Editing Gender (section)

==== Social assignment and gender fluidity ====
{{See also|Sex assignment|Gender fluidity}}

According to gender theorist [[Kate Bornstein]], gender can have ambiguity and [[Genderfluidity|fluidity]].<ref>Bornstein, Kate (1995). ''Gender Outlaw – On Men, Women and the rest of us'', Vintage, {{ISBN|0-679-75701-5}} pp. 51–52</ref> There are two<ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-06-28 |title=What Is Fluid? |url=https://www.webmd.com/sex/what-is-fluid |access-date=2022-06-23 |website=WebMD |language=en}} Reviewed by Dan Brennan</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Zheng |first=Lily |date=2020-11-20 |title=Transgender, Gender-Fluid, Nonbinary, and Gender-Nonconforming Employees Deserve Better Policies |url=https://hbr.org/2020/11/transgender-gender-fluid-nonbinary-and-gender-nonconforming-employees-deserve-better-policies |access-date=2022-06-23 |work=Harvard Business Review |issn=0017-8012}}</ref> contrasting ideas regarding the definition of gender, and the intersection of both of them is definable as below:

The [[World Health Organization]] defines gender as "the characteristics of women, men, girls and boys that are socially constructed".<ref name="who-gender">{{cite web |title=Gender |url=https://www.who.int/health-topics/gender |access-date=8 February 2023 |website=World Health Organization}}</ref> The beliefs, values and attitude taken up and exhibited by them is as per the agreed upon norms of the society and the personal opinion of the person is not taken into the primary consideration of assignment of gender and imposition of gender roles as per the assigned gender.<ref name="www.who.int" />

The assignment of gender involves taking into account the physiological and biological attributes assigned by nature followed by the imposition of the socially constructed conduct. ''Gender'' is a term used to exemplify the attributes that a society or culture constitutes as "masculine" or "feminine". Although a person's sex as male or female stands as a biological fact that is identical in any culture, what that specific sex means in reference to a person's gender role as a man or a woman in society varies cross-culturally according to what things are considered to be masculine or feminine.<ref name="Birke, Lynda 2001">Birke, Lynda (2001). "Chapter 24, In Pursuit of Difference." ''The Gender and Science Reader''. New York: Routledge, pp. 309–322.</ref> These roles are learned from various, intersecting sources such as parental influences, the socialization a child receives in school, and what is portrayed in the local media. Learning gender roles starts from birth and includes seemingly simple things like what color outfits a baby is clothed in or what toys they are given to play with. However, a person's gender does not always align with what has been assigned at birth. Factors other than learned behaviors play a role in the development of gender.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ehrensaft |first=Diane |date=25 May 2017 |title=Gender nonconforming youth: current perspectives |journal=Adolescent Health, Medicine and Therapeutics |language=en |volume=8 |pages=57–67 |doi=10.2147/ahmt.s110859 |issn=1179-318X |pmc=5448699 |pmid=28579848 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

The article ''Adolescent Gender-Role Identity and Mental Health: Gender Intensification Revisited'' focuses on the work of Heather A. Priess, Sara M. Lindberg, and [[Janet Shibley Hyde]] on whether or not girls and boys diverge in their gender identities during adolescent years. The researchers based their work on ideas previously mentioned by Hill and Lynch in their gender intensification hypothesis in that signals and messages from parents determine and affect their children's [[gender role]] identities. This hypothesis argues that parents affect their children's gender role identities and that different interactions spent with either parents will affect gender intensification. Priess and among other's study did not support the hypothesis of Hill and Lynch which stated "that as adolescents experience these and other socializing influences, they will become more stereotypical in their gender-role identities and gendered attitudes and behaviors."<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Priess |first1=Heather A. |last2=Lindberg |first2=Sara M. |last3=Hyde |first3=Janet Shibley |year=2009 |title=Adolescent Gender-Role Identity and Mental Health: Gender Intensification Revisited |journal=Child Development |volume=80 |issue=5 |pages=1531–1544 |doi=10.1111/j.1467-8624.2009.01349.x |jstor=25592088 |pmc=4244905 |pmid=19765016}}</ref> However, the researchers did state that perhaps the hypothesis Hill and Lynch proposed was true in the past but is not true now due to changes in the population of teens in respect to their gender-role identities.

Authors of "Unpacking the Gender System: A Theoretical Perspective on Gender Beliefs and Social Relations", [[Cecilia Ridgeway]] and [[Shelley Correll]], argue that gender is more than an identity or role but is something that is institutionalized through "social relational contexts." Ridgeway and Correll define "social relational contexts" as "any situation in which individuals define themselves in relation to others in order to act."<ref name="Wiley">{{Cite journal |last1=Ridgeway |first1=Cecilia L. |author-link=Cecilia L. Ridgeway |last2=Correll |first2=Shelley J. |author2-link=Shelley Correll |year=2004 |title=Unpacking the Gender System: A Theoretical Perspective on Gender Beliefs and Social Relations |journal=Gender |volume=18 |issue=4 |pages=510–531 |doi=10.1177/0891243204265269 |jstor=4149448 |s2cid=8797797}}</ref> They also point out that in addition to social relational contexts, cultural beliefs plays a role in the gender system. The coauthors argue that daily people are forced to acknowledge and interact with others in ways that are related to gender. Every day, individuals are interacting with each other and comply with society's set standard of [[hegemonic]] beliefs, which includes gender roles. They state that society's hegemonic cultural beliefs sets the rules which in turn create the setting for which social relational contexts are to take place. Ridgeway and Correll then shift their topic towards sex categorization. The authors define sex categorization as "the sociocognitive process by which we label another as male or female."<ref name="Wiley" />

