Queer Word List

In our days, new terms in the Icelandic language are being crafted by its speakers to keep up with English and queer terms. Below you’ll find a list of terms collected by the Student Paper, many of which appearing in this issue. This list is largely collected form the National Queer Association of Iceland’s website, Hinsegin frá Ö til A (Queer from Ö-A), and is by no means a complete collection of queer terms. For those seeking more terms, we recommend checking out the website otila.is. Trans Ísland’s word list is also a great read for those wanting to learn more, and can be accessed via their website, transisland.is/ordalisti.

Queer: An umbrella term that is used to describe people that are not heterosexual and/or do not ascribe to hterenormative ideas of gender and gender roles.

Sex and gender: Key terms both in queer and gender studies. Sex refers to one’s biological sex and gender refers to charactersitics of a a person that are socialy constructed.

Gender binary: The idea that there are only two genders, male and female.

Microaggression: A term used for commonplace daily verbal, behavioral or environmental slights against LGBTQIA+ people.

Marginalization: Marginalization is a process by which certain groups of society are pushed to its margins. Which results in these groups not having as easy access to institutions of power, information, education and respect in society.

Cis-sexism (transphobia): A system of ideas that puts trans people on a lower station than cis people.

Heterosexism: Heterosexism is a system of ideas that consciously or unconsciously places non-heterosexual people at a lower station than those who are heterosexual.

Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist: TERFs identify as feminists, but in reality it is about the belief that trans women have the privileges of cis-men as they have not experienced the opression of women and therefore have no business in the fight for women’s rights. TERF-ism assumes that trans women are actually encroaching on the platform of women's rights and thereby strengthening the patriarchy.

Pinkwashing: A term used to describe when a nation state or a company uses LGBTQIA+ people and their issues to create a positive image of themselves.

Rainbow capitalism: When companies use the rainbow and other symbols of the LGBT- QIA+ community for marketing purposes, without engaging with the queer community in a meaningful way, e.g. through an active fight against prejudice and inequality or financial support for queer organizations.

SEXUALITY* - *A more detailed list of sexualities can be found on the website Hinsegin frá Ö til A.

Heterosexual: Being attracted to the opposite sex; a man is attracted to a woman and vice versa. Note that this word is influenced by the idea that the sexes are only two and opposite to each other.

Homosexual: Being attracted to the same gender as one's own.

Bisexual: Being attracted to more than one gender. Originally the term applied to people who are attracted to both men and women, but it can also apply to one who is attracted to both women and trans people who identify outside of the gender binary.

Pansexual: Being attracted to all genders; women, men and people of other genders. Note that the term does not necessarily mean that pansexual people are equally attracted to all genders, but simply the ability to be attracted to all genders. The prefix pan- has its roots in the Greek word pâs, which means all.

Asexual: Being rarely or never being sexually attracted to other people. Some asexual people have a libido but are not interested in satisfying it with other people; other asexual people have little or no libido. Some asexual people are only interested in romantic relationships and/or non-sexual contact (e.g. hugs and cuddles). People who are not interested in romantic relationships are considered aromantic. Another subcategory of asexuality is gray asexuality, and refers to the fact that some people experience sexual attraction as a spectrum, not an either/or. Gray-asexual people rank close to asexual on this spectrum, and therefore feel little sexual attraction.

GENDER AND GENDER EXPRESSION

Gender identity: The way people want to live and breathe in their gender. Note that gender identity does not refer to genitalia, biology or appearance, but to people's experience of their own gender. We all have a gender identity, because we all experience our gender in some way.

Cisgender: Gender identity which corresponds to the gender a person was assigned at birth. For example, a cisgender man is a man who was assigned the gender boy at birth, and is content with it.

Transgender: An umbrella term for people whose gender identity does not match the gender they were assigned at birth. Under the trans umbrella are trans men and trans women, people who have gender reassignment surgery, people who don't have gender reassignment surgery, and non-binary people.

Non-binary: A term that includes all people who define their gender outside of the gender binary man/woman, and are therefore also trans. Some non-binary people identify as both male and female, others as neither male nor female, and others simply do not identify their gender.

Gender reassignment: A process that some trans people go through to correct their gender. Gender reassignment may include hormone replacement, mastectomy, and/ or genital surgery. Gender reassignment is not just about surgery. Some trans people go only on hormones but skip all procedures, other people go for procedures like mastectomy but skip other aspects of gender reassignment. People can be trans whether they choose to undergo a gender reassignment process or not.

Gender neutral pronouns: Some non-binary people prefer to use gender-neutral personal pronouns like they/them instead of the gendered pronouns he/she.

Gender expression: Applies to the way people express their gender identity on a daily basis, for example through their choice of clothing and body language. Some people express their gender in unconventional ways, by wearing beards and wearing high heels, while others’ gender expression is characterized by the norm (heterosexual cis-gender expression).

Gender dysphoria: Gender dysphoria is a term that describes a sense of unease that a person may have because of a mismatch between their biological sex and their gender identity. This sense of unease or dissatisfaction may be so intense it can lead to depression and anxiety and have a harmful impact on daily life.

INTERSEX

Intersex: Intersex is a term that, as stated on the website of the organization Intersex Iceland, "encompasses a wide range of innate physical characteristics or variations that lie between our standard ideas of male and female gender." Intersex individuals are born with characteristics that are not strictly male or female; that are a combination of male and female; or are neither male nor female.