Sexual Differentiation and Social Organization

Abstract

Differentiation based on sex is fundamental to human beings. Being born into one of the categories, namely male or female, becomes significant in later life, dictating social interactions, behavior, attitudes, and traits. Gender socialization further reinforces the differences and sets boundaries for interaction. The intrinsic urge to associate with each other and experience the otherwise forbidden sex gratification drives them to be closer to each other. This results in an inevitable bonding between males and females leading to an organized institutional entity namely family, and still further larger conglomerates such as community or society. The attraction between opposite sexes forms the basis for all clusterings. In the meantime, another set of forces exists that forbids indiscriminate bonding and determines patterns of interaction. This manner of viewing society as based on two diametrically opposing forces arising from sexual differentiation namely attraction and repulsion serves to understand the dialectics of transactions that shape social life. Conceived this way the very existence of organized life in society is the result of the twin forces of repulsion and attraction between sexes. Repulsion is a social construct whereas attraction is an individual instinct. Repulsion is associated with sexual differences and sexual identity contributed by factors such as role, age, and anonymity and social compulsion. An analysis based on sex as the pivot of social life transcends the notions of structural hierarchy, mode of production, wealth and economy, concentration of power and occupational segmentation, etc. as determinants of organized social life. An attempt has been made here to examine the dynamics of sexual differentiation and associated factors that constitute the fundamentals of social organization.