Sex is biological: testosterone, estrogen and xx or xy chromosomes…

But gender is performance.

The act is easy to see when boys put on a tough guise and girls act sexy, because sexy on little girls and tough on little boys just looks a little weird. (Think “Little Miss” beauty pageants, for instance.)

But then we grow up and what had once been play and mimicry begins to feel natural and normal.

Then along comes model, Erika Linder, posing one way to look female and another to appear male.

Posed as a guy she looks more intense, more angry, more confident, stronger, scrappier, less passive and less put together.

Posed as a woman — well just the opposite. Smoother, softer, and more made-up. And don’t scrunch up that pretty face.

See these pics, thanks to Sociological Images:

And two more from Unique Models, via Sociological Images:

And you thought gender was just natural?

See Erika doing masculinity and femininity in this JC Jeans commercial:

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