Making Sex, Making Sexual Difference

Abstract

This book would have no basis for discussion if contemporary Western society did not take “sex” and “sexual difference” for granted. Scholars of history have for some time argued that “sex” and “sexual difference” have undergone significant shifts in meaning. This chapter provides a historical account of the making of “sex” and “sexual difference.” Using feminist research, the chapter focuses on what I have termed the “culture of matter” - that is, how culture has produced a discourse of “sexual difference” and complementarity, rather than some other discourse such as sex similarity. The “story” of sex “differences” is largely a story of the emphasis of difference rather than similarity, of intrasimilarity and inter difference. But, as Matt Ridley’s quote above suggests, the shift to emphasizing supposed differences between women and men carries the specter of its social construction: it is equally plausible to discuss sex similarity as it is to discuss sex difference.

Similarity is the shadow of difference.

(Ridley, 2003: 7)