Thoughts of a Doubting Christian ✓

Gender Roles, Masculinity and Femininity, and the Patriarchy

One thing that has puzzled me for years is why anti-gay people are so insistent that being gay is wrong or "unnatural." I've pondered it for ages, and I've finally come to the conclusion that, past all of the other reasons — religion, pseudoscience, personal disgust, whatever else people use — the underlying reason has to do with gender roles.

Please, hear me out.

Most people who oppose homosexuality have ideas about gender and gender roles which go something like this:

There are two genders which line up with two biological sexes: male and female. Men and women are inherently different biologically, physiologically, and psychologically, and therefore play different but necessary roles in society. Men are natural leaders and breadwinners, while women are natural caregivers and mothers. Men should be masculine, while women should be feminine. The two sexes are made to complement each other, including during sex but also in marriage and childrearing. Anything else isn't what nature (or God, or evolution, etc.) intended, hence homosexuality isn't natural.

Sound familiar? (Yes, I was cringing the entire time I wrote that.)

Their ideas of masculinity and femininity go along with their idea of gender roles, falling on a continuum from one to the other. Masculine traits include being dominant, aggressive, strong, logical, analytical, competitive, rigid, unapproachable, and competent. Feminine traits are seen as the opposite: submissive, demure, weak, emotional, compassionate, cooperative, flexible, approachable, and nurturing. Hence why the patriarchy seems like a natural and inevitable part of society for people who think this way — men are the leaders and providers, and women are the followers and caregivers. Why should it be any other way?

Wow, it physically hurt me to write that paragraph.

Anyway, the subject of gender roles, masculinity and femininity, and the patriarchy is far too complicated to fit into only one chapter. Instead, what I want to focus on is twofold: first, the reasons why the "traditional" ideas about gender, biological sex, and gender roles are inaccurate, and second, the social construction of masculinity and femininity.

Let's dissect this one piece at a time. The first claim is, "there are two genders which line up with two biological sexes: male and female."

Herein lies the very first problem — the assumption that there are only two biological sexes. There are actually five: complete male genitalia (male), complete female genitalia (female), both male and female genitalia (hermaphrodite), and two other hermaphrodite-like cases (male and female pseudohermaphrodites). But this isn't a case where you can lump most people under the two most common sexes, as this may lead you to conclude; there is an insane amount of biological variety under the different hermaphrodite labels.

For hermaphrodites, the male and female gonads (testes and ovaries) can grow separately or as a single unit, the ovotestis. Many of them can produce either sperm or eggs, but a case has not yet been reported of a hermaphrodite with both male and female gonads functioning in a way where someone could impregnate themselves. Even so, many have a nearly equal mix of male and female genitalia, making it impossible to classify them as one or the other.

Male pseudohermaphrodites, or merms, usually have testes and XY chromosomes, but they also have a vagina and clitoris. They develop breasts at puberty but they don't menstruate. On the other hand, female pseudohermaphrodites, or ferms, have ovaries and XX chromosomes and may have a uterus, but they also have external male genitalia. Once again, the unique mix of male and female characteristics makes it impossible to classify them as one or the other.