EMMA HARTLEY
It is commonly acknowledged that while biological sex is genetically determined, gender is a social construct. A human being cannot-and should not-be reduced to their biology, or indeed their genitals, because psychologically we are as much a product of the way that other people treat us as we are of our genetic inheritance. Homo sapiens are social creatures: our ability to cooperate is what gave us the evolutionary upper hand over our stronger Neanderthal cousins. Without parents, siblings, peers, colleagues, friends and lovers our idea of ourselves would remain ill-defined-we wouldn’t know who we were.