Chapter 5

Lecture Notes

Gender is developed through the interaction of its biological and psychosocial components. The genetic and anatomical sex is the biological aspect, and the assigned gender and gender identity are the psychosocial aspects. Because these dimensions are learned together they seem to be natural.

For example, if a person looks like a girl, biologically, believes she should be feminine, culturally, feels as if she is a girl, psychologically, and acts like a girl, socially, then her gender identity and role are congruent with her anatomical sex.

But what if these dimensions were incongruent? This results in gender variations. Gender variations are deviations from the two normal genders emphasized by most cultures. Individuals who are gender variant cannot or choose not to conform to societal gender norms associated with their biological sex. They are also known as gender identity disorder or gender dysphoria. However, what makes a person a man or woman goes beyond simple anatomy.