One of the most controversial debates of modern society is the idea that our “natures?and how we are nurtured are in conflict with each other to determine what defines who we are. When one attempts to define sex and gender, he/she often finds him/herself stumped as to what the definitions are. More so, one is puzzled by where the came from. How do nature and nurture influence the definitions of sex and gender? To understand how nature and nurture affect these definitions, we must first know what they are. Sex is biological while gender is socially constructed. Genes produce sex. It exists in itself, and is sublimely indifferent to what humans think of it. Gender is the meanings that society assigns to sex. Richard Mulcaster wrote the words, “Nature makes the boy toward, nurture sees him forward.?Even though nature plays a role in defining sex and gender, nurture plays the greater part in helping society define the two terms.

Definitions come from that which is learned, not that which is part of our genetic system. John Locke believed that all people were born with a blank slate (a tabula rasa.) Him and other Empiricists thought that experiences were written into the mind and that every

“Amazingly, this boy had an identical twin brother, which made it possible to compare two genetically identical individuals raised as a boy and a girl... our hero became the perfect little girl, the very picture of adorable femininity.?(Baxter 52)

“Theories are most successful when they let us believe that our “social prejudices are scientific facts after all.”” (Baxter 53)

Parents are always trying to influence their children into fitting the mold that society has cut out for them. Boys must play sports; girls must play with Barbie dolls. If a child is out of the norm they are castigated by out judgmental society. “If little Johnny showed a predilection for wearing pink hair ribbons and nail polish, wouldn’t these same gender-blind parents gently but firmly dissuade him??(Baxter 53) Why would one want to be abnormal from society and act different from others? People are always taught that normal is the best way to be. “A girl who is bright enough to solve a quadratic equation is smart enough to bat her eyelashes and pretend she can’t.?(Baxter 85) To be different in this world is to be wrong.

People do not want to fall out of the definitions that are set up for sex and gender. Had the definitions been due to nature people would not have preconceived notions about the way males and females should act. Everyone would act according to his or her genes and then all males would act the same and all females would act the same. Because all humans act differently due to theirs being nurtured differently, society feels the need to set limits upon what

Some topics in this essay:
Gender Differencesof, Soc Parents, Nurture Debate, Richard Mulcaster, John Locke, sex gender, Susan Baxter, definitions sex, definitions sex gender, females act, , males females act, gender socially constructed, gender socially, countries pakistan, nature nurture, humans gender, tabula rasa, socially constructed, actually boy,