Gender vs. Sex

Asking someone what gender they are and asking what sex they are are going to elicit the same response: Male or Female. The definitions of the two may mean the same thing but deeper down they are completely different. One of my classmates this week defined sex as "between the legs. i think thats a perfect description for it, while at the same time it doesn't fit gender completely. When we think about gender and what it can imply, it goes deeper than just intimate body parts, it goes into how we treat each other differently. Even from birth we separate males from females; males get blue things, females pink. This difference is only one in a long chain of differences between males and females. Males play with GI Joe's while girls play with Barbies just because. Raising kids up with this distinct view that genders are different can lead to discrimination later in life, I believe. I say that we let kids choose for themselves what toys they want to play with, and if a girl wants a GI Joe instead of the latest Hannah Montana doll, then so be it.