Gender, Sex, and Sexuality

An important aspect of understanding the spectrum of identities that exist within a gender and sexuality framework is developing a foundational understanding of gender, sex, and sexuality. These distinct terms are crucial for a deeper acknowledgement of LGBTQIA+ & women/fem identities. So, let’s get into it!

Question: “What do the terms gender, sex, and sexuality mean?”

We encourage those who are engaging with this material to first check out web sources like Gender Minorities Aotearoa – which is a web resource created for and by trans/gender non-conforming/ nonbinary folks.

First, we will start with gender. gender involves how a person identifies under a broad array of identities. 

Here is an example of how to define gender from the Canadian Institute of Health Research:

“Gender refers to the socially constructed roles, behaviours, expressions and identities of girls, women, boys, men, and gender diverse people. It influences how people perceive themselves and each other, how they act and interact, and the distribution of power and resources in society. Gender identity is not confined to a binary (girl/woman, boy/man) nor is it static; it exists along a continuum and can change over time. There is considerable diversity in how individuals and groups understand, experience and express gender through the roles they take on, the expectations placed on them, relations with others and the complex ways that gender is institutionalized in society.”

There are some key aspects of understanding gender. One of those is gender identity. Gender identity is the way you personally identify your gender. This can be in tandem with your gender expression (the way you present your gender to the world through clothing, dress, physical attributes, mannerisms, behaviors, etc.) but does not have to be correlated either. Gender roles are important to understand because these are culturally and socially defined ways that gender is expected to be performed and can often be harmful to folks who fall outside of the binary system often upheld through systemic and cultural institutions. Gender roles are often linked to the sex individuals are assigned at birth. Thus, gender roles often reveal the ways that we make culturally contextual assumptions about what different types of bodies should ‘do.’ 

Now, let’s define sex. Sex is associated with our physical bodies. Sex can correlate to genitals, levels of hormones, chromosomes, and other physical aspects. Sex is often defined as immutable and binary, when it is neither of those things. Often you are assigned as sex at birth.  From Planned Parenthood:

Assigned sex is a label that you’re given at birth based on medical factors, including your hormones, chromosomes, and genitals. Most people are assigned male or female, and this is what’s put on their birth certificates.

When someone’s sexual and reproductive anatomy doesn’t seem to fit the typical definitions of female or male, they may be described as intersex.

Some people call the sex we’re assigned at birth “biological sex.” But this term doesn’t fully capture the complex biological, anatomical, and chromosomal variations that can occur. Having only two options (biological male or biological female) might not describe what’s going on inside a person’s body.

Instead of saying “biological sex,” some people use the phrase “assigned male at birth” or “assigned female at birth.” This acknowledges that someone (often a doctor) is making a decision for someone else. The assignment of a biological sex may or may not align with what’s going on with a person’s body, how they feel, or how they identify.  

When you are assigned a sex at birth, and you are comfortable and continue to identify that way, you are someone who identifies as cisgender. When you are assigned a sex at birth and you no longer identify that was socially, physically, or other ways you identify; you may be someone who identifies within the transgender community.  

Susan Stryker has built on this definition as well – in her book “Transgender History” she states:

The prefix cis- means “on the same side as” (that is, the opposite of trans). The idea behind the terms is to resist the way that “woman” or “man” can mean “nontransgender woman” or “nontransgender man” by default, unless the person’s transgender identity is explicitly named; it’s the same logic that would lead somebody to prefer saying “white woman” and “black woman” rather than simply using “woman” to describe a white woman (thus presenting white as the norm) and “black woman” to indicate a deviation from the norm” (p. 22).

Finally, let’s define sexuality. Sexuality is another personal identifier that best describes who you may be attracted to sexually, emotionally, intellectually, or romantically at that current period of time. Some common terms that are associated with sexuality are lesbian, gay, bisexual, pansexual, queer, and many different identities as well.

As the Assistant Dean of Diversity and Inclusion for Campus Life and the Inaugural Director of the Gender + Sexuality Center Kristopher Oliveira states:

“…sexuality describes both one’s own identity in relation to who they may (or may not) be attracted to. In other words, ‘gay’ has traditionally described ‘men’ who are attracted to other ‘men.’ That identifier says something about the person they are attracted to and themselves. To that end, I sometimes say that ‘we can talk about gender without talking about sexuality, but we cannot (usually) talk about sexuality without talking about gender.’… sexual orientation from my perspective connects who we are with who we are attracted to.”

We use this helpful teaching tool to describe these different aspects of our identity called the “Genderbread Person.” This tool was developed graphically by Sam Killerman and the terminology and conversation was led by the trans community for decades. Our adaptation centers folks from agender, asexual, and aromantic experiences by using a/ language. 

Exercise: To practice, use this blank version of the Genderbread person and explain each of the concepts to a friend, peer, partner, or someone to work with. Write down what you may have struggled with and revisit this explainer to try again!

Homework: Engage with readings that expand upon understand gender, sex, and sexuality. Some recommendations are “Sister Outsider” by Audre Lorde, “Born Both” by Hida Viloria, Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation” by Kate Bornstein and S. Bear Bergman, “Seeing Gender: An Illustrated Guide to Identity and Expression” by Iris Gottlieb