Sex & Gender. They are not the same (if you don't believe me prepare to undo everything you know about gender and sex).
Sex: Refers to physical aspects of the body: chromosomes, genitals and hormones.
Gender: The meaning culturally imposed on physical sex characteristics.
In most cases, sex is assigned at birth - male or female - based on genitalia. There is no denying this.
From day one infants are treated in certain ways according to their sex - the toys that they are given, the colors they are dressed in, the way they are spoken to and they way they are spoken about. This is all about society's expectations, norms and assumptions about what it means to have female or male genitalia. For most people, this feels OK most of the time and natural so there is no reason to question the fact that female = being a girl or a woman and male = being a man or a boy.
For others, the sex assigned to them at birth feels limiting or all together incorrect. Many people make changes to their outer appearance to express their gender differently - clothing, haircuts, even taking hormones or having surgery. Gender is all about the soul and the brain - how one thinks, feels, and acts in relation to masculinity and femininity.
This still doesn't make a whole lot of sense to some folks who do feel like their sex and gender align. One way I've heard this talked about before is by separating sex and gender for a cisgender person. For instance, if a cisgender man is wounded in battle and loses his genitalia, is he still considered a man? He acts like a man, thinks like a man, talks like a man and lives as a man...but he doesn't have a penis...even without this major sex organ, his gender would be clear.
And a woman who has a hysterectomy and both breasts removed after a battle with cancer. Is she no longer a woman? Would you question her gender because she has a flat chest and is no longer able to experience "womanly" things like having a period or birthing children? Absolutely not.
Why then - if someone who does not have a penis also wants to live like a man, dress like a man, talk like a man, and feels intrinsically male - would anyone deny the same basic right of living fully and authentically? Whose to say that they are not male or masculine or "allowed" to explore their identity however they see fit?
Sex and gender are related but they are by no means bound to one another for all of eternity.
Sex: Refers to physical aspects of the body: chromosomes, genitals and hormones.
Gender: The meaning culturally imposed on physical sex characteristics.
In most cases, sex is assigned at birth - male or female - based on genitalia. There is no denying this.
From day one infants are treated in certain ways according to their sex - the toys that they are given, the colors they are dressed in, the way they are spoken to and they way they are spoken about. This is all about society's expectations, norms and assumptions about what it means to have female or male genitalia. For most people, this feels OK most of the time and natural so there is no reason to question the fact that female = being a girl or a woman and male = being a man or a boy.
For others, the sex assigned to them at birth feels limiting or all together incorrect. Many people make changes to their outer appearance to express their gender differently - clothing, haircuts, even taking hormones or having surgery. Gender is all about the soul and the brain - how one thinks, feels, and acts in relation to masculinity and femininity.
This still doesn't make a whole lot of sense to some folks who do feel like their sex and gender align. One way I've heard this talked about before is by separating sex and gender for a cisgender person. For instance, if a cisgender man is wounded in battle and loses his genitalia, is he still considered a man? He acts like a man, thinks like a man, talks like a man and lives as a man...but he doesn't have a penis...even without this major sex organ, his gender would be clear.
And a woman who has a hysterectomy and both breasts removed after a battle with cancer. Is she no longer a woman? Would you question her gender because she has a flat chest and is no longer able to experience "womanly" things like having a period or birthing children? Absolutely not.
Why then - if someone who does not have a penis also wants to live like a man, dress like a man, talk like a man, and feels intrinsically male - would anyone deny the same basic right of living fully and authentically? Whose to say that they are not male or masculine or "allowed" to explore their identity however they see fit?
Sex and gender are related but they are by no means bound to one another for all of eternity.
I'm also confused about why cisgender people think that there is some fool proof way to have any idea about genitalia...you may know dozens of trans people who you have assumed to be cisgender. And why the need to ask or categorize in the first place? Why does anyone else's gender have any impact on you what-so-ever? The next time you find yourself wondering..."is that person a man or a woman?" stop yourself and try to figure out why it matters.
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