Psy270 Discussion 3

Traditionally, we use the word “gender” to simply mean either “man” or “woman.” We describe this as the “gender binary,” a phrase you’ve probably heard, meaning just two options.

Man OR Woman

But in reality, the way folks experience gender is far more complex than that. We call this a “non-binary” understanding of gender. But the binary terms and general ideas they evoke — the idea of “man” and what that means, and the idea of “woman” and what that means — are helpful in understanding the more diverse ways folks experience and make sense of gender.

Man ---------------Woman

A simple way to think about non-binary gender is with a scale that goes from man-to-woman, where folks could plot how they identify somewhere along the line. Perhaps close to the “man” end if they strongly identify as “man,” close to the “woman” end if they strongly identify as “woman,” or somewhere in-between if they identify as genderqueer, bigender, or another one of the non-binary gender identity labels we have. The problem with this depiction of gender is that it implies that the more “man” someone is, the less “woman” they are. Our gut reaction is that this is accurate, but when you dissect gender into its component parts, you’ll see this isn’t necessarily true.

Gender is best understood when broken up into three parts:

· Gender identity (which is how you, in your head, define and understand your gender based on the options for gender you know to exist),

· Gender Expression (the ways you demonstrate gender through your dress, actions, and demeanor), and

· Biological Sex (the physical parts of your body that we think of as either male or female). Let’s talk about these one-by-one.

Gender identity can be thought of as the aspects of man-ness and woman-ness you either do or don’t align with. In this case, we are talking about the norms (social expectations), and roles (ways we fulfill or act out those expectations) placed upon “men” and “women” in a society. A few typical norms of man-ness might be “strong-willed, logical, athletic” and a roles of “leader, builder, protector.” For woman-ness, we might think of the norms “empathic, sensitive, caring” and roles “teacher, caretaker, supporter.” Some folks identify with neither “man-ness” or “woman-ness,” but a third gender altogether. Some folks identify with aspects of both, and might use the label “genderqueer” to describe their identity.

Gender expression can be thought of as the aspects of masculinity and femininity you display in your clothing, grooming, speech, actions, demeanor, and more. As examples, masculine dress might be considered baggy, unprimed, or functional. Feminine dress is form-fitting, colorful, and frivolous. The term “androgynous” is used to describe gender expression that is both masculine and feminine.

Biological sex can be thought of as the aspects of “male-ness” or “female-ness” you embody in your physical self. Examples of “male-ness” are primary traits like “penis, testicles” as well as secondary traits (which are developed during puberty” like “coarse body hair, wide shoulders.” Examples of “female-ness” are primary traits like “vagina, ovaries” and secondary traits like “breasts, wide hips.” Some folks are predominantly male or female, while others are intersex. There are a multiple reasons and ways that our bodies look the way they do or are the way they are. Cancers or other illnesses, hormone imbalances, transition genders can all play a factor in the type of sexed body that we have and regardless of what we have going on we may identify a particularly biological sex regardless.

And all of this we have been talking about, remember, is related to gender, which is distinct from sexuality. With sexuality, we often subtly reinforce a different binary, thinking people are “gay or straight.” There are far more ways folks identify and experience sexuality, so a helpful way to think about that is to distinguish between our romantic and sexual attraction. Some folks experience both, some experience one more than the other, and some folks experience little to none of either. Many of us experience sexual attraction and romantic attraction at about the same levels, and to the same genders, and therefore may not feel a big difference between the two. However others, like people who are asexual but who are not aromatic, may experience romantic attraction (wanting to go on dates, have intimate conversations, etc) without experiencing sexual attraction.

Source: Killerman, S. (2011). Breaking through the binary. It’s Pronounced Metrosexual.