Body image and psychological stuff still fall under societal influence rather than biological influence, and the hormones we produce are fundamentally a sex thing, not a gender thing.
Something being a social construct doesn’t mean it doesn’t have a tangible influence on how people feel, it just means that it isn’t based on intrinsic biological fact. What constitutes being a “man” or a “woman” differs between cultures and between people, it is often tied to biology because of societal expectations and association, but it doesn’t actually come from biology. Something like pink being a girl’s colour or women wearing makeup or men drinking beers instead of daquiris, those are all arbitrary performances people put on based on what society tells them men or women should do. Even the pronouns he/she were invented, some languages don’t have gendered pronouns by default like English does. None of that comes from biology, biology doesn’t tell us what pronouns we use or what we should wear.
I agree with you totally. There are more factors in gender than just body image or genetics alone. Also I wonder - what happens if you’re a girl in western society, but you don’t like the color pink? When you go to Toys 'R Us, doesn’t it feel weird that all the girls toys are pink and in pink boxes - but you don’t see boys toys in blue boxes or just with one predominant color.
(That’s appropo of nothing, just something I’ve been wondering about for awhile).
Body image and psychological stuff still fall under societal influence rather than biological influence, and the hormones we produce are fundamentally a sex thing, not a gender thing.
Something being a social construct doesn’t mean it doesn’t have a tangible influence on how people feel, it just means that it isn’t based on intrinsic biological fact. What constitutes being a “man” or a “woman” differs between cultures and between people, it is often tied to biology because of societal expectations and association, but it doesn’t actually come from biology. Something like pink being a girl’s colour or women wearing makeup or men drinking beers instead of daquiris, those are all arbitrary performances people put on based on what society tells them men or women should do. Even the pronouns he/she were invented, some languages don’t have gendered pronouns by default like English does. None of that comes from biology, biology doesn’t tell us what pronouns we use or what we should wear.
I agree with you totally. There are more factors in gender than just body image or genetics alone. Also I wonder - what happens if you’re a girl in western society, but you don’t like the color pink? When you go to Toys 'R Us, doesn’t it feel weird that all the girls toys are pink and in pink boxes - but you don’t see boys toys in blue boxes or just with one predominant color.
(That’s appropo of nothing, just something I’ve been wondering about for awhile).