Bodies and Gender: Understanding Biological Sex As Continuum, Not A Dichotomy of Male and Female

Bodies and Gender: Understanding
Biological Sex as continuum, not a

dichotomy of male and female.
Reporter: Rosalie Alitao

Subject: Gender and Society
Section: BEEd 1A
Instructor: Miss Arcenia Juanero
GENDER
 Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining to, and differentiating
between, masculinity and femininity. Depending on the context, these
characteristics may include biological sex, sex-based social
structures, or gender identity
 Gender includes gender roles, which are expectations from society

and people about the behaviors, thoughts, and characteristics that go
along with a person’s assigned sex.
 For example, ideas about how men and women are expected to
behave, dress, and communicate all contribute to gender. Gender is
also a social and legal status as girls and boys, men, and women.
.
The World Health Organization (WHO) defines gender as:
“Gender refers to the socially constructed characteristics of women

and men, such as norms, roles, and relationships of and between
groups of women and men. It varies from society to society and can be
changed.”
Most societies think there are only two genders that people identify
with, either male or female. This belief is called the gender binary.
 Most societies also have expectations and stereotypes about gender
based on someone’s assigned sex. Like expecting males to be “tough”
and females to be “gentle”. These gender expectations can affect a
person’s social, work and legal rights.
 It’s
easy to confuse sex and gender. Just remember that biological or
assigned sex is about biology, anatomy, and chromosomes. Gender is
society’s set of expectations, standards, and characteristics about how
men and women are supposed to act.
SEX
 Assigned sex is a label that you’re given at birth based on medical factors,
including your hormones, chromosomes, and genitals. Most people are
assigned male or female, and this is what’s put on their birth certificates.
 When someone’s sexual and reproductive anatomy doesn’t seem to fit the
typical definitions of female or male, they may be described as intersex.
 Some people call the sex we’re assigned at birth “biological sex.” But this
term doesn’t fully capture the complex biological, anatomical, and
chromosomal variations that can occur. Having only two options
(biological male or biological female) might not describe what’s going on
inside a person’s body.
BIOLOGY
Chromosomes, Hormones, Gonads and Genitals.
 Its estimated that nearly 2% of live births are born with
Congenital Conditions of Atypical Sex Development.
-That basically means that something in their

Chromosomes, hormones, ganads or genitals is different from
what many people expect of a “ Boy” or a “Girl”.
The Six Most Common Karyotype Sexes in Humans
• X – Roughly 1 in 2,000 to 1 in 5,000 people (Turner’s )

• XX – Most common form of female
• XXY – Roughly 1 in 500 to 1 in 1,000 people (Klinefelter)
• XY – Most common form of male
• XYY – Roughly 1 out of 1,000 people
• XXXY – Roughly 1 in 18,000 to 1 in 50,000 births
 There was a new story about a 66year old man who discovered, during
a trip to the doctor, that he was really a woman. If you don’t have a
biology or genetics education background, or never really took an
interest in reproductive strategies of various animals and plants in
nature, that might seem absurd, or even impossible. Of course, it’s not.
It’s far more common than the general population realizes.
 The Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine points out that one of the

first modern cases came from the 1936 Olympics, hosted by Adolf
Hitler. An American named Stella Walsh, commonly called “Stella the
Fella”, crushed the competition. She always changed by herself and
had muscle tissue and facial features that resembled a man.
The Olympic committee did an examination during which the members
found that Stella was, in fact, both male and female. Sort of. She had
ambiguous genitalia and it was impossible to determine her biological
sex. This remained a secret until Stella’s death in 1980 when “she was
shot and killed in the cross-fire of an armed bank robbery in Los
Angeles”.
 Today, we have genetics and DNA that allows us to examine
karyotype. We know, without question, that humans are not just born
male and female. There are at least six biological sexes that can
result in fairly normal lifespans. (There are actually many more than
six but they result in spontaneous abortion as the body knows the
fetus won’t be viable so it is flushed out of the system in a natural
process meant to minimize the amount of nutrients and metabolism
devoted to growing non-viable offspring.)
 When you consider that there are 7,000,000,000 alive on the planet,
there are almost assuredly tens of millions of people who are not
male or female. Many times, these people are unaware of their true
sex. It’s interesting to note that everyone assumes that they,
personally, are XY or XX. One study in Great Britain showed that 97
out of 100 people who were XYY had no idea. They thought they
were a traditional male and had few signs otherwise.
 Even today, we irrationally, and rather think of someone as a “man” if

they look masculine and as a “woman” if the look feminine.
 Medical investigators recognize the concept of the intersexual body.
But medicine uses the term "intersex" as a catch-all for three major
subgroups with some mixture of male and female characteristics: the
so-called true hermaphrodites, which is called herms, who possess
one testis and one ovary (the sperm- and egg- producing vessels, or
gonads); male pseudo-hermaphrodites ("merms"), who have testes
and some aspects of female genitalia but no ovaries; and female
pseudo-hermaphrodites ("ferms"), who have ovaries and some
aspects of the male genitalia but lack testes
THANK YOU AND GOD BLESS! !

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Bodies and Gender: Understanding

Biological Sex as continuum, not a

Reporter: Rosalie Alitao

 Gender includes gender roles, which are expectations from society

“Gender refers to the socially constructed characteristics of women

-That basically means that something in their

• X – Roughly 1 in 2,000 to 1 in 5,000 people (Turner’s )

 The Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine points out that one of the

 Even today, we irrationally, and rather think of someone as a “man” if

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