CHAPTER 6
Sex and Gender
The holy grail of sexual mysteries is female sexuality. Sex researchers regularly salivate, like Pavlov’s dogs, at the prospect of solving this mystery of mysteries. Even Sigmund Freud, who was never one to shy away from asserting his knowledge of human behavior, recognized his ignorance and famously queried, “What do they want?”
Some modern examples: There’s a relatively famous song by a female singer—“I know what boys like; I know what guys want” (The Waitresses, n.d.). There is no equivalent song about female desire sung by a male singer. There is a well-known picture (e.g., on the Internet) of two black boxes, one of which has a sole “on/off” switch and is labeled “the man”; the other has a vast array of dials and knobs and is labeled “the woman.” I show this picture in my human sexuality class when I address differences in sexuality between men and women. Aside from a few students with blank looks, they laugh. The humor occurs because they know, on some level, that inside the woman’s black box (aptly named) is that mystery of mysteries—the complex nature of women’s desire—and that inside the man’s black box (not so aptly named) is, well, one thick wire leading to that on/off switch.
In this chapter, I discuss the mysterious nature of women’s (and men’s!) sexuality, particularly as it is relates to asexuality. In other words, I explore how sex and gender affect sexuality and asexuality.
Let’s start with some context and definitions. Sex and its cultural cousin, gender, are complex constructs. Sex usually refers to the biological differences between males and females: penis and vagina; XY (male) and XX (female) chromosomes; male hormones (e.g., testosterone) and female hormones (e.g., estrogens); and so forth. So, sex refers to male and female anatomy and their biological processes. Gender usually pertains to the expectations that a culture places on males and females to behave in a specific way; in other words, what are the typical masculine and feminine roles in society? Gender also often relates to one’s psychological feelings or states as a male or a female. So, for example, people who perceive themselves as a man have a male gender identity.
You may be thinking, This is easy enough, so why are they such complex concepts? Well, let’s deconstruct these concepts a bit. First, are there just two sexes? Another one of my dumb questions, you ask? (For more dumb questions, see chapter 5 on masturbation.) Well, actually, despite what most people believe, some experts suggest that two sexes are too limiting and that perhaps as many as five different sexes exist in human beings. Anne Fausto-Sterling, a biologist at Brown University, advocated this position, albeit one that she later admitted was argued tongue-in-cheek and to prove a broader point (1993; 2000). That broader point was that the rigid binary system of two sexes is not complex enough to understand the variation that exists in biological sex. John Money, the famous psychologist and sexologist, also pointed out the ambiguity in biological sex by noting that whether we call someone a male or female can depend on a variety of biological variables, not all of which are necessarily aligned or consistent (Money, Hampson, & Hampson, 1957). So, one can define sex by XY (male) or XX (female) chromosomes, but what if the gonads—testes or ovaries—do not match up with a standard XY or XX chromosomal profile in a given person? In other words, what if someone has XY chromosomes but also has ovaries? What if someone has the internal reproductive organs normally reserved for women (e.g., fallopian tubes and uterus) but has external male genitalia? This kind of sexual ambiguity, sometimes called intersexuality, is surprisingly prevalent (i.e., about 1–2 percent of births) (Fausto-Sterling, 2000), and it illustrates the need, when speaking about biological sex, for language and concepts capable of handling complexity.
There is also ambiguity when we refer to male and female hormones. The so-called female hormones, the estrogens that are produced by the ovaries in women (e.g., estradiol), also exist in men; in fact, testosterone, a so-called male hormone, is converted to estradiol in men under the influence of the enzyme aromatase. Women also produce testosterone, so this hormone is also not fully sex specific—that is, it is not limited to men.
There is another level of ambiguity, or at least complexity, associated with both sex and gender. Some people are born with all of their biological variables consistent with traditional maleness or femaleness (XX, ovaries, uterus, vagina, or XY, testicles, prostate, penis), but have an internal sense of themselves or their gender identity that is inconsistent with their biological sex. These individuals are often so dissatisfied with their biological sex that they may want to alter it so that it will be consistent with their internal sense of themselves as male or female. Traditionally, these individuals have been referred to as transsexual in order to describe the change in biological sex that many of these individuals wanted and often accomplished through medical intervention (i.e., sex re-assignment surgery) to make their bodies, particularly their genitalia, consistent with their internal sense of themselves (Benjamin, 1966). More recently, a related word, transgender, has emerged. Originally, this word was used to describe people who were dissatisfied with their biological sex but who did not want to alter aspects of their bodies (e.g., via sex re-assignment surgery) (Kotula, 2002). The meaning of the term transgender has recently expanded, and is now a kind of “umbrella” term. This term often describes both traditional transsexuals (i.e., those who want to change biological sex and perhaps have done so) and anyone who violates traditional “gender” boundaries but does not necessarily want to alter aspects of their biological sex. Put another way, transgender can refer to those whose identity does not conform to their biological sex or those whose identity does not match their “gender” assigned at birth (Ekins & King, 2004). So, aside from transsexual people, the transgendered category may include those who cross-dress (e.g., drag queens or transvestites) and those who identify as, for example, “bi-gendered” or “non-gendered.” It may also include the intersexual people mentioned above. Notably, there is often a “political” dimension to the term transgender, or a transgendered identity (Feinberg, 1992). As we describe in chapter 7, (public) identities frequently emerge out of and serve political ends.
Here is yet another ambiguity. If we find, on average, a behavioral difference between men and women, is it a gender difference or a sex difference? Well, given that this difference has to do with behavior, and presumably changes across cultures, it should be referred to as a gender difference, correct? But what if we find that this difference is influenced not just by culture but also by sex hormones—for example, high levels of testosterone in men may partially underlie their greater sex drive (Baumeister, Catanese, & Vohs, 2001). Should we then call it a sex difference, because it is largely (or at least partially) biologically based? The answer is obviously complex, and you may notice that researchers, for this reason, often use the phrase sex differences and gender differences seemingly inconsistently and interchangeably.