Lauren Wells Hasten/Digital Anthropologist writes:
Used interchangeably in both anthropological research and popular conversation, the words "sex" and "gender" are usually handled as synonyms. They are in fact two different things, and each incorporates multiple aspects. Sex itself refers to the biological manifestation of gender as well as to sexual activity; a person's sex is usually determined by the genitalia that are present at birth, while sex refers to the physical activity that involves the stimulation of these genitals. ... most Americans expect a person with female genitalia to desire a sexual partner of the opposite biological sex, and ....
- The Hilary Factor from Reuters
Apr 18 - Best selling Author Deborah Tannen details "The Hillary Factor" and understanding gender in the Presidential campaign.Tannen says when a female politician shows a softer side, whether its ... - The gender trap
"We're familiar with drug testing for athletes, but officials at the Beijing Olympics will be taking things one stage further and examining competitors whose sex is in doubt. And it is far from being a new problem, as Emine Saner discovers..." - Al Roker interviews Leonard Sax, "Why Gender Matters" (2005)
For more from MSNBC - Read more about the anthropological study of multiple genders
- Gender Puzzle - 44min. documentary: http://www.booserver.com/projects.php?ProjectID=2394
Posts
21 comments:
Wow I have to say. It is always interesting to see how scientists try to prove why this happen and why that happens. Sometimes it is annoying because I don’t think everything should have a reason for it. We should just leave some things undiscovered or unsolved because it is not always good to find out why all things happen. Sometimes we make matters worse by finding out a lot of things. In one sense it makes sense to find out why females were born females and males were born males. Before technology became so prevalent, we just knew that a couple had intercourse and a baby was conceived but now with all this widespread technology we get to know why it happened this way or that way. It is interesting to find out and to be knowledgeable about this but I really don’t believe all that they say.
Kayla
I felt a little bit unconformable watching this video, but I give it to Christie because she seems to be absolutely fine with her gender. I wonder, what does it feel like to know your body is different than from the most people. I do not know if I could handle the truth so well as Christie. She must feel sad because she will never experience being pregnant and giving a birth to a new life. I wonder how strong feelings are about her being a mother and if that has to do anything with her gender.
However, one is for sure, the most women must be jealous at her not having PMS and cramps every month. :-))
I wonder what it is that makes people believe that they are only allowed to have relations with the opposite sex. Is it only a matter of attraction or some type of learning that is generally ingrained in people from birth? But how does that explain the one homosexual family member of a conservative christian family? I really applaud Christie and how she accepted her differences. Most girls dream of having the things she probably would not ever have. I don't think i would have been able to manage as well as she had if i were in her position.
I am surprised that scientists want to figure out how gender is determined. In my opinion I think that gender determination cannot be proven because when we are born it is already figured out then and there. I think it determines on who the person carrying the baby is and how she goes with her pregnancy that determines gender for every person. Although if gender determination could be proven by scientists then that would imply that mothers can try and get the gender child that they want. That is why in today’s life many mothers do not get the gender child that they want because it cannot be determined. I really do not that there is a point to thinking about undiscovering something that can’t be determined. The expression I have heard many people say to their child is “I was wishing for a girl at the time I was pregnant”. I have heard many things similar to that which proves that you can’t determine your gender. The attitude of a female or the female’s personality often lets you know if she will have a boy or a girl. The topic of gender determination goes back so far to the creation of mankind that almost everything that people say would usually be gossip or their opinion.
What makes the boy and what makes the girl?
This question has been unsolved. Biological facts and environmental facts cause determination of gender. Christie is fine woman. She always thinking intends to be a girl. I read a transgender interview. Although born male, she identified as female from an early age, recalling, "I was always a girl who loved playing with dolls." This did not go unnoticed by her family or school friends, who often remarked that she looked and acted like a girl. This is different case from Christie but it shows other things instead biological facts affect to determine gender.
