{"id":338,"date":"2022-12-05T11:35:33","date_gmt":"2022-12-05T11:35:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/glare\/?p=338"},"modified":"2024-12-05T12:32:29","modified_gmt":"2024-12-05T12:32:29","slug":"the-basics-what-is-gender","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/glare\/the-basics-what-is-gender\/","title":{"rendered":"The basics: What is &#8220;gender&#8221;?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Gender<\/em> is another term that is widely used and discussed by laypeople and scholars alike. This post will give a brief overview of the concept, and some definitions and examples, which should be a useful starting point for research in this area.<\/p>\n<p>In common usage,\u00a0<em>gender<\/em> and\u00a0<em>sex<\/em> are sometimes used interchangeably. But neither of these terms is straightforward. The distinction is sometimes explained by saying that <em>sex<\/em> is a set of biological characteristics, for instance, what kind of genitals a person has, whether they have XX or XY chromosomes, or whether they are capable of giving birth.\u00a0<em>Gender<\/em>, on the other hand, is seen as a socially constructed phenomenon, which relates to how people perform their social identities &#8211; for instance, what clothes they wear and how they style their hair, and what terms (such as pronouns) they use to describe themselves. Sometimes <em>sex<\/em> is claimed to be static, while\u00a0<em>gender<\/em> is dynamic and can change over time. Both\u00a0<em>gender<\/em> and\u00a0<em>sex <\/em>are linked with the concept of\u00a0<em>power<\/em>, which I will touch on in various future posts.<\/p>\n<p>Sauntson (2019) gives a very useful overview of the key labels used in the field of language, gender and sexuality research:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Sex<\/em> \u2013 Traditionally used to refer to the biological state of being female or male. The terms \u2018male\u2019 and \u2018female\u2019 are only ever used to refer to biological sex. Biological sex (and the accompanying terms \u2018male\u2019 and \u2018female\u2019) applies to all animals, not just humans.<\/li>\n<li><em>Gender<\/em> \u2013 Traditionally used to refer to a social categorisation system consisting of a polarised set of behaviours classed as \u2018masculine\u2019 and \u2018feminine\u2019. Sex and gender are ideologically linked so that masculine behaviour is expected of biological males and feminine behaviour is expected of biological females. The term \u2018gender\u2019 only refers to human behaviour.<\/li>\n<li><em>Woman\/man, girl\/boy<\/em> \u2013 These terms are usually used to refer to someone\u2019s gender, whereas the terms \u2018female\u2019 and \u2018male\u2019 are reserved for referring to someone\u2019s biological sex. In contemporary work on gender, individuals can claim their own gender as \u2018woman\u2019, \u2018man\u2019 or \u2018variant\u2019 rather than simply being ascribed a biological sex. Thus, gender is now seen (at least in academic work) as having more agency and as something which is dynamic, active and sometimes a site of struggle.<\/li>\n<li><em>Cisgendered<\/em> \u2013 Someone whose chosen gender identity corresponds to their biological sex and as identifying and embodying the sex assigned at birth. For example, a cisgendered woman is someone who was born female and is happy with their female body and with adopting a gender identity which is broadly understood as feminine.<\/li>\n<li><em>Transgendered<\/em> \u2013 Someone whose chosen gender identity does not correspond to their biological sex. For example, a transgendered man is someone who was born female in terms of biological sex but who identifies as a man and adopts a gender identity which is broadly understood as masculine. Transgendered individuals may or may not have had different kinds of medical interventions in order to help them to transition into their desired body.<\/li>\n<li><em>Non-binary, gender variant, gender queer<\/em> (and related terms) \u2013 A range of terms used by individuals whose chosen gender identity lies outside the binary categories of \u2018woman\/man\u2019 and\/or \u2018trans\/cis\u2019. It is worth noting that \u2018woman\/man\u2019 and \u2018trans\/cis\u2019 are not viewed as mutually exclusive binary systems in the field but are seen more as continua.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>As Sauntson points out, no one set of definitions in this field is uncontroversial or unproblematic; she exhorts readers to apply critical thought to any definitions they read and use, and I would like to do the same here. The word \u2018traditionally\u2019 in Sauntson\u2019s definitions for\u00a0<em>sex<\/em> and\u00a0<em>gender<\/em> above suggest that there are newer, different ways of thinking about and defining these concepts, which she goes on to further describe in the remainder of the book.<\/p>\n<p>As well as problematising the idea that <em>gender<\/em> is binary, in recent research\u00a0<em>sex<\/em>\u00a0is increasingly not seen as binary either, in humans let alone in other animals. A light-hearted illustration of this is shown in <a href=\"https:\/\/humoncomics.com\/archive\/Animal-lives\">the \u2018Animal Lives\u2019 series by comic artist Humon<\/a>, who illustrates the behaviours of different animals as an example of how many do not follow traditional stereotypes\u00a0of male and female behaviours in relation to reproduction, rearing their young or courtship behaviours.