5-1 Discussion: Bathrooms and Boyfriends
Elliot, are you aware that sex and gender do not have the same meanings? The genitalia that someone is
born with or his or her biological identity is what sex refers to. On the other hand, gender refers to the
biology of an individual, but also takes into consideration "the cultural and social values and roles each
group assigns to those identities" (MindEdge, Inc., 2016). Anthropologists define gender as the social
component that reflects not only one's biology but also the cultural and social values and roles that each
group gives to those identities, while they define sex as one's biological identity (MindEdge, Inc., 2016).
We may or may not find this strange, but anthropology makes an effort to separate cultural values from
the social structures that give rise to them. In other words, gender roles are not "natural," according to
