Start off with the Male and Female species at biological level. They who combine and populate the face of the earth. They who are the stuff who colours and develop the landscape and construct and defines what gender is all about. gender roles, gender specifics and so forth.
Complicating, border-less, all over the face of the earth, (no more just about women, there is now the third sex maybe even the fourth to consider) the way they construct and incorporate ' Gender' into this great universal issue, is mind boggling . Frankly, I see it as the marinating of various vitamins to provide the energy in the power field of everyday living-cultural role play, the politics, the actioning and the continuous construction of whatever structures society deems fit. I remember as a young child, we had this big stone grinder where we put in the rice, and pull with all our strength for the desired produce. You can only pull in one direction....Hard to explain but ...
Gender is something that has become every day functioning -a part of the living individual's body, mind , spirit and soul. It has taken over the definition of what is self!! Everything, has that Gender word labelled and stamped on it.I prefer the old and simple definition of the biological -simply difference in the sexual make up -man and women BUT, Gender goes beyond that.
The Oxford dictionary defines it as :The state of being male or female (typically used with reference to social and cultural differences rather than biological ones): They forgot the third kind. 
the likes of Elton John who are gaining recognition in the cultural world. Definitions of right and wrong, what is socially correct, what defines sin and so on..the dictionary need to broaden their definitions.
FAO defined Gender as ‘the relations between men and women, both perceptual and material. Gender is not determined biologically, as a result of sexual characteristics of either women or men, but is constructed socially. It is a central organizing principle of societies, and often governs the processes of production and reproduction, consumption and distribution’ (FAO, 1997). Despite this definition, gender is often misunderstood as being the promotion of women only. However, as we see from the FAO definition, gender issues focus on women and on the relationship between men and women, their roles, access to and control over resources, division of labour, interests and needs. Gender relations affect household security, family well-being, planning, production and many other aspects of life (Bravo-Baumann, 2000).
Girl - Pink, small gentle, sweet and submissive. Boy - Blue big strong, rough and gruff!! 
Women-kitchen, child bearing and rearing, take the lesser role . Men, decision making, leader, freedom to do what women cannot do 
Too big a subject to tackle, you need a couple of books to get through that!! :)
I like an example given to me yesterday- something about the constructs of society :
A 70 year old lady, flirting with a group of teenagers and the eyes of the watching people go big and round, I guess, even the eye balls would fall out. The mouths goes yapping..'what the heck is that woman doing? What sort of behaviour is that??' Well, where in the books of living does it say, that is bad behaviour?? Flirting?? that's society's perception. Is she really flirting or just being the nice old person?? The additional issue here is of course the age factor. She is expected to act her age. Where in the world does it say, people have to act their age? That elderly persons of 70 etc.. should just sit around, dressed in black, act sombre, stay out of everybody's way,perhaps wait for the day of recall??That's all constructed (ahem! :) in my views nonsense!!)
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