Gender

I guess when asked how to define gender, it is significant to compare it to sex, which is strictly anatomical. Yet, there seems to be no real difference between sex and gender. Gender consists of the expectations of other people of culture and living that are imposed on the two sexes. It seems that what makes gender unique is that it can be determined by the individual. The individual can declare oneself male or female despite the fact that other people would otherwise not declare them to be as such. However, it seems as though this is basically meaningless to assign yourself a different personal gender without convincing society, because after all, the entire purpose of gender (which is societal and cultural) is that it impacts the way you interact with people. And, despite the fact that a sexual male can declare himself by gender a female, it seems unlikely that people would treat him as such. Which brings up the question of whether gender is something defined by the individual or something defined by other people?

My life certainly does not do many any favors in answering this question. I am by sex a male who has always acted more or less like a male. I am not sure whether my behaviors are something sculpted by other people or if I am innately a raw man. It seems that it probably lies somewhere in between. As a male, I am typically born with a different brain than females. I am constructed to think less with the left side of my brain and more with the right side while females are more left side-oriented and also have a bigger corpus callosum, connecting the two sides of the brain. So yes, some things are innate, but what I wear and what I watch and what I say are largely dictated by the people around me and their expectations. So in conclusion, gender is something that I can consider to be both personal and widespread, but people will always strive to fit societal gender definitions as well as personal definitions.