The fluid body. A view from anthropology

Abstract

To classify human beings into two categories –men and women— while assigning each category a specific set of fixed and unchangeable types of behaviour is a social construction and not a description of reality. Intermediate situations as well as ambiguity and possibilities for change exist in the biological sense as well as in social behaviour. The difference between sex and gender has made possible the questioning of the necessity and inmutability of assigned behaviours even though the biological dichotomy has continued to be assumed in the background. At present, both sex and gender are viewed as being part of a continuum but subject to change while social rejection of homosexuality is gradually shifting into a rejection of homophobia.