Sex Vs Gender

The sex of a person is based upon biology, chromosomes, reproductive organs, or external genitals characterized by having male or female genitalia, and what the hospital assigns at birth and labels on the birth certificate; whereas, gender is more of a social construct, something that was entirely created by humanity, along with its own set of rules and expectations. Such a difference is the main reason why individuals may identify themselves with a different gender than what they were assigned at birth.

Gender is someone’s own internal understanding or belief about whether they are a man, or a woman, or something in between, or none of those things. Gender is where a person feels that they personally fall or belong on the spectrum between male and female.

Most people commonly identify themselves as either male or female, but some fall in the middle or move throughout the spectrum. It is a tricky thing to distinguish between sex and gender, and many people find it challenging to think about sex as a separate thing from gender.

Gender is more of a social construct, something that was entirely created by humanity, along with its own set of rules and expectations. Sex is usually defined at the time of birth.

Gender is represented by a person’s lifestyle, identity, and whether they label themselves as male, female, trans, or something in between, or something entirely different, whereas, sexuality is represented by a person’s biology and whether they are heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual or anything in between, or something altogether different. Gender and sexuality may look the same, but they are both different things.

Make sure not to get confused between sexual orientation and gender identity as they are both two different things. Sexual orientation describes what gender or genders one is attracted to, and gender identity represents what gender or genders one chooses to identify as.

Generally speaking, sexual orientation is a person's attraction to other people or to themselves, and one can be attracted to the same, different, or a variety of genders; hence, sexual orientation is entirely different from gender identity. Sexual orientation refers to who one is attracted to, while gender identity refers to their own gender; this is an important concept and frequently misunderstood.

Sexual orientation encompasses relationships with others, while gender identity is a concept of self. People who do not identify themselves in one of the traditional genders, such as a male, female, heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, transgender, or feel that their sexuality is fluid, may refer to themselves as gender-neutral, genderqueer, non-binary, or agender.

Sexual orientation and gender identity do not always align with each other. For instance, an individual who identifies themselves as a heterosexual, may not only be attracted to someone of the opposite sex and have sexual interactions with someone who is of the same sex without necessarily identifying themselves as bisexual.

Main Points Of Differences And Distinctions Between Sex And Gender