Do Sex and Gender Have Separate Identities?

[Kevan Wylie]

Here is a very interesting article that has recently been published in the Archives of Sexual Behaviour.

Abstract The largely binary nature of biological sex and its confation with the socially constructed concept of gender has created much strife in the last few years. The notion of gender identity and its diferences and similarities with sex have fostered much scientifc and legal confusion and disagreement. Settling the debate can have signifcant repercussions for science, medicine, legislation, and people’s lives. The present review addresses this debate though diferent levels of analysis (i.e., genetic, ana tomical, physiological, behavioral, and sociocultural), and their implications and interactions. We propose a rationale where both perspectives coexist, where diversity is the default, establishing a delimitation to the confation between sex and gender, while acknowledging their interaction. Whereas sex in humans and other mammals is a biological reality that is largely binary and based on genes, chromosomes, anatomy, and physiology, gender is a sociocultural construct that is often, but not always, concordant with a person’ sex, and can span a multitude of expressions  

Kevan.