ENGLISH LESSON: Sex and Gender
THE ART : I had an idea for an art piece of someone’s head just split open by misunderstanding or confusion. Something that gets misunderstood a lot are the differences in words that society tell us are the same, when factually they are not. Especially, when you have too many hands in the fire telling what things “actually” are, it gets further confusing. Gender and Sex are terms that get used synonymous with each other furthering the confusion even more. When you get confused and your emotions boil over because you simply don’t understand you blowup. Thus, the inspiration for the art piece. CONFUSION.
THE PROCESS : I originally sketched in procreate on my iPad and just kind of let what happened happen. I then took to an Arteza watercolor/mixed media sketchbook and did the sketch with my Faber Castel polychromo colored pencils, I also used them for the line art after the painting process was finished. I started painting with my HIMI MIYA jelly gouache set. Then, I finished it off with the POSCA paint markers for the lines and highlights for the blue and pink lava bubbles spilling out of the head. I wanted to have a lighter green glow thing behind the subject but, it just turned streaky. I wasn’t mad at the streakiness and over all very proud of my first attempt at gouache.
THE WORDS : Just to preface this post, this isn’t bringing anything into this other than the dictionary. Just me, a practical english major, not adding anything to the conversation other than the true definition of both of these terms. No religion, social issue, or anything other than merriam webster. I see a lot of people, where I’m from get really agitated when someone brings up these words: GENDER and SEX. I think it’s because we live in a world where a gray area just doesn’t make sense, so these words are used as if they are the same. However that’s never been the case. I think it’s best to understand these terms with words and phrases we already know as to get a handle on what they actually are.
Since these words get misconstrued quite often it’s best to go to the definition of each:
GENDER : a subclass within a grammatical class (such as noun, pronoun, adjective, or verb) of a language that is partly arbitrary but also partly based on distinguishable characteristics (such as shape, social rank, manner of existence, or sex) and that determines agreement with and selection of other words or grammatical forms.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gender
SEX : either of the two major forms of individuals that occur in many species and that are distinguished respectively as female or male especially on the basis of their reproductive organs and structures.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sex
With these definitions we see that sex acts as the biological assignment of male and female where as gender acts as the identifier based on the traits of the person. Thus opening them up for acceptance of other terms as well, such as their pronouns. It’s almost like gender acts as an adjective and pronoun where as sex acts as the noun.
Linguistically, these words are not the same.
I know that there are many other aspects to cover for visibility within these terms. However, with this just scratching the surface I hope it helps someone understand the actual, factual meanings of sex and gender so they aren’t used incorrectly and or at least saves someone from confusion.
It’s almost like using the wrong “there, their and they’re” or mixing up “where and were”. Saying you “seen” something when you most certainly “saw” it. Or like someone I knew in Jr. High mixing up “our and are”…. let that one sink in…. OUR AND ARE!!!
As heavy as this may seem, it’s not anything deeper than a micro english lesson. There are many other terms that are along the same vein that get used as the same that are not. Like naked and nude, effect and affect or elicit and illicit. The list goes on and on.
The art was fun to make. It was cathartic to right through a pet-peeve of mine. I hope this gets taken to a positive place and we can go from there.
I don’t know how to end this… GOODBYE!
-Andrew J.
