Gender Identity

What is the experience of identity development on individuals who were born sexually ambiguous and medically assigned to a classification of female or male? The impact of being born intersexed (or hermaphroditic; that is, having physiological sexual ambiguity) will have on identity development. Who you think you are? How you, in your head, define your gender, based on how much you align, or don’t align, with what you understand to be the options for gender. As you know it, do you think you fit better

Relevant Terminology: Gender identity: refers to an individual’s sense of gender, may be different from one’s assigned gender at birth

Gender is a complex socially constructed idea. Often people interchangeably use gender to refer to someone’s sex. This is not the case. Sex is the biological characteristics that makes someone a male, female or intersex. Gender however is made up of expression, identity, and sexual orientation. Gender identity is how one views themselves such as a woman, man or transgender. Gender identity does not correspond to the sex of that person. Gender expression is how one expresses their gender identity. This could be through a masculine , feminine or androgynous expression. In Western societies, although there has been a push for change in our gender system, the gender system as been a binary system. This binary system only believes that there are

A person who identifies as transgender is one who expresses a gender identity that differs from the one that corresponds with their assigned sex. Gender identity refers to a person’s internal sense of being male, female, or any other gender. Gender expression refers to the way someone communicates their gender identity, whether it’s through the clothing they wear, their hairstyle, or their voice and body characteristics. Although some may not be aware, sex and gender aren’t synonyms. Sex is assigned at birth and refers to a person’s biological status whereas gender is based on socially constructed roles, behaviors and attributes that given societies consider appropriate for men or women. People who fall under the transgender umbrella may identify

The word “transgender” is a broad term inclusive of many subgroups. Currently there is no single universal definition. For the purposes of this paper, transgender is defined as an individual whose gender expression is different from their birth sex. Sex, for the purposes of this discussion, is defined as the physical anatomy that currently defines male and female. Gender identity refers to the individual’s internal sense of being male, female, both, or neither. Transgender individuals feel discomfort between what the gender they identify internally with and their outward physical sex characteristics. Gender expression refers to how an individual presents themselves to society. Sexual orientation the physical or emotional attraction towards another person, whether male or female. This is different than gender identity. Transgender individuals may be attracted to persons of the same sex or opposite sex. This paper will address specifically the transition of those individuals born anatomically male but identify their gender identity as female. Male-to-female transgender individuals are often referred to as MTF individuals.

There are numerous theories regarding the development of one’s gender identity. Gender identity refers how one identifies as either male, female or transgender.

The way my father performed his gender has shaped the performance of my gender. My dad has also talked about raising me and my brothers as men but not as a binary concept but what he felt manhood represented. That involved in many things such as playing lots of sports or learning how to fight and other activities such as fishing. Although my dad never forced me to play sports it was always a staple in my household and I would- be mocked when I stopped playing a sport out of boredom. My dad constructed my gender self to view men as a group who had to become strong, fast, aggressive, dominant, and achieving in order to fit into society. This interaction with my family has caused my gender construction with others to be a byproduct of my experiences

Gender and sex are two words frequently misunderstood and mistaken for each other. To simplify, sex is considered the biological aspects of male/female (the reproductive system, genetics, and outward physical characteristics). Gender, on the other hand, comprises the psychological and social aspects of identifying to a sex (social roles, the way one thinks, and gender identity). These biological and psychological factors ultimately play a role in the way an individual thinks and acts as a person. Gradually, society has acknowledged and added mutability between gender and sex; individuals' social identity determines how they act and think, and anyone behaving differently may be regarded as abnormal.

By outlining the social and racial inflicted prejudice which consumed British ideology, there is a clear identity crisis for the black female characters in The Final Passage, Small Island and Second-Class Citizen. The inexplicable cultural ties to the colonial country indicate an erasable diasporic history which often surfaces within the relationships and liminal spaces which the Black female characters encounter in the mother country. As a result, we can see the character of Leila in severe turmoil due to her hybrid identity and the racial discrimination inflicted upon her. Thus, racial identity is crucial in mapping, re-negotiating and constructing the female diaspora throughout the texts. The positioning of Black women in post-war Britain

“Gender identity is our psychological awareness or sense of being male or female, and it’s one of the most obvious and important aspects of our self-concept” (Rathus, p. 159). The main source of gender identity in our culture is physical appearance. Our culture is accustom to being able to look at a person and instantly judge their gender based on the common physical appearance and traits of being male or female. Male gender identity can typically be recognized based on having short hair, facial hair, taller and more muscular body shape, and the traditional style and color of clothing such as pants, shorts, and t-shirts. Female gender identity can typically be recognized based on having longer hair, wearing make-up, body shape including breasts, and traditional clothing for females including a colorful wardrobe, skirts, dresses, and high heels.

Gender Identity and Gender Oppression has many opinions that have varied throughout the years. The awkwardness of seeing gay or lesbian characters in movies or tv shows have been decreasing throughout the years, or has it? Seeing movies display different genders than just male and female has introduced a diverse reaction from many people. Despite the setting of the book being in this dystopian futuristic world, gender identity and gender equality is subliminally present and plays a key role in the book. Gender Identity is restricted to just straight male and females in both schools and a group called Sixers, who wishes to gain power. In addition, gender oppression can be seen through influential characters.

Gender appears to be a fundamental category taken place in our identity and has emphasized to us at an early age. Going to Wal-Mart and Target we discovered that tons of our preferences are made for us before we are even born. As an infant, it seems that boys prefer blue and girls prefer pink. Because of our gender ideology and socialization, it is easy to differentiate which clothes/toys are for boys and which are for the girls.

Gendered identity seemed to be well defined during the 1950s and this appeared to be reflected in fashion. These clearly defined roles and images however have not, historically, been consistent. At the beginning of the 20th century women’s style and fashion started to change intensely, this changing has helped women to fight for their independence of their style in fashion. Clothing moved to be more practical, a huge change from the narrowed and restricted frills and corsets of the 19th century. Fashion in the 1900s started to see a decline of the train on women’s dresses but soon enough hems began to develop (above the ankle). In the 1910s style began to concentrated more on the female shape, and just after one year later the world saw the beauty of slender silhouette. However, women were still required to keep the

According to psmag.com, “Transgender is a term that has been widely used to describe gender-non-conforming individuals since the 1980s, but one that a third of Americans still can’t define”. Nearly 700,000 people are living publicly as transgender. A person’s gender identity is a person’s sense of if they are a man or a woman. For transgender people, the sex they were assigned when they were born does not match their gender identity.

According to GLADD-Transgender Terminology website, Gender Identity is defined as “One’s internal, deeply held sense of one’s gender. For transgender people, their own internal gender identity does not match the sex they were assigned at birth.” When learning new terms we need to differentiate the differences between gender and sex. Sex is defined as “The classification of people as male or female. At birth infants