Sex

Organisms of many species are specialized into male and female varieties, each known as a sex. Sexual reproduction involves the combining and mixing of genetic traits: specialized cells known as gametes combine to form offspring that inherit traits from each parent.

One of the basic properties of life is reproduction—the capacity to generate new individuals – and sex is an aspect of this process. Life has evolved from simple stages to more complex ones, and so have the reproduction mechanisms. Initially, reproduction was a replicating process that consisted of producing new individuals containing the same genetic information as the original or parent individual. This mode of reproduction is called asexual reproduction, and it is still used by many species, particularly unicellular organisms. However, it is also very common in multicellular organisms, including many of those with sexual reproduction. In sexual reproduction, the genetic material of the offspring comes from two different individuals. As sexual reproduction developed over a long period of evolution, intermediates exist. For instance, bacteria reproduce asexually but undergo a process by which a part of the genetic material of an individual donor is transferred to another recipient.

Sex organs are the parts involved in the production and exchange of gametes in sexual reproduction. Many species, both plants and animals, have sexual specialization, and their populations are divided into male and female individuals. Conversely, there are also species in which there is no sexual specialization, and the same individuals contain both masculine and feminine reproductive organs; these are called hermaphrodites. This is very frequent in plants.

Sexuality

Sexuality is about who you’re attracted to sexually and romantically. People who are attracted to others of a different sex are known as ‘heterosexual’ or ‘straight.’ People who are attracted to others of the same sex are known as ‘homosexual,’ ‘gay,’ or ‘lesbian.’

Sexuality is more complicated than just being gay or straight.

Some people are bisexual and like both men and women. Others see sexual attraction and gender as fluid and find labels like ‘straight,’ ‘gay,’ or ‘bi’ too rigid and fixed. These people prefer to self-identify as ‘queer.’

Gender

Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining to, and differentiating between, masculinity and femininity. Depending on the context, these characteristics may include biological sex (i.e., the state of being male, female, or an intersex variation), sex-based social structures (i.e., gender roles), or gender identity.

Gender conventions play a large role in attributing masculine and feminine characteristics to a fundamental biological sex. Socio-cultural codes and conventions—the rules by which society functions—determine the allocation of these specific traits to the sexes. These traits provide the foundation for the creation of hegemonic gender differences. It follows, then, that gender can be understood as the acquisition and internalization of social norms. Individuals are therefore socialized through their receipt of society’s expectations of ‘acceptable’ gender attributes, which are reinforced by institutions such as the family, the state, and the media. Such a notion of ‘gender’ becomes naturalized into a person’s sense of self or identity, effectively imposing a gendered social category upon a sexed body.

A person’s sex as male or female has legal significance—sex is indicated on government documents, and laws provide differently for men and women. Many pension systems have different retirement ages for men or women. Marriage is usually only available to opposite-sex couples; in some countries and jurisdictions, there are same-sex marriage laws.

The question then arises as to what legally determines whether someone is female or male. In most cases, this can appear obvious, but the matter is complicated for intersex or transgender people. Different jurisdictions have adopted different answers to this question. Almost all countries permit changes of legal gender status in cases of intersexualism, when the gender assignment made at birth is determined upon further investigation to be biologically inaccurate. Technically, however, this is not a change of status per se. Rather, it is recognition of a status deemed to exist but unknown from birth. Increasingly, jurisdictions also provide a procedure for changes of legal gender for transgender people.

Gender assignment, when there are indications that genital sex might not be decisive in a particular case, is normally not defined by a single definition but by a combination of conditions, including chromosomes and gonads. Thus, for example, in many jurisdictions, a person with XY chromosomes but female gonads could be recognized as female at birth.

The distinction between sex and gender differentiates a person’s biological sex (the anatomy of an individual’s reproductive system and secondary sex characteristics) from that person’s gender, which can refer to either social roles based on the sex of the person (gender role) or personal identification of one’s own gender based on internal awareness (gender identity). In this model, the idea of a “biological gender” is an oxymoron: the biological aspects are not gender-related, and the gender-related aspects are not biological. In some circumstances, an individual’s assigned sex and gender do not align, and the person may be transgender. In other cases, an individual may have biological sex characteristics that complicate sex assignment, and the person may be intersex.

The sex and gender distinction is not universal. In ordinary speech, sex and gender are often used interchangeably. Some dictionaries and academic disciplines give them different definitions, while others do not. Some languages, such as German or Finnish, have no separate words for sex and gender, and the distinction has to be made through context. On occasion, using the English word “gender” is appropriate.

Transgender people experience a mismatch between their gender identity or gender expression and their assigned sex. Transgender people are sometimes called transsexual if they desire medical assistance to transition from one sex to another.

Transgender is also an umbrella term: in addition to including people whose gender identity is the opposite of their assigned sex (Trans men and Trans women), it may include people who are not exclusively masculine or feminine (people who are genderqueer, nonbinary, bigender, pangender, genderfluid, or agender). Other definitions of transgender also include people who belong to a third gender or conceptualize transgender people as a third gender. Infrequently, the term transgender is defined very broadly to include cross-dressers.