The term gender is often used to describe social constructions of masculinity and femininity and differentiated from the biological term sex. In this usage, the sex-gender system refers to the culturally and historically specific process whereby ideas about gender get imposed on the biological/sex categories of male and female bodies. Differentiating the terms sex and gender means that gender is mutable and may be constructed differently by different communities, nations, or cultures over time. Nevertheless, many current scholars argue that there is a constant confusion and slippage between the terms gender and sex. Many scholars today are also investigating the socially constructed status of male and female sex categories, and the assumptions about sexual desire or sexual orientation that are made by each category.  Because even scientific disciplines are practiced in language—through representation—even biological sex categories are subjective metaphors used to describe human bodies.

In Beyond Borders:  See James Baldwin, "Freaks"; Margery Garber, "Vested Interests"; Sherry Turkle, "Tinysex and Gender Trouble"; and Images 19a, 19b, 19c, and 19d by Catherine Opie, "Chief," "Whitey," "Chicken," and "Oso Bad."

In Beyond Borders Online:  See Web Research Activities, "Identity in Cyberspace." You might also explore the gender constructions embedded in ideas about the frontier. See "Electronic Frontier: Cyberspace and the Wild West."

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