Goodbye to Sex and Gender
- 1 February 1996
- journal article
- research article
- Published by SAGE Publications in Sociological Review
- Vol. 44 (1) , 1-16
- https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-954x.1996.tb02960.x
Abstract
The sociological distinction between ‘sex’ and ‘gender’ has been paradigmatic for twenty years and is still taken for granted within the discipline. However it is a distinction that will no longer serve. Doubts about its continued usefulness surfaced as a result of a variety of influences. This paper refers specifically to the history of sex and to recent work in genetics in order to demonstrate that sex, like gender is a discursive construction. I argue that the sex/gender problematic is wrong to assume biological differences are naturally given and that sex cannot operate as a natural base in a theory of difference.This publication has 5 references indexed in Scilit:
- Sexing the AthletesSociology of Sport Journal, 1995
- Rethinking sex and genderWomen's Studies International Forum, 1993
- Life in the XY corralWomen's Studies International Forum, 1989
- The sex-determining region of the human Y chromosome encodes a finger proteinCell, 1987
- Sex Differences in the BrainScientific American, 1966