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_345\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-345\" style=\"width: 438px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/humoncomics.com\/milkman-discus-fish\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-345\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/glare\/files\/2022\/12\/milkman-discus-fish.png?resize=438%2C716\" alt=\"Two humanoid figures holding hands, carrying what appear to be babies. The one on the left is turquoise and has a male symbol, short hair and has breasts. The other has a female symbol, long hair and also has breasts. The Heading reads &quot;Discus Fish&quot; and the caption reads &quot;Discus fish take good care of their young; a male and a female form a monogamous pair and find a place for the female to lay the eggs. The female will then guard the eggs while the male guards her, and when it's time for the eggs to hatch, they help those struggling to hatch by gently nibbling on the eggs. Both parents then feed the young with a milky secretion through their skin that is triggered by the same hormones that cause women to lactate. They do this until the young are ready to eat solid food.&quot;\" width=\"438\" height=\"716\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-345\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Illustration of discus fish reproductive behaviours by Humon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>When studying gender in animation, several additional layers of complexity are added. Animated representations of people and other characters do not always closely resemble real-world gendered characteristics since everything we see is created artificially (see\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/glare\/the-basics-what-is-animation\/\">previous post on animation<\/a>): for instance, masculine characters may be impossibly muscular while feminine characters sometimes have tiny waists, as in this promotional image for <em>The Secret of the Sword<\/em> (Friedman et al., 1985) (see also <a href=\"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/glare\/gendered-discourses-in-a-contemporary-animated-film-subversion-and-confirmation-of-gender-stereotypes-in-shrek-unger-sunderland-2007\/\">Unger and Sunderland 2007<\/a> for a discussion of this phenomenon in\u00a0<em>Shrek<\/em>, Adamson &amp; Jenson 2001):<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rottentomatoes.com\/m\/the_secret_of_the_sword\/pictures\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-343 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/glare\/files\/2022\/12\/681EFB34-97D6-4BA8-94A3-72B2047392EB.png?resize=300%2C169\" alt=\"Comic style illustration of the animation characters He-Man and She-Ra. He-Man has a reddish mullet, is very muscular, wears a chest harness, and carries a sword. She-Ra has long-blond hair, is wearing a short white dress and has a very slim waist. She also carries a sword.\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/glare\/files\/2022\/12\/681EFB34-97D6-4BA8-94A3-72B2047392EB.png?resize=300%2C169&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/glare\/files\/2022\/12\/681EFB34-97D6-4BA8-94A3-72B2047392EB.png?resize=768%2C433&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/glare\/files\/2022\/12\/681EFB34-97D6-4BA8-94A3-72B2047392EB.png?resize=685%2C386&amp;ssl=1 685w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/glare\/files\/2022\/12\/681EFB34-97D6-4BA8-94A3-72B2047392EB.png?w=800&amp;ssl=1 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>But undeniably, animated characters <strong>do have<\/strong> gendered characteristics of some kind, even when they are animals or supposedly inanimate objects like the household objects in <em>Beauty and the Beast<\/em> (Trousdale &amp; Wise, 1991). This is partly achieved via their visual representation, partly through the language used and other behaviours, and partly due to the voice of the actor. In the case of <a href=\"https:\/\/disney.fandom.com\/wiki\/Mrs._Potts\">Mrs Potts the teapot<\/a>, for instance:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Her appearance shows some stereotypically feminine features such as lipstick, eyeshadow, long eyelashes, purple and pink accessories<\/li>\n<li>She is addressed by <a href=\"https:\/\/disney.fandom.com\/wiki\/Chip_Potts\">Chip (her teacup child)<\/a>\u00a0as &#8216;Mama&#8217;<\/li>\n<li>She takes on a nurturing, maternal role, which is stereotypically associated with women<\/li>\n<li>Her character is voiced by a woman, Angela Lansbury<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Beauty and the Beast Belle Meets Mrs Potts\" width=\"685\" height=\"385\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/FFuvz6MUjOw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>The idea that the gender of the actor determines the gender of the animated character should not be taken for granted, however. In animation, as indeed in live action films and theatre, there are many examples of actors playing roles that do not correspond to their own gender. A famous example is Nancy Cartwright, the actor who voices Bart Simpson from the TV series <em>The Simpsons. <\/em>In this interview she briefly discusses the incongruity between her own gendered identity and that of Bart the character:<\/p>\n<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Nancy Cartwright (aka Bart Simpson) | Interview (2004) | ROVE LIVE\" width=\"685\" height=\"385\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/MwyZjmgZQmQ?start=25&#038;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>Although gender is made a theme and joked about in a number of episodes of\u00a0<em>The Simpsons<\/em>, particularly with regard to Lisa Simpsons&#8217;s role as a young girl trying to assert herself in a patriarchal story-world, Bart&#8217;s gender is not particularly called into question: viewers are supposed to believe he is a young boy. In many animated films and series, however, gender is used to present characters in a particular way, and gendered performances that depart from the stereotypical expectations of society are often used to characterise villains as &#8216;other&#8217;, &#8216;weird&#8217; or &#8216;dangerous&#8217;, as described by <a href=\"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/glare\/about-the-contributors\/\">contributor Jasmin Awoodun<\/a> in her <a href=\"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/glare\/gender-queering-and-villainy-in-animated-films-a-linguistic-analysis-of-hades-from-hercules\/\">post on the character Hades<\/a> in\u00a0<em>Hercules <\/em>(Musker &amp; Clements, 1997).<\/p>\n<p>Thinking about the importance of gender in many storylines in animated films and series, it is clear that gender deserves careful consideration and detailed study. This applies both to films\/series that generally confirm gendered stereotypes, ie. many of the Disney princess films, and many animated series, and to those that seem to present a challenge to stereotypes, including films like <em>Brave <\/em>(Andrews &amp; Chapman, 2012) or <em>Shrek\u00a0<\/em>(Adamson &amp; Jenson, 2001), even if they also confirm them in some ways &#8211; see <a href=\"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/glare\/gendered-discourses-in-a-contemporary-animated-film-subversion-and-confirmation-of-gender-stereotypes-in-shrek-unger-sunderland-2007\/\">Unger and Sunderland, 2007<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>References and further reading\/viewing:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Adamson, Andrew &amp; Jenson, Vicky (Directors). (2001).\u00a0<em>Shrek<\/em> [Animated film]. DreamWorks Animation.<\/p>\n<p>Andrews, Mark &amp; Chapman, Brenda (Directors). (2012).\u00a0<em>Brave <\/em>[Animated film]. Walt Disney Pictures.<\/p>\n<p>Friedman, Ed, Kachivas, Lou, Lamore, Marsh, Reed, Bill &amp; Wetzler, Gwen (Directors). (1985) <em>He-Man and She-ra: The Secret of the Sword <\/em>[Animated film]. Filmation.<\/p>\n<p>Sauntson, Helen. (2019). <em>Researching language, gender and sexuality: A student guide.<\/em> Taylor &amp; Francis Group.<\/p>\n<p>Groening, Matt (Creator). (1989 onwards). <em>The Simpsons <\/em>[TV series]. Gracie Films.<\/p>\n<p>Musker, John &amp; Clements, Ron. (Directors). (1997). <em>Hercules<\/em> [Animated film]. Walt Disney Pictures.<\/p>\n<p>Trousdale, Gary &amp; Wise, Kirk. (Directors). (1991). <em>Beauty and the Beast <\/em>[Animated film]. Walt Disney Pictures.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/glare\/gendered-discourses-in-a-contemporary-animated-film-subversion-and-confirmation-of-gender-stereotypes-in-shrek-unger-sunderland-2007\/\">Unger, Johann Wolfgang, &amp; Sunderland, Jane. (2007).<\/a> Gendered discourses in a contemporary animated film\u202f: Subversion and confirmation of gender stereotypes in Shrek. In Norman Fairclough, Guiseppina Cortese, &amp; Patrizia Ardizzone (Eds.), <i>Discourse and Contemporary Social Change<\/i> (pp. 459\u2013486). Peter Lang.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Gender is another term that is widely used and discussed by laypeople and scholars alike. This post will give a brief overview of the concept, and some definitions and examples, which should be a useful starting point for research in this area. In common usage,\u00a0gender and\u00a0sex are sometimes used interchangeably. But neither of these terms &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/glare\/the-basics-what-is-gender\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">The basics: What is &#8220;gender&#8221;?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":568,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7],"tags":[29,24,21,16,152,52,14,153,151],"class_list":["post-338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-concepts","tag-beauty-and-the-beast","tag-brave","tag-disney","tag-dreamworks","tag-he-man-she-ra","tag-hercules","tag-shrek","tag-the-simpsons","tag-web-comics"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/glare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/glare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/glare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/glare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/568"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/glare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=338"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/glare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":853,"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/glare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338\/revisions\/853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/glare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/glare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/glare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}