Arguments revolving gender are; is gender a social or biological construction? Biological essentialism (philosophical doctrine of essences) refer to physical construction of the body, hormones etc. that define the essence of identity. (O’shaughnessy & Stadler 2007: 327). Social construction refer to social forces such as media, family, education etc. that defines identity. For example, a gay person would be seen as male in terms of Biological construction (penis), but female in conditions of social construction (dress).
Cape Town has a gay group known as the ‘sexy boys’ who lives on the street. They were clothes and dresses associated with and made for the female body.They construct their gender socially by clothes and the way they speak (tone of voice).
This guy above is not one of the 'sexy boys', but by his tone of voice I could here he is male.Your voice tone can be a biological or social construction. You are born with a certain tone, but you can manipulate it as you want to.
O’shaughnessy, M & Stadler, J. 2007. Feminism, Postfeminism and Ideologies of Femininity. In: Media and Society. Oxford University Press.
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