INTRODUCTION TO GENDER STUDIES GSSA 1004: MINOR ASSIGNMENT
Priyanka Thattengat a1608970

Connell writes “gender must be understood as a social structure. It is not an expression of biology, nor a fixed dichotomy in human life or character. It is a pattern in our social arrangements” (2009: 10). What did you think Connell means by this statement and can you give two examples to support your argument?

The separation of gender in society is an idea that has been ingrained into us from an early age. We are taught to recognize the differing characteristics and behaviors of each gender. Connell explores the idea that gender is not an expression of biology or a human characteristic but a complexity of our social structure. Similarly Cranny-Francis et al. explores the themes of ‘gender’ and ‘sex’ displaying how these terms relate and intersect. Both authors highlight the inequality of a fixed gender dichotomy present in society. Wright also supports this theory through her ted talk, Fifty Shades of Gay, exploring the contradictory ideas placed around the concept of gender. To understand what Connell means, we must first make the distinction between ‘sex’ and ‘gender’. Sex is defined as “a theory about human beings which divides them into two biologically based categories – male and female” (Cranny Francis et al. 2003: 7). Whereas gender is defined as, “the structure of social relations that centres on the reproductive arena, and the set of practices that bring reproductive distinctions between bodies into social processes” (Connell 2009: 11). Essentially explaining that gender is a cultural creation that has been built upon the concept of sex. However there are many varying definitions around ‘gender’ in which similarities of sex can be drawn. One of which takes the position that “gender is the cultural elaboration of sex, as a hierarchical pair