I'd like to know your thoughts on something

[Sadie_Nightingale]

In a novel I'm writing, there's a sentient species of aliens. They only have one biological sex, they're all hermaphroditic. Since gender is a social construct unrelated to sex, how do you think this race would view gender? How would the concept of gender develop in their culture? How would gender roles be divided? Without dimorphism, would they have any concept of gender at all?

[David1987]

I suppose in a society like that roles would be divided based on something else. It could be something physical such as size for example, or something inherently social like income, royal status, etc.

There could still be a concept of gender as we have in today's society though, where those jobs that are more physically demanding and require more strenght are taken by those with masculine energy, for example.

Gender is just another way to divide and categorize people after all, and to attribute characteristics of the group to their particular individuals. There have been many other ways to do this unrelated to gender such as nationality, "race", education, etc. So probably there would be some sort of division in the alien race. They could be uniformity too I guess, with absolutely no distinction between individuals, but all fictional examples I can think of are militaristic-type societies.

[Dena]

Welcome to Susan's Place. I think you have it wrong when you say gender is a social construct. I grew up in the time periods where woman's liberation was established leading to the concept that men and women are equal. It is true that almost all things one gender can do, the other can do but if you read this forum long enough, you start to see their is a difference between masculinity and femininity. Some of it appears to be due to the difference in our brain structure because it exist long before starting hormones. It's an attraction towards things considered feminine like cooking, appearance and socialization. Going the other way there is a dislike for many of these same things and most notably an attraction toward a masculine appearance.

After starting hormones, the FTMs tend to become more cool and in control of their life where as the MTF become more comfortable with a range of emotions.

Naturally in cases of a single father or mother, life shows us that the gender roles are interchangeable however a single father maintains his masculinity and a single mother maintains her femininity.

In a genderless society like you have, the roles as it our society would be divided by ability and aptitude. We tip the scales a bit as you are not going to have a 110 pound woman moving massive weights by hand or a brute of a man doing delicate assembly but there are differences from one one individual to the next that makes them better able to preform a given task.

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[Amanda_Combs]

I would base it more on the way people of the same gender can be divided up.  Perhaps super glamourous, nerdy, athletic, etc.


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[Michelle_P]

Regarding gender as a social construct, I invite you to examine the life of Dr. John Money and one of his more famous early patients, David Reimer.  Mr. Reimer was born male but his penis was destroyed in a botched circumcision.  With a bit of surgical touchup, Reimer had the appearance of female genetalia, and the parents raised Reimer as a girl under the supervision of Dr. Money, who proclaimed the case a successful proof that gender identity is primarily learned.

Reimer failed to identify as female starting at age 9 to 11, and transitioned to living as male at age 15. After suffering from depression for years, David Reimer committed suicide at age 38.  Dr. Money's 'successful' proof of gender as a learned concept has been used to justify the surgical alteration of damaged or intersex infants since then.  More recent research involving twins and studies of larger populations reassigned as infants has shown a strong non-learned drive towards gender identity, with the twins research in particular pointing towards a genetic component. Here's a good overview to start with.

Regarding your aliens, social stratification can happen without a gender-specific component, I think.  Look at the caste systems that exist in most human societies, for example.  People can find all sorts of interesting ways to sort each other into various categories and rationalize the superiority of one over another.  We routinely do this by hair texture, skin color, place of birth, family wealth, and so on.  In the past, things like height, physical strength, and handedness have been used to sort people into castes.

[josie76]

I'd like to throw my opinion in the mix as well. Gender is far from a social construct not associated with sex.

Gender is a deeply embedded instinctual process. It is the result of specific differentiation of regions in the brain. Socially humans can willfully override their gender. Transgender people like us spent years of our lives struggling against our brains neural wiring, our very basic human instincts. This of course leads to depression, anxiety, and a much higher suicidal ideation than the general population.

When the fetal development happens in idealistic order of events you get a baby whose gender (Or more correctly brain neural structures) matches their physical sex. When in the minority of pregnancies there is an unusual amount to androgens at key brain developmental stages the baby is born falling into the transgender spectrum. Those key brain regions are permanently wired. The pattern of neurons in these regions are what cause certain behavioral instincts to be present.

The entire theory of gender being a social construct is still promoted by people who do not understand the physiological differences of the brain and by those who tend to forget we are still animals of this planet.

For your story, any scientically advanced species would easily observe the brain structural differences. While our instinctual behavior might be quite unfathomable to them we would appear to follow the same rules as other species on this planet.

[DemonRaven]

Well if you want to go via the route of animals the ones that are hermaphrodites Tend to fight each other for who gets to be the sperm donor and who has to be the receiver. In star trek the next generation the episode of the The Outcast  they had an androgynous race known as the J'naii. So there are various ways you could go with it.