Sex and Gender

Running head: SEX AND GENDER
SEX AND GENDER
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1SEX AND GENDER
French Feminist Simone De Beauvoir has provided of one of the best specimens for
explaining the difference through her iconic catchphrase “one is not born a woman, one becomes
one” in her celebrated book, titled ‘The Second Sex’. Through the statement she had very clearly
tried to explain the differences between sex and gender. The terms sex and gender have different
meanings in sociological discourses, sex is associated with the biological aspect and gender is
associated with the social aspect of the biological category of sex. The term sex has its basis in
the bodily construct of a particular person, and is denoted appropriately by the biological terms
of male and female. The biological tag of being a male is associated with a certain physical
construct which is different from that of a female and definitely the physical capacities and
capabilities are also different for males as well as for females. The gender is on other hand is a
sociological category which derives its basis and the model of differentiation from the biological
category of sex. The category of gender is associated with certain roles and code of conduct that
one is supposed to fulfill by virtue of being born as a male or a female. Simon de Beauvoir had
opined that it is owing to the roles that women are supposed to play by virtue of being born as a
female and being rendered with physical power less than a male. Hence, the norms of women to
behave in a submissive manner, perform household chores, reproduce, nurture the children and
take care of the family’s daily physical and emotional needs. The men being stronger than
women had to venture out behind the protected sphere of household and fend for the family. The
economic power being the prerogative of the men, they had gained much importance and got the
prerogative of dominating over women, which had been determined both by virtue of the greater
physical force and economic power of a man compared to a woman. Thus that was how the
social construct of a woman has taken place as per the views of Simone de Beauvoir which was

2SEX AND GENDER
essentially rooted in securing the male privilege, hence the women had to mould themselves in a
way which would uphold the male superiority (De Beauvoir 2012).
Having provided a theoretical understanding of the sociological concepts of sex and
gender, the discussion shall now focus on how the sex and gender dynamics work in matters of
clothing, which is supposed to be the thesis statement of this particular essay. In the following
sections the discussion shall be focusing on how sex and gender has influenced the choice of
clothing for men and women, and how has the transformations in the pattern of clothing for men
and women have taken place over the generations. In the following sections, the dichotomy
between male and female clothing shall be explained by means of discussing the choice of colour
for male and female clothing, the genderization of clothing and the eroticization of women’s
apparel shall be discussed.
The popular narrative that is prevalent in the contemporary times that, ‘pink is girls and
blue for boys’ is indicative of social sex and gender expectations. The rule has however been
subject to transformations down the generations. The genderization of clothing based on the
colours blue and pink to tell the gender and sexual identities of the children apart is a 19th century
product before which clothing and colour code for apparels were gender neutral as babies
irrespective of their gender and sex were dressed in white, and similarly. The genderization of
dresses on the basis of the colours blue and pink had commercial underpinnings apart from the
social factors. Until the period upto the Second World War, pink used to be the colour of the men
while blue for the women as per the trade publication of 1918. Pink was considered to be a
stronger colour which was in tandem with the personality of a man while blue was supposed to
be a very delicate colour which matched with the personality of a woman. The children were
socialized right from the outset to follow that code of colour (Paoletti 2012).