Understanding of Gender
Feminist theories have currently been in the run to define gender and come up with solutions that can solve gender debates. Social justice debates all over are too trying to give identity to people and place privileges according to their genders. There has been tension in differentiating gender has a spectrum (binary) and non-binary. What we mean when we refer to gender has being binary or spectrum is that there are two extremes in gender that is male and female and everyone can be placed somewhere while being non- binary views gender as something beyond the male and female confinements.
However gender can only be defined referring to the distribution of gender identities present in the group that one finds themselves in not by individuals point of view or self-determination. This distinction groups can be placed in three approaches which are religious, biological and sociological. In the three the idea of gender is viewed and described in different dimensions.
Discussing about gender in a religious perspective we will only be referred to gender as a binary. Religion looks at how God only created two distinct human beings with two different identities of gender that is man and woman. Woman as the female gender is described as inferior, weak subordinate and emotionally weak while the man as the male gender is the superior one.
Biology describes gender in both a binary and non- binary way. Biology gives clear differences of gender definitions through the heterosexuality and homosexuality point of view. Heterosexual humans are seen as the people who identify themselves with the binary definition of gender while the homosexual ones don’t cage themselves between two genders but rather they explore their gender identity and that’s where we get thing like third genders and transgender. So according to biology gender can be understood in both spectrum and non- binary dimension.
Sociologically, gender identification varies with cultures and time. When one culture has categories gender into two groups of male and females other can would rather abolish the categorization and let everyone place themselves in a place that they feel gives identity to them and makes sense for them. And again in social context gender categorization can change with time, at a certain people in a certain society may only approve two gender but as time goes you find there is the freedom of people to identify their genders according to what makes them comfortable.