In my opinion, my genetics have had more of say in influencing my gender than the environment around me. This is mainly because of my perspectives on gender, and its definition. I believe that sex and gender are heavily related and I would use them interchangeably in a conversation. Due to sex being defined by our, I’d say the same for gender. I have male DNA, a male body, and I act like a male.

My environment hasn’t really done much to influence my expression of gender. This perspective probably comes from my belief that gender isn’t really malleable. One could say that I was raised as a boy, and that has influenced my gender identity. However, as was proven in the documentary, males and females are born with an idea of what gender they are due to nuances within their brains, so me being raised as a boy would simply have been a manifestation of my mind’s existing inclination to the male gender. What should be discussed however, is how stereotypes about gender identity first emerged. I grew up believing that blue is a ‘boys’ colour and pink is a ‘girls’ colour. As a result of this, I prefer the colour blue to pink, and this isn’t the only example. If society has influenced my gender identity in any way, then it’s probably instilling preconceptions and stereotypes about the two genders. Why does this happen and where did these notions arise from?

I’d say that my gender is a pretty significant part of my identity. Unlike things such as my hair or eye colour, if I was born a different gender and was a girl, I’m fairly sure I’d be a considerably different person today compared to who I am now. For example, the chances of me being an electric guitar player and metalhead would be less. Though I’m not saying girls can’t be that and I’m not stereotyping them in any way, all I’m saying is that me being a boy increased the chances of me liking/doing ‘masculine things like the aforementioned’. Yet again, this brings up the question about how did such preferences/stereotypes originate. Once we understand that, we’ll have uncovered one of the great mysteries regarding identity and it will help us understand the concept much better.