Gender and sex are quite multifaceted topics to discuss within a contemporary society. Over the past decades, the overall perception of gender has been constantly changing. It is a relatable theme which can be applicable to anyone, yet it can be controversial and evidently influential. Additionally, although different concepts are addressed by sex and gender, sometimes it occurs that people perceive it as similar things. Nevertheless, they both hold similarities and differences, and perception of them varies significantly depending on certain society related biases. Major biases include religious influences and gender related expectations, and they lead to the stigmatization of specific ways of behaviour which significantly affects minorities’ mental health.
Generally, sex can be a topic easier in terms of basic comprehension. It applies to the physical elements of someone’s body and is often referred to as biological sex. Hence, it is majorly defined by biological aspects of one’s body. At the same time, gender is a broader and more controversial concept. It is often called a social construct, as it does not necessarily rely on biological features. Essentially, gender represents acceptance of certain social characteristics based on inner tendencies. However, it does not completely exist within the bias of an introspective, since third parties perceive people based on gender as well as other multiple social factors (Hamidi et al., 2018). Thus, sex and gender are divided by the areas within which they are applicable, as sex is explanatory within biology and physical elements, while gender is based within the social identification spectrum.
Nevertheless, these concepts can intertwine within the context of psychology and stigmas. Since psychology studies social implications on the inner well-being among everything, it clearly links to the concept of gender which originates from society’s expectations. Thus, psychology’s ability to identify direct influences of gender on the well-being of people connects it to biological sex strongly, as it is common within society to equal gender and sex to each other while projecting the expectations. Expectations and stigma do not center around cis-people but rather spread to the whole spectrum of genders, which mostly affect people very negatively. For example, even non-binary people get under heavy influence of gender expectations even though they do not identify with gender binary system itself. The fact that they do not identify with their biological sex makes them trans people in terms of terminology. Yet, while some simply do not identify as trans, other non-binary do not feel “trans enough” because they do not have a specific gendered self evaluation (Vincent, 2019, p. 133). Thus, gender stigmas make people feel like they constantly have to match certain expectations in order to properly represent a specific gender group, instead of focusing on people’s authentic selves and its expression. It stimulates often occurring comparison with others within a gendered context and constant evaluating of self in order to receive more social validation. However, instead of validation people often get hurt.
When people do not meet gender expectations it results in specific social stigmas, and it is especially prominent in women’s lives. According to society’s feminine image, women are expected to behave, look and live in a submissive position throughout their lives due to patriarchal bias in the majority of countries. Such perspective underestimates a whole group of people based mostly on their biological sex, and results in the constant pressure to meet the beauty standards and social expectations. Hence, it triggers anxiety and makes women more vulnerable to diverse mental illnesses, and depression specifically (Labaka et al., 2018). While it is obvious that mental illnesses are not directly caused by people’s biological sex or gender identity, it is also evident that oppressed groups tend to suffer from mental illnesses more often. The main reason behind it is constant social pressure which results from specific gender expectations which put everyone but cis men in oppressed and weak position within the social overview.
There are many different social factors which have been influencing the perception of gender, but there is also a spiritual factor. Now, it is evident that different religions have their own unique view on given concepts, yet the mere existence of such a view reinforces gender stereotypes. For example, studies have identified that Christian and Muslim people tend to be more sceptical towards trans people and gender related questions (Campbell et al., 2019). This way, there is a connection between a definite set of beliefs and lower levels of flexibility within perception of gender. Naturally, the less flexibility there is, more strongly gender expectations are being reinforced, as people firmly stick to a certain set of beliefs. Considering that the majority of religions exist since ancient times, they tend to translate the gender messages of the past. Thus, they focus on the older and sometimes out-dated social dynamics, which might not be applicable within the context of contemporary social overview. This way, the loyalty to beliefs might create a clash with new aspects of gender which are being explored during modern times, which creates certain misunderstandings and, often, variations of oppressions.
In the end, society has been building strongly gendered images for a long time, and it keeps doing it even during contemporary gender revolution time. While commonly known gender stereotypes are being reinforced through all possible ways, majorly including religion, the consequences of it take effect on people towards whom it is being projected. This way, gender minorities and oppressed groups tend to suffer from mental illnesses more often due to the omnipresent social pressure directed towards them. Although gender and sex have certain things in common, gender’s social origin has a deep impact on people’s everyday life within society which is majorly focused on social aspects of life. As a result, such social concept as gender is perceived with as much significance as biological sex, which results in a lot of controversy around gender related questions.
References
Campbell, M., Hinton, J. D., & Anderson, J. R. (2019). A systematic review of the relationship between religion and attitudes toward transgender and gender-variant people. International Journal of Transgenderism, 20(1), 21-38. Web.
Labaka, A., Goñi-Balentziaga, O., Lebeña, A., & Pérez-Tejada, J. (2018). Biological sex differences in depression: A systematic review. Biological Research for Nursing, 20(4), 383-392. Web.
Vincent, B. (2019). Breaking down barriers and binaries in trans healthcare: the validation of non-binary people. International Journal of Transgenderism, 20(2-3), 132-137. Web.
Hamidi, F., Scheuerman, M. K., & Branham, S. M. (2018). Gender recognition or gender reductionism? The social implications of embedded gender recognition systems. In Proceedings of the 2018 chi conference on human factors in computing systems (pp. 1-13). Web.