Responding to Confusion about Sex and Gender
The Rt. Rev. Patrick S. Fodor
God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion …So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” ― Gen. 1:26-27
There was a time when the word gender was used usually only in classes about English or some other language. The so-called “Transgender Movement” has intentionally changed this and made it a buzzword for spreading what can be rightly described as an anti-human cult.
What is the distinction between “sex” and “gender”? These things are at the root of human identity and relationships, so it is absolutely necessary to understand them accurately, in accord with reality as God made it.
Sex is a term which refers to biological realities. In The End of Gender, a book which includes many helpful definitions and information (though also some serious misjudgments of morality- the author is not Christian and has no such commitments), Dr. Debra Soh observes:
Biological sex is either male or female. Contrary to what is commonly believed, sex is defined not by chromosomes or our genitals or hormone profile, but by gametes, which are mature reproductive cells. There are only two types of gametes: small ones called sperm that are produced by males, and large ones called eggs which are produced by females.
There are no intermediate types of gametes between egg and sperm cells. Sex is therefore binary. It is not a spectrum. (pg. 17)
She also notes:
Similar to sex, gender- both with regard to identity and expression- is biological. It is not a social construct1 nor is it divorced from anatomy or sexual orientation. Despite what contemporary scholars may have you believe, all these things are very much linked. (pg. 17)
We might say that sex is a reference to biology, while gender is a matter of grammar. But grammar expresses and reflects biological realities connected to sex. Although different languages work different ways, the expressions in a given language’s grammar are not arbitrary either. They show universal patterns and ways of categorizing ideas. Gender expresses biological (and other deeper connected aspects, spiritual, psychological, emotional) truths
connected to sex. And there are reasons why universal patterns are, well,
universal. Why, for example, in many languages are ships female, when it is
obvious that they’re not even living things? They are concave. They have an open space designed to be filled, and to protect those inside. The shapes of things, their purpose, and other elements of their essential nature dictate how gender expresses their nature, with forms that express some form of sexual differentiation. That’s how cultures and languages all over the world, over all time, have processed reality. In Taoism, Confucianism, or Judaism; Africa, China, or North America, the same patterns show up. That because they’re implanted in us by God.
We can, in terms of the language, go back to basics. The origin of the term “gender” is in the Latin genus/generis. It is the same root word for “gene” as well as “genus” and “genre.” All of these are precisely about ways to classify things according to their nature. Its colloquial use was as a synonym for sex.
It is an intentional manipulation of language to use the word “gender” as it is now being used: to say things never before heard of, divorced from our genuine nature, and imposed by fiat as matters of individual choice at any given moment. The use of the language is, in any case, as we will explain and illustrate later) totally incoherent. But this new usage (just like, for example, the novel, weaponized use of the word “gay” for homosexual) can be traced to two major deviant figures Alfred Kinsey and John Money. To examine this in a very easily readable form, see Matt Walsh’s book and video. For there to be ninety-seven genders (or however many any particular platform has now
“created”) is to absurdly demand that there are that same number of sexes!
There is obviously a huge amount about the “Transgender Movement” which requires specific attention, and a number of coming bulletins will deal with
many more aspects of this. But in the meanwhile, we must at least keep ourselves grounded in reality as God has made it and reject (and refuse to comply with) false uses of terms which weaponize them to destroy all that God designed to be good and holy, rooted in Himself as Trinity.
Suggested Reading:
Abigail Favale. The Gensis of Gender: A Christian Theory. Ignatius Press, 2022.
Debra Soh. The End of Gender: Debunking the Myths about Sex and Identity in Our Society. Threshold Editions, 2020.
Matt Walsh. What is a Woman? DW Books, 2022. The video also available through Daily Wire, at www.dailywire.com .