A major misunderstanding is considering gender and sex to mean the same thing. This is not true as sex refers to the biological identifiers that determine male or female, where as gender is better understood as sexuality and sexual identity of person. Gender is a social construct. We as people have desires for companionship and intimacy but it is unique what draws one person to another. If asked I would guess that even is a group of men or women have the same feature they look for in a perspective partner their image of the ideal mate will most certainly not match up perfectly. The fact that there are similar ideals and romanticized visions of a perfect mate also feeds into the idea that it is a socially constructed element. A persons sex can be changed but the concept of changing ones sex is a procedure, their identity is that of some who is transgender. This example shows the fundamental difference between two in that one is a scientific term and the other is a social element that can change and evolve through history. Media helps mold these social elements by either enforcing stereotypes or by shedding light on misconceptions perpetuated by faulty information. Though out this course I have learned truly how subtle and powerful the media can be, especially visual media. Its almost impossible to filter through the nonstop stream of information for all directions. So it is very understandable how something like the idea of someones sexual identity and gender can be confused. A further example the medias ability to cause doubt and confusion not out of malicious intent but by a populace not sure how to navigate it.
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