Nonbinary 101
an umbrella term for gender identities
that do not
fall neatly within the
two-box system
of Western society
F
M
Some helpful definitions
Assigned gender
refers to the coercive designation of a gender to a person’s visible anatomy that occurs at birth.
Intersex people
do not fit the constructed biological sex binary, due to their hormone levels, their bodies’ methods of processing and responding to hormones, their chromosomes, and/or their external and internal anatomy. They may or may not be coercively assigned a gender at birth, but often face violence from medical institutions and others throughout their lives to continue coercive binary assignment.
For more: http://oiiinternational.com/.
Gender identity
refers to one’s internal sense of self in terms of gender.
Many people have an intrinsic sense of their gender, or lack of gender. Have you taken the time to think about your gender and why it is important to you? Some examples of gender identity are man, woman, agender, and genderqueer.
Gender expression
is how one can adjust their appearance and performance in society in order to self-express , and can be manifested in clothing, speech, mannerisms, and activities.
Though the gendering of these is arbitrary, we exist in a society that genders colors, clothing, speech, mannerisms, and activities. Gender is constructed by societies in order to give people roles to fill so they can contribute to the overall group. When power is associated with certain genders and roles, this can lead to injustice.
Transgender
an adjective for the gender identity of a person whose body is coercively gendered at birth in a manner that is not consistent with their understood truth of their gender identity.
Cisgender
an adjective for the gender identity of a person whose body is coercively gendered at birth in a manner that is consistent with their understood truth of their gender identity.