The Gender Lexicon

Graphic from Future of Masculinity Zine

What’s the difference between sex and gender?

What is gender identity? Or gender expression

What are all the sexual orientations?

Where do I begin?

Understanding the full landscape of gender theory can feel overwhelming. There are many terms to learn, with different definitions, and a world of nuance that’s needed. Though it can seem like a lot to untangle, starting with a solid knowledge of the basics can lead to a lot of lightbulb moments. Here are some key concepts to help us all keep learning and unlearning, whether we’re just starting to explore or taking a fresh look at what we think we know.

Sex (noun)

Sex is an element of human identity based on biological markers and attributes—such as chromosomes, hormones, and reproductive organs—that are traditionally associated with male and female bodies. While sex is typically reduced to the binary of male and female, those are in fact just two ends of a spectrum, with real and distinct biological variations in between. Regardless of this complexity, sex is usually assigned at birth by a doctor based on observable physical characteristics, and becomes internalized as part of one’s gender identity.

Gender (noun)

In contrast to sex, which refers to the biological characteristics that are used to categorize us into male and female bodies, gender is what it means to be in that body within a given cultural context. Gender refers to the social roles, behaviours, and expectations that our culture assigns to us based on our perceived sex. With the ubiquity of these gender norms in media and in daily life, they influence our choices in everything from our taste in clothing, to the way we relate to our friends and family, to the hobbies, chores and jobs we take on. But gender is, in turn, influenced by us. Cultural understandings of gender are malleable, have shifted over the years, and continue to shift when we uphold, resist, or actively reshape the gendered expectations in our lives.

Gender Identity

Gender identity is a deeply felt internal sense of one’s own gender. It may align with the sex assigned at birth, or it may not. There are many different gender identities, including cisgender, transgender, non-binary, agender, pangender, genderqueer, genderfluid,two-spirit, and others. Sometimes a person may identify as a combination of different genders, or sometimes the same identity may have different meanings to different people. The beauty of gender identity is that it is so highly personal: it can only be determined by an individual themselves.

Gender Expression

Gender expression is the way a person presents their gender identity to the world, through their mannerisms, interests, actions, and behaviours big or small. For example, we can express our gender through the haircuts we choose, the clothes we pick out, our accessories, posture, or gait. It’s the ways in which we live our gender identity, whether in ways that conform with traditional conceptions of gender, or in ways that are gender-expansive — beyond the binary. One of the fundamental and deliberate ways we express our gender is through our choice of pronouns, such as she, he and they. 

Gender Binary (noun)

In many cultures, gender is perceived as a binary of masculine and feminine, in which men are expected, encouraged and, in some ways, required to behave at one end of the spectrum, and women at the other. The gender binary refers to this divide, and the social and cultural elements that serve to reinforce it. Binaries are pervasive in the way we think and talk about sex, gender and attraction, but they over-simplify our inherent diversity and fluidity. The gender binary is a framework that divides people, and punishes those who deviate from it.

Gender Essentialism (noun)

Sex and gender are often assumed to pre-determine people’s interests, skills, emotions and behaviours. Gender essentialism refers to the belief that the gender binary exists due to innate biological qualities rather than processes of socialization. It relies on limited aspects of neuroscience and often serves to perpetuate a ‘boys will be boys’ narrative that doesn’t acknowledge boys’ and men’s inherent capacity to grow and change. 

Patriarchy

There are a few ways to define patriarchy, but all lead back to the idea of male domination. From the roots of the word, we can understand patriarchy as “the rule of the father” (patrimeaning father, archy meaning rule/domination). According to feminist author bell hooks, patriarchy is just another way of naming institutionalized sexism. That is, the understanding that sexism is oppression on the basis of sex/gender, and that it is enforced through our social institutions. Patriarchy perpetuates harm upon people of all genders in different ways, typically with male-identified individuals enacting harm upon those of subordinated genders, or inflicting it upon themselves.

Sexual Orientation

Not to be conflated with gender identity, Sexual Orientation describes an inherent or immutable enduring emotional, romantic or sexual attraction to other people, a personal pattern rather than a sense of self. Sexual orientation may include attraction to the same gender (homosexuality), a gender different than your own (heterosexuality), both men and women (bisexuality), all genders (pansexual), or neither (asexuality).

This is part one of an article that was originally featured in the Future of Masculinity Zine. Grab a print or digital copy.