Part 2 of 6 on Gender, Sex and how it Affects Athletes: Gener in Socity

Article One Biology, The link is also at the end with the sources.

Now that we understand that sex and gender are not the clear cut easily identifiable entities that you always thought that they were, it’s time to talk about how society fits into all of this. Society dictates just about everything via societal constructs and societal norms. Those are passed down, in a society, from generation to generation. It’s really amazing how societal norms affect every aspect of society. At this moment, I’ll be focusing on sex and how it relates to gender.

To most people, gender and sex are hard facts, that fit nicely into two boxes, male and female, boy and girl. That is not the case, sex is a construct and gender, or what most people think of when they think of gender is also a construct. As I had said previously, what people believe to be sex is what is taught in basic biology class, and can only be derived from outward physical characteristics, such as genitals and secondary sex characteristics (breast or facial hair). I also mentioned how that is wrong and how that is not how biological sex works. An invisible social construct of binary sex has to do with physical strength, after that it merges with the societal constructs of gender.

Whether gender is a societal construct or not is a tricky topic to approach as a genderqueer individual. The way most cisgender people think of gender is a social construct. Cisgender is a term for people who aren’t transgender. They are people who fully identify with the gender that they were assigned at birth. They tend to have a different relationship with gender than trans folks. I mean that they generally haven’t put much thought into gender and accept it at face value, the vast majority of transgender people have spent a significant amount of time and effort to understanding gender roles and norms and what applies, and what doesn’t apply, to them and their identity and personality.

Back on the topic of stereotypical gender roles, I’ll name a few that I’m sure you have heard of, men are more direct and aggressive, while women are more emotional and nurturing. Many believe that those things aren’t societal norms but come from internal factors, namely the sex hormones, such as testosterone, estrogen, and progesterone. Transgender people have proved that that is not the case. Some transgender people chose to undergo hormone replacement therapy, HRT for short. What that does is it switches the sex hormones in the body to that of the gender that they were not assigned at birth. I am on HRT, under the supervision of an endocrinologist, I give myself shots of testosterone, or get slow-release pellets implanted inside of me in order to negate the estrogen and progesterone in my body. I’ve have been physically transitioning in this way for almost five years at this point. Now my hormonal makeup is the same as a Cisgender male of my age range. I am not noticeably more violent or aggressive than I was before norI am no less nurturing, nor have there been any changes in my desire to have children since I started. As far as I know, I am not an isolated case. I have not heard any of those changes happening to any of my trans friends who also undergo HRT.

The main reason people go on HRT is so their outside is more congruous with our gender identity, though the changes that occur only change the cultural versions of sex, it can do wonders for our mental health along with our physical safety. I’ll first explain the mental health aspects. To do that I need to define gender dysphoria, which is distress in regards to the body not aligning with what primary and secondary sex characteristics that they envision themselves with. Along with the physical component, gender dysphoria has a societal part as well, it is distress due to not being treated as the gender they identify with. Not all trans people have gender dysphoria and that is completely valid and does not make them any less trans.

As for the physical safety of going on HRT, it can give someone what is called passing privilege. That is the ability to “pass” as the binary gender that they were not assigned. this allows someone to go safely go into gendered spaces without getting verbally, emotionally, or even physically attacked by cis people. Not only are Trans people safer in gendered spaces, but we are also safer in public places in general. On the Last Trans Day of Remembrance, November 20th, 2021, where we honor the trans people who were murdered for being trans, last one in the U.S alone, there were 44 confirmed murders(GlAAD, 2022).

The price transgender people pay to live as their authentic selves is extraordinarily high. No one would take on voluntarily if it were not truly a part of who we are. I merely scraped the surface of the problems that transgender individuals face. Knowing all that, how can you believe that gender isn’t completely a social construct?

Sources(not all were directly used, but all were looked at)

Get Uncomfortable: The Social Construction of Reality"

Social Construction

“Social Construction of Gender”

ProfTalk: What Does the "Social Construction of Reality" Mean?

We Construct our Reality

GLAAD TDOV

Article One Biology,