[Cin]

I have never read a single word Judith Butler has ever written, so I have no idea what Butler means when she says gender is a social construct. I have heard the term and I know what the statement means to me. But what does it mean in general? So let me ask, when Butler, or anyone, says gender is a social construct do they mean that one's actual gender is a social construct or are they saying that what defines the meaning of gender is a social construct? Does what makes someone female or male depend on the functions and roles attributed by any given society? Are man and woman devoid of definition beyond sex? Or is there a concrete definition of gender, a concrete definition of what makes female and male? Are there feelings, desires, needs, interests and a host of other intangibles that exist in just one gender, while a host of different one's exist in the other? Or would these feelings, desires, needs, interests vary depending on any given society's definition of what makes someone male or female? If the definitions for male and female are concrete and not social construct, then what are the definitions? Where did the definitions come from?