Sociology - What is the difference betweex sex and gender How is this Essay

Sociology - What is the difference betweex sex and gender How is this distinction made - Essay Example Sex was â€Å"nature† and gender was â€Å"nurture†. In the language of Sociology, gender roles replaced sex roles, as gender represented more accurately than sex the social construction of identities and roles dividing societies into women and men. Sex and gender were interdependent, but clearly distinguished. Gender was social, thus variable and subject to change, while sex represented the essential and unchanging physical differences in human reproduction. An implicit causal link existed between sex and gender (Acker, 1992; Wilson, 1989). Feminist sociologists (e.g. Rossi, 1984) who took a biosocial view of gender, saw gender behaviour at least in part, as physiologically determined. They posited a clear distinction and a causal link between sex and gender. However, Acker (1992) states that variations in actions and feelings among both men and women, as well as similarities between women and men seemed too great, to permit the tracing of behaviour to biological differences. On the other hand, according to Butler (2005: 48), â€Å"because gender is fundamentally a way in which we make sense of ourselves as embodied creatures, no investigation of gender can allow itself to be carried too far off from the body. Gender reminds us that our bodies are not merely tools that we use to various ends. Our bodies are ourselves; their gender has a meaning and a value that is not merely instrumental†. In current usage gender is theorized as a basic principle of social structure and cultural interpretation (Scott, 1986; Acker, 1988). According to Unger (1979), gender refers to the traits and behaviors considered characteristic of and appropriate to members of each sexual category. These may be physiological, biosocial or environmental. In explaining gender as a constitutive element of social relationships, Scott (1986) emphasizes that â€Å"gender operates in multiple fields, including culturally