An experiment of sorts

[fncceo]

I'm happy to be your lab rat...

 

[fncceo]

I'm happy to be your lab rat...

P.S. I will do literally anything for that food pellet.

 

[well named]

Yeah I'm wondering how gender got separated from sex. Welcome, BTW.

The analytical purpose behind distinguishing gender from sex has to do with the fact that cultural variation in how people understand what it means to to be a man or a woman (or hijra, or nádleehí, ...) doesn't reduce neatly to a discussion about biological variation. "Gender" then can refer to things like the expectation that I will like sports and not share my feelings easily, and "sex" can refer to differences in hormones, physiology, and so on.

A lot of confusion tends to arise from people thinking that "social construction of gender" -- a phrase meant to say something about that cultural variation -- entails that the biological differences don't exist, aren't important, or bear no relation at all to the social aspects of gender. Which isn't quite right, but it's a complicated topic, and as is the case with pretty much all nature/nurture arguments there are also a lot of open questions.