Wow! first off this video was wow. However, im confused now what are people classified as now. Yeah, thanks a lot scientist. I think that scientist are bored and they need something to do so they try to prove things. This video makes me feel weird now because next thing you know their gonna prove that female doesn't mean girl or male doesn't mean guy. or that guys are really girls or girls are really guys. Christie, looks and sounds like a women; if she had not said anything and i meet her in person she would be considered a girl or women to me. I think that she's brave in doing this interview because alot of people would find this disturbing and uncomfortable to talk about, but like her mother said "as long as she's happy". This video changed my perspective of what the terms sex or gender means. I find it very confusing now because my perspective of gender or sex was a baby was born with something the other didn't have. So, that would determine what you are; either girl or boy, female or male. I have always been introduced of the idea of how sex or gender is determined by the XX or XY chromosome, but now they say its not sufficient in determining this, it just makes gender more and more confusing for me now.
When I was watching the video I must say that I was totally surprised. It was very interesting to watch and to find out the gender has little to do with the environment and that one's chromosome make up does not determine gender. Christie North's story was truly out of the ordinary and interesting. For one I can not imagine what it is like for her to be born with an XY chromosome and considered to be a man. She looks like a woman and many people would also think so. According to the video many XY women are tall and beautiful. Although many women who have XY chromosomes look like women, internally they are unable to have kids and menstrate. Also it is more common 1 in 500 women have an XY chromosome and 1 in 500 men have an XX chromosome.
-Eileen
When we are children, we start wondering what makes boys look like boys and why are girls different or vice versa. As we grow older, we learn the difference between girls and boys in terms of how our body looks like. This was an interesting wideo about girls that have an XY chromosome. We are taught that girls should have an XX chromosome and boys should have XY. It is really interesting how such things can happen. I have to agree that Christie seemed okay with her condition and wa staking it well. I can not believe that 1 in 500 people have such conditions. It is not that rare. Christie "looks" like a girl, yet she has testies as well. She can not have children and can not menstruate but when you look at her, she is a girl. She may be somewhat different from other girls but she associated herslef as one. I think its really great how strong she is through all of this.
Gender is an exciting chapter. Sex is what we get from god, which differences us biologically. But, I think gender describe us better. it is so amazing how gender differs across the world. While we are talking about equal right in America, some parts of the world still require submissive women. I felt really sad just after watching the movie. It is hard to accept and deal with such as change especially when you are not prepared for it. This reminds me the process of enculturation. She had many feminine behaviors that she got since her childhood. Find the right husband, give birth, take care of the kids and wonder about the future are usually what women think about. Now, her dream’s is taking away. Although the presence of XY chromosome in her body, Christie is a real “girl”. she did not consider the problem as a handicap.she could be proud of herself and is an good example for girls in the same case.
I am amazed! If up to this day scientists do not know the difference between the male and the female, so then how do we classify each other? I admire Christie's determination about not letting this information ruin her daily life. I really don’t know how she feels or what really is going through her mind, all I know is that it would be really hard to go through something like that. She seems like a very strong girl, she didn’t let it get to her. But how do we know that she is not a girl? She has the characteristics of a girl and she dresses like a girl. I think before scientist say things like girls are not girls or guys aren’t guys; they should have background information to be able to explain to the public what that information means. Now I'm wondering that in the future how would we classify females and males?
THis was very interesting. I never knew it was possible for someone to be born with internal testies. i've heard of people being born with both genitalia but not internal. Didnt know that there are so much people out there who have the xy people. WAtching this made me think too. What if i was an xy creation? and u start to pray that even whoever you hope to hae children with isnt either. I hope scientists are able to come up with something to help this phenomenon but i think it just shows how amazing we are as beings the complexity of our build.
I think if we follow Dr. Sax's logic then there will be a lot of girls who loves sports and a lot of boys who absolutely loves fashion feeling alienated among their peers. Although there are some merits of having separated sex classrooms, I went to a all girls high school and I liked it, teacher often tell us that it is somewhat easier to teach in a all girls high school. But for most of the time it really depends on the school itself. I know a lot of people think that it's not much different from a mixed gender school. I agree to what Kayla said, I think we should leave boys and girls to discover their own bodies and their own interests.
Jou-Man Huang
While viewing this video I was extremely shocked. I never knew that a condition such as Christie’s existed. From the first time she appeared in the video I never thought she was internally a man. I started to think about how she was as man according to her chromosomes but was on the outside she’s a woman. Many questions arise about how this could occur and also makes one question science and what we are taught in biology classes. This video also points out the difference between “sex” and “gender”. Gender is affected by outside sources, but sex is determined by your chromosomes. For example, Christie by sex is a male but her gender is female.
