What does it mean to be "male" or "female?"

@DoriaN: Real question (and not a leading one, Im exploring what I think as I type) - do you distinguish between what it means to be male/female in a "sex" context vs a "gender" context? Because that distinction (or its lack) probably makes a pretty big difference in perspective on definition. So...if *I* make the distinction that sex is clearly physical where gender is, IMO, not (for instance: folks in NYC, San Francisco, Cambodia, China, etc all might have VERY different ideas of what a "man" is vs a "woman" and what their imposed expectations are)...there ends up being various potential alignment gaps between body, outward presentation (e.g. clothing), sexuality, and gender. On the other hand, if you're defining gender as sex, I think those same gaps probably still exist, but we'd have to settle on different terms?

 

Heya! I appreciate your question.
So again, this will be my viewpoint and I'll try to stay on subject best I can.

Worldview will play a part in people's perception, oftentimes two people can look at the same situation and draw a differing conclusion, or use science/evidence/example to justify their own agenda/idea. What it means to be a man or woman can directly tie into a person's faith (Whether they are Jewish, Atheist, Theist, Muslim...) as well, some might attribute purely a natural understanding of the body/person, others may see a more supernaturally understanding of a person (soul/consciousness).


Normally, gender is meant to align with sex, and while tied together loosely they can be separated.

There are about 4 points that make up 'gender', gender itself is both a more literal term as well as an umbrella.
Gender, sex, cultural, personal. These 4 all together shape a person's sense of gender or gender perception. It's no surprise then to think, that if you see a feminine looking, feminine acting, feminine appearing, and feminine enforcing person; you're going to see a woman.


Gender to me is not equal to sex, because intersex individuals are sexually ambiguous, and their gender identity can differ even in twin cases (Possessing the same chromosomes, external genitalia etc, but one going male the other female).

Because gender is the mental/spiritual? aspect (as well as an amalgamation of the aforementioned package), there may be dissonance between the physical nature of sex. When this happens, an individual may have feelings of 'phantom' parts, or disgust with their body. The brain is sending signals about the body but it isn't quite getting the message properly (the individual notices a dis-order), when puberty occurs this becomes much more noticeable since now you have breasts where you shouldn't and hair where it wasn't, so on and so forth.

So biologically, gender and sex are there from the start, and they are innate and personally woven aspects of a person. They are hard to deny or change (normally), and this is partially why there is much stigma over the change (It breaks the mold, the accepted paradigm, and is rare to see medically). These two form a building block, by which they lead into the next aspect.


Now we have the cultural/societal aspect of gender. Society draws it's guidelines usually by commonly held agreements (spoken or unspoken), when it becomes a disagreement change is likely to occur. So for a time, frilly and gaudy outfits may be seen as regal, where later they're seen as... Gay. So the fashion or expectations of various places (China, NYC, etc) will differ and change based on how the people there are raised or conditioned or expressing. Fashion is just one aspect of course.

For understanding how a society will view men or women, it will stem from a source that gives guidance, in this case the biological nature of men and women. Since men and women are fundamentally different, how they behave or act is fundamentally different. There will be crossover, but again, because men are stronger they will be expected to be strong, so acting 'weak' be it emotionally or physically will at times (Not always, just noting) be seen as 'womanly'. Likewise, women have traits that they excel in, and ones they shy away from, playing sports, roughing it, and being interested in vehicles is seen as 'manly' (Activities that promote strength/power).

These are just basic rules, so within many societies you will see a lot of similarity, from patriarchies, war army composition, workplace roles, choice of career, etc.
Different cultures will always have their own take, it's a social construct, but it was based on a biological one.


Lastly there's the personal aspect of gender. What it means to the individual and how they feel about themselves. Some are proud to be masculine women, some men are proud to be feminine men. Some hate being feminine despite how they act, some really don't care either way.

This area of gender (umbrella) is where a lot of people get more political with how they feel about themselves. Some may feel fine with their body, not care about society or culture's expectations of them, but want to live in a way that's ideal to how they are feeling. An example could be where I've seen cases with some women are treated so poorly they come to resent being women, and so they feel they should have been born a man and they end up pursuing this inner homunculus they see within their mind's eye.

Others may view gender more artistically, and use their own body as a canvas, shaping themselves to be what they like. Some might like the clothes and think it'd be more suiting aesthetically, some might prefer to be treated in a certain role or perception, there are many possibilities.


In conclusion what makes a man 'a man', and what makes a woman 'a woman' is going to be partly objective and partly subjective. It's effectively based on the summation of how men and women are biologically, and how they function based on the biology (Which leads to culture gender formation). When it comes to culture, there is some truth behind how society deems men and women, but it's not an ultimately authoritative source to draw objective conclusions on what makes a man and what makes a woman.

It's pretty late where I am so I hope that was alright, that's a very good question so it was fun pondering on it, thank you =]