonging to specific groups of people.']][^2] --- ## Sex is biologically constructed [[2024-0815. Sex is a biological construct; it refers to the structural, functional, and behavioural characteristics of living beings determined by sex chromosomes.|'Sex is a biological construct that refers to the structural, functional and behavioral characteristics of living beings determined by sex chromosomes.]][^3] ### Sex is not a tidy binary of male/female [[2024-0815. Although the biological sexual system is often described as a binary of male and female, in reality there is a spectrum of anatomical and chromosomal variation found in the human population.|'Although the sexual system is often described as a binary of male and female, in reality there is a spectrum of anatomical and chromosomal variation found in the human population including intersex as well as genitalia considered ambiguous at birth.]][^4] [[2024-0815. Human sexual anatomy has a long history of surgical intervention (e.g. circumcisions, vasectomies, tubal ligation, and sex reassignment surgery).|'Human sexual anatomy has a long history of surgical intervention such a circumcision, vasectomy, tubal ligation and more recently, sex reassignment surgery.']][^5] [^1]: Lindsay M. Biga, et al., ‘27.0 Introduction’, in *Anatomy & Physiology* (Corvallis, OR: Oregon State University, 2019), https://open.oregonstate.education/aandp/chapter/27-0-introduction/. [^2]: Lindsay M. Biga, et al., ‘27.0 Introduction’, in *Anatomy & Physiology* (Corvallis, OR: Oregon State University, 2019), https://open.oregonstate.education/aandp/chapter/27-0-introduction/. [^3]: Lindsay M. Biga, et al., ‘27.0 Introduction’, in *Anatomy & Physiology* (Corvallis, OR: Oregon State University, 2019), https://open.oregonstate.education/aandp/chapter/27-0-introduction/. [^4]: Lindsay M. Biga, et al., ‘27.0 Introduction’, in *Anatomy & Physiology* (Corvallis, OR: Oregon State University, 2019), https://open.oregonstate.education/aandp/chapter/27-0-introduction/. [^5]: Lindsay M. Biga, et al., ‘27.0 Introduction’, in *Anatomy & Physiology* (Corvallis, OR: Oregon State University, 2019), https://open.oregonstate.education/aandp/chapter/27-0-introduction/.