What is Gender? (Part III): A More Biblical Answer

We have been building towards a clear and, I hope, Biblically and culturally informed definition of this word, gender. Last time, we went over five ways you might hear the word used. Each of them can lend us some insight as we reach our own definition. Let’s review them, noting what we can appreciate as we seek to capture this word’s mysterious meaning….

1. The meaning of gender as “a synonym for biological sex” appreciates the close tie between the physical and the non-physical. One really cannot separate maleness from masculinity, or, sex from gender, and shouldn’t try to (Deuteronomy 22:5). They are tied because we are a duality of body and spirit (Genesis 2:7). But they are not the same. Collapsing one into the other causes us problems.

2. “As the culturally accepted manifestation of sex”, again, gets the tie between the two. It also brings out how our actions reveal what we are in body. In fact, it sounds a lot like James’ analogy between the body and faith: “For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead” (James 2:26). As works reveal the faith, the spiritual or activity of us also reveals who we are in our biology. (And, as John Paul II would say, our bodies reveal who we are in spirit.).

3. A “masculine or feminine social roles” meaning highlights how gender is something we do as well as what we are. The Bible always speaks this way about gender (e.g., Colossians 3:18-19), giving some credence to all the theorists’ talk about gender as performative. Yes, it is. But it cannot be reduced to roles. So this meaning is getting at how our gender is always about relationship. Thus, it is very much a social phenomenon.

4. Queer theory’s meaning for gender was “a discursive construction” (and also an illusion). Well, Sort of. Yes, gender could be seen as a projection onto our bodies, giving the body meaning. But it is, I would say, the meaning it was meant to have, not an illusion. And the meaning comes from the Author of meaning (1Corinthians 11:12). More importantly, this meaning understands that gender is a process, that the meaning of the thing is found in becoming the thing. To be a man is found in becoming a man (1Samuel 2:26). And words are important in that process.

5. Trans Theory’s definition was “persons’ individual feelings and ease with their body.” Well, I can agree that a person’s consideration of herself is a big part of where gender is cultivated or rejected. To be a woman in relationship requires your consent to what your body tells you. If you don’t consent, your womanliness is severely compromised. So trans is helpful in focusing us on peoples’ feelings about themselves. Gender is an identity, and a development which, I would say, we embrace or resist.

These all can help shape a definition of our own, to distinguish biological sex from the social-spiritual gender but not to divide the two. To recognize gender in our performance and growth. And to acknowledge its source.

So, here then, is my starting definition. A gender is…

One of the two eternal types of human person, which God gave to propel us into intimacy and fruitfulness with one another.

The intimacy, for example, found in human relationship, and the fruitfulness, for example, in reproduction of the divine image, are the ends of this gift.

Think about that for a while and let me know if you think it holds up.