The failure of an attempt to raise [[David Reimer]] from infancy through adolescence as a girl after his genitals were accidentally mutilated is cited as disproving the theory that [[gender identity]] is determined solely by parenting.<ref>{{cite web |title=David Reimer, subject of 'sex reassignment,' dead at 38 |url=http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2004/May/13/ln/ln52a.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180807124805/http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2004/May/13/ln/ln52a.html |archive-date=7 August 2018 |access-date=11 November 2020}}</ref><ref name="Colapinto2">{{cite book |author-link=John Colapinto |url=https://archive.org/details/asnaturemadehim00john |title=As Nature Made Him: The Boy Who Was Raised as a Girl |vauthors=Colapinto J |publisher=[[Harper Perennial]] |year=2001 |isbn=0-06-092959-6}} Revised in 2006{{page needed|date=October 2017}}</ref> Reimer's case is used by organizations such as the [[Intersex Society of North America]] to caution against needlessly modifying the genitals of unconsenting minors.<ref>[http://www.isna.org/faq/reimer Intersex Society of North America | A world free of shame, secrecy, and unwanted genital surgery]</ref><ref name=":5">{{Cite journal |last=Meyer-Bahlburg |first=Heino F. L. |date=2005-08-01 |title=Gender Identity Outcome in Female-Raised 46,XY Persons with Penile Agenesis, Cloacal Exstrophy of the Bladder, or Penile Ablation |url=https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-005-4342-9 |journal=Archives of Sexual Behavior |language=en |volume=34 |issue=4 |pages=423–438 |doi=10.1007/s10508-005-4342-9 |issn=1573-2800 |pmid=16010465 |s2cid=34971769}}</ref> Between the 1960s and 2000, many other male newborns and infants were surgically and socially reassigned as females if they were born with malformed penises, or if they lost their penises in accidents. At the time, surgical [[Vaginoplasty|reconstruction of the vagina]] was more advanced than [[Phalloplasty|reconstruction of the penis]], leading many doctors and psychologists, including [[John Money]] who oversaw Reimer's case, to recommend sex reassignment based on the idea that these patients would be happiest living as women with functioning genitalia.<ref name="Bailey12">{{cite journal |vauthors=Bailey JM, Vasey PL, Diamond LM, Breedlove SM, Vilain E, Epprecht M |date=September 2016 |title=Sexual Orientation, Controversy, and Science |journal=Psychological Science in the Public Interest |volume=17 |issue=2 |pages=45–101 |doi=10.1177/1529100616637616 |pmid=27113562 |s2cid=42281410 |doi-access=free}}</ref> Available evidence indicates that in such instances, parents were deeply committed to raising these children as girls and in as gender-typical a manner as possible.<ref name="Bailey12" />{{rp|72–73}} A 2005 review of these cases found that about half of natal males reassigned female lived as women in adulthood, including those who knew their medical history, suggesting that gender assignment and related social factors has a major, though not determinative, influence on eventual gender identity.<ref name=":5" />

In 2015, the [[American Academy of Pediatrics]] released a webinar series on gender, gender identity, gender expression, transgender, etc.<ref>{{Cite web |title=American Academy of Pediatrics, Education, LGBT Health and Wellness |url=https://www.aap.org/en-us/about-the-aap/Committees-Councils-Sections/solgbt/Pages/Education.aspx |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170804215532/https://www.aap.org/en-us/about-the-aap/Committees-Councils-Sections/solgbt/Pages/Education.aspx |archive-date=2017-08-04 |website=www.aap.org |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=September 11, 2015 |title=American Academy of Pediatrics Webinar Series – What is Gender? |url=https://www.aap.org/en-us/Documents/solgbt_webinar_what_is_gender_sherer.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180807185854/https://www.aap.org/en-us/Documents/solgbt_webinar_what_is_gender_sherer.pdf |archive-date=7 August 2018 |access-date=17 February 2022 |website=American Academy of Pediatrics}}</ref> In the first lecture Sherer explains that parents' influence (through punishment and reward of behavior) can influence gender ''expression'' but not gender ''identity''.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Dr. Sherer |date=2015-09-15 |title=SOLGBTHW Webinar – What is Gender Terminology and Definitions |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrqIq1oiwdY |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191206064520/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrqIq1oiwdY&gl=US&hl=en |archive-date=2019-12-06 |work=American Academy of Pediatrics}}</ref> Sherer argued that kids will modify their gender expression to seek reward from their parents and society, but this will not affect their gender identity (their internal sense of self).