{"id":3040,"date":"2006-12-18T18:28:31","date_gmt":"2006-12-19T01:28:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.amptoons.com\/blog\/archives\/2006\/12\/18\/need-evidence-that-gender-is-socially-constructed\/"},"modified":"2006-12-18T18:28:31","modified_gmt":"2006-12-19T01:28:31","slug":"need-evidence-that-gender-is-socially-constructed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=3040","title":{"rendered":"Need Evidence that Gender is Socially Constructed?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editor’s\u00a0note: As the commenters pointed out, I’m actually arguing that both gender and sex are social constructions.<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n

I have a good example. This case is not unique, but it is rather interesting. An Indian runner who earned a Silver Medal in the Asian Games, was disqualified because she “failed a gender test.”<\/p>\n

The IOA also asked its medical commission to inquire into Soundarajan’s case and report within 10 days.<\/p>\n

There are no compulsory gender tests during events sanctioned by the International Association of Athletics Federations, but athletes may be asked to take a gender test. The medical evaluation panel usually includes a gynecologist, endocrinologist, psychologist and internal medicine specialist.<\/p>\n

An Indian athletics official who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media said Soundarajan almost certainly never had sex-change surgery.<\/p>\n

Instead, the official said Soundarajan appeared to have “abnormal chromosomes.” The official also said the test revealed more Y chromosomes than allowed.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I find it interesting that they had to get a half dozen experts to determine this women’s gender for her. If gender was just about chromosomes and\/or genitalia, then this wouldn’t be such a big debate. I have heard of cases like this before with professional athletes and other people.<\/p>\n

Now before, the biological determinists come crawling out of the wood work, I’m not saying that there is no biological basis for sex, but I am saying that the criteria used for assigning gender (and sex)<\/em>\u00a0are social in nature. One of the things that our social construction of gender teaches us is that there are “males” and “females” and that’s it. It also tells us that everybody fits into these two gender boxes, but the biological “truth” is a little more complex..<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Editor’s\u00a0note: As the commenters pointed out, I’m actually arguing that both gender and sex are social constructions.\u00a0 I have a good example. This case is not unique, but it is rather interesting. An Indian runner who earned a Silver Medal … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gender-and-the-body","category-lesbian-gay-bi-trans-and-queer-issues"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3040"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3040\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}