The Gender Equality Checkpoint

[DanaC]

That was awesome. Nice find.It's so true I think - we all, as individuals experience gender (or the absence of a sense of the same) in our own way. At so many different levels as well. I have a strong sense of myself as female - but my sense of what it is to be female is not necessarily in line with what a lot of other people think being female means.

Certain elements of gender can, I think, be separated out as probably more cultural than biological - if for no other reason than a wealth of evidence to suggest not just a range of gender conception, but paradigm shifts depending on historical circumstance. Different cultures have different degrees of fluidity in gender conceptions - and allow for smaller or greater ranges of gender expression. But there are also elements that seem far more biological - and then you have complexity within that as the divisions don't always break down comfortably between male and female.

However contingent on particular cultures and social structures, those elements of gender as experienced by the individual are no less real or profound.

Unfortunately our sense of what is to be male, or female is so wrapped up in what our culture understands as male or female, that it becomes almost impossible to separate self-conception from social-conception of gender. Hence another person not adhering to the same sense of gender can threaten the bounds within which that sense of gender is set.