boiMAG.com "Gender Identification"

Gender is different from sex. Although genetic factors typically define a person’s sex, gender refers to how they identify on the inside. Only the person themselves can determine what their gender identity is.

The term gender identity refers to the personal sense of an individual’s own gender. Because a person’s sex and gender identity do not have to be the same, it is important to know the difference between them.

Gender

A person’s gender is how they identify internally and how they express this externally. People may use clothing, appearances, and behaviors to express the gender that they identify with.

The World Health Organization (WHO) Trusted Source note that gender is a social construction that people typically describe in terms of femininity and masculinity. In Western cultures, people associate femininity with women and masculinity with men, but this social construction varies across cultures. However, gender is not neatly divided along the binary lines of “man” and “woman.”

Sex

A person’s sex is typically based on certain biological factors, such as their reproductive organs, genes, and hormones.

Like gender, sex is not binary. A person may have the genes that people may associate with being male or female, but their reproductive organs, genitals, or both may look different.

This is called differences in sex development. People may also refer to differences in sex development as intersex.

People typically use the terms “male,” “female,” or “intersex” to refer to a person’s sex.

gender identity

The concepts and terms that refer to gender identity continually change, as our perceptions evolve.

The term “gender identity” first appeared in the 1960s. It referred to a person’s inner sense of belonging to the category of male or female. In time, the term came to include people who identify in other ways. It refers to a person’s own sense of their gender, regardless of the sex a doctor assigned to them at birth.

Some terms, such as “transsexual,” have also changed meaning over time. In the past, this term referred only to people who had undergone certain medical procedures, such as a mastectomy or phalloplasty. The meaning of this term has since broadened to include people moving toward or having a gender identity that is different from the one assigned to them at birth.

Other language has changed in terms of acceptability. The term “queer,” for example, was historically used as a slur against people who did not conform to expectations about gender expression or identity. Now, some people have reclaimed it. It can be acceptable in some circumstances but offensive if people use it inappropriately.

It is also important to note that gender identify may not fit into a category. Labels may help a person understand their identify, but gender identities are not always classifiable in these ways. As people come to perceive their gender identity in new ways, they may find that no single term defines it. Or, they may identify in several ways.

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