This video reminds me that I watched a video about double sex on a human being before. I remembered that after I watched the video, I was so afraid that I may be a boy and what should I do for a while. In my opinion, double sex is a very trouble thing to a person, like Christine. She said if she knows her double sex at first she may feel better. I agree with her. Because when you think you are a female for many years and suddenly the doctor tells you that you are male, it’s very hard to accept the fact. This fact may ruin a person’s whole life. If I have double sex, I would prefer not to know at all.
However, double sex may not be a problem to all human being nowadays. Maybe some people will want to change her or his sex when he or she thinks that a female/male will be better. In Thailand, so many men are becoming women by eating some herbs, and they really just looks like women after they grow up. It’s interesting. The video also reminds me a recently news that a man is pregnancy. He is originally a female, but he changed his sex to be male by doing sex-changing surgery. His wife lost the ability to pregnant, so that he decide to pregnant for his wife and become the first man to be pregnant. Therefore, I think gender may become more relied on how people feel and what people want to do because of the development of technology.
While talking about gender in class, I thought about an episode of Oprah I saw a long time ago. If I remember correctly the episode featured guest that were one gender, either male or female but they believed they were born with the wrong gender. It was interesting to see that people like this really did exist in the world; it was interesting how each of them realized that they were born with the wrong gender and the stories or experiences that led to their discovery. It was kind of weird for me to understand their stories but by the end I got how they felt and it wasn’t right for me to judge the kind of people they were just because of their beliefs.
Wow. I never knew that that many people could have have XY genes. I never even heard of this until I watched the youtube video. It must be hard growing up with it too because of confusion and other people telling you how to feel, while you feel another way. Also, some people that watched this video might think they have XY genes, and become confused also. This is really interesting.
Wow! I learned so many new things that I had never imagined that they could exist. I really think that this video is super interesting and even shocking. I had no idea that girls that have XY chromosomes are so common, only 1 out of 500 people. I think that Christie is a very brave young woman because other girls in her situation would be ashamed to even go out in public. It is really interesting to see that she does accept herself the way she is and that even though it has been difficult to know her situation, she has kept going and has tried to be as “normal” as she can be. One thing that I find amazing is that she looks such like woman, and if one sees her walking on the streets, one would never guess that she has guy’s genes. I definitely think that this video will affect other girls who are in Christie’s situation because it would make these girls believe more in themselves and be braver to confront their reality.
I was reflecting on Nicaury's response to this post and wondered if she and others have forgotten that both males and females have both testosterone and estrogen in their systems to varying degrees. Males and females are really related more than we'd like to think as the 4:10 section discussed.
FROM WIKIPEDIA: The human hormone testosterone is produced in greater amounts by males, and less by females. The human hormone estrogen is produced in greater amounts by females, and less by males. Testosterone causes the appearance of masculine traits (i.e., deepening voice, pubic and facial hairs, muscular build, etc.) Like men, women rely on testosterone to maintain libido, bone density and muscle mass throughout their lives. In men, inappropriately high levels of estrogens lower testosterone, decrease muscle mass, stunt growth in teenagers, introduce gynecomastia, increase feminine characteristics, and decrease susceptibility to prostate cancer, reduces libido and causes erectile dysfunction and can cause excessive sweating and hot flushes. However, an appropriate amount of estrogens is required in the male in order to ensure well-being, bone density, libido, erectile function, etc.
I have to agree with most of the posts about how unheard this condition is. I truly newer knew something like this exists and the probability is 1 of 500 so it must be pretty common and make me believe I probably encounter somebody like with this in my life already. The biggest shock about it is not even the people that have these conditions can see, feel, or tell the difference between themselves and regular human being with xx or xy chromosomes. I watched a program once about the difference between males and females and how it can be related to homosexuality and it is true brains are structured a little different and they made a connection to some homosexuals and found out that some of them have a brain built for the other sex and this might well be the reason why they turn homosexual. Overall great story and very good educational video.
I liked this video. It is very unsual, thus, interesting. While watching it, I recalled the movie "Junior" with Arnold Schwarzenegger where main male character became pregnant and finally gave birth to a child. As I though earlier it is impossible for man to give a birth. However, if such people as Chirstie exist in reality, so why not?
Post a Comment