Gender

We explain what gender is in its various meanings, related to the feminine or masculine and also to the literary.

What is gender?

Many different things can be understood by the word gender today. Etymologically, it comes from Latin genuswhich translates “lineage” or “lineage.”

In the dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy there are very diverse meanings, ranging from types of textiles, biological taxa to artistic categories. They have in common referring to a “set of beings that have one or more common characters” or a “class or type to which things belong.”

That is to say that the genres They are categories in which we mentally organize reality of things and beings, according to certain types of common properties. This is how we also think of ourselves, and especially our social roles, traditionally based on the masculine/feminine dichotomy.

In any case, thinking about genres is part of the usual processes of our mind. It is also reflected in the language, since words have one or more grammatical genres, depending on the language to which they belong, which is usually indicated through declensions or through the use of articles.

Thus, for example, in English there is really only one gender, denoted by the article “the“regardless of whether we talk about the man (the man) or woman (the woman). In Spanish, on the other hand, there are two genders, as the articles express he and thewith a neutral gender of very specific use (it). While in German, the conventional genders are three: masculine (der), female (die) and neutral (give).

Male gender and female gender

In most cultures certain social roles are assigned to men or women according to traditional mandates. These gender roles are based on the separation and distinction of the biological sexes, thus giving rise to two possible genders: masculine and feminine.

These genres, however, have nothing to do with the biological, which resides in the body, genes and reproductive capacity, but rather constitute a kind of abstraction. That is to say, It is a social and cultural category which assigns certain roles, values ​​and meanings to masculinity and others to femininity.

Therefore, the masculine is associated with the active, with the evident, strength, reason, dominance and violence; and the feminine with the passive, with the hidden, manipulation, intuition, submission and seduction. Even when it is more than evident that all these things are in different proportions in men and women.

Even so, many times a man is required to be “more masculine” or even “feminized,” or a woman is asked to be “more feminine” or “feminized,” as if there were only one correct way to be men and women.

In any case, the most conservative sectors of society will frown upon the fact that this separation of the roles of each gender is not fulfilled, while the progressive sectors point out that, given that it is a cultural identification, it could perfectly be another. manner.

Gender identity

Sex and gender are not the same. sex It is expressed in our genome, and it manifests itself in the genitals with which we were born, that is, it is our biological profile. Since the difference between the biological sexes is the basis of the reproduction of the species, it only admits the male sex (endowed with a penis, producing sperm) and the female sex (endowed with a vagina, producing eggs).

Instead, gender is determined by our society and our culture since it is a social construction. It associates certain characteristics with each sex, that is, it tries to socioculturally delimit what is masculine and what is feminine.

For this reason, genders have changed over time (what is understood as masculine today was not always the same, for example), while the sexes remain the same.

Every person has a sexual orientation (that is, one sex or several that attract you erotically) and also a gender identity which is nothing more than the relationship established between your biological sex and your assumed gender. That is, it is a subjective and individual perception that a subject has about their gender, whether or not it coincides with their biological sex.

Thus, it is possible for a person to be born male, but subjectively identify with the opposite sex, or, more crudely, to feel like a woman even though she has male genitals, or vice versa. If so, there are various possibilities for gender identity, such as:

• Cis men. That is, men whose sex and masculine gender coincide and are the same.
• Cis women. Likewise, women whose sex and female gender coincide.
• Trans men. A man born with a female sex, but with a male gender.
• Trans women. Similarly, women born male, but female.

Seen this way, there would be two forms of gender identity: cis, whose sex and gender coincide, and trans, whose sex and gender do not coincide. The latter can make some type of sex change decisions, which can range from just assuming the clothing, appearance and social role that they feel corresponds to them, to undergoing surgical interventions.

This perspective has sparked a lot of controversy at the beginning of the 21st century, when various sex-diverse groups, that is, LGBT communities (Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals and Transsexuals) have advocated very strongly for the destigmatization of their gender identity and their way of practicing. sexuality. Their goal is to be accepted in their normal form.

Gender equality

Gender equality is the demand for equal opportunities between women and men in relation to work, politics, economics and sexuality. It aspires to the understanding that women and men are not equal, but there can be justice, that is, equal opportunities, equal participation in transcendental decisions, and equal rewards for the same work done.

The fight for gender equality It is carried out by many feminist organizations and movements or vindicators of the place of women throughout human history.

literary genres

Finally, the literary genres They are the “types” or categories of literary work that exist at a given moment in time. and the history of literature. They fulfill a double function:

• They tell the reader beforehand what type of work it is. That is, they offer you a horizon of expectations around a book.
• They serve as a guide for the writer. To know what type of works are conceived and published in their literary field, although it is entirely possible that they try to attack the “norms” or “rules” of a genre, thus helping to redefine, transform or break it.

There are four modern literary genres:

• The narrative. Which includes both the short story, the micro-story, the novel and the chronicle, subgenres whose common feature is that they tell a story (real or fictional) through one or more narrative voices, known as the narrator.
• The poetry. The freest of all, consisting of a metaphorical description of some existential state, combining the real and subjective perceptions of a poetic speaker or poetic voice.
• The dramaturgy. Which is the writing of scripts designed for theatrical performance, but which in themselves constitute a genre of reading, in which the actions of the story to be represented occur without the intervention of a narrator, but are staged in a continuous present.
• The essay. Whose works are prose texts of an expository type, not narrative, in which the author discusses a topic of his choice, using all the methods of literary writing to embellish his text and defend his subjective position on the topic.

Continue in: Literary genre

References

• “Gender (social sciences)” on Wikipedia.
• “Literary genre” on Wikipedia.
• “Gender” in the World Health Organization (WHO).
• “Gender” in the Language Dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy.
• “What is the difference between gender and sex?” in Women in Network.
• “Gender equality” at Unicef.