Terms Flashcards
Sex
refers to the biological traits that societies assign to people.
Gender
is a concept that describes how societies determine and manage sex categories.
Sex assignment/sex category
The process at birth or even prenatally by which people are identified as male or female.
Sexual dimorphism
The claim that sex marks a distinction between two physically and genetically discrete categories of people.
Intersexuality
Variations on sex definitions related to ambiguous genitalia, sex organs, chromosomes or hormones.
Transgender
A person whose biological sex does not align with their gender identity.
Gender expression
A person’s outward gender presentation, usually comprising personal style, clothing, hairstyle, and body language.
Agender
A person who does not identify as having a gender that can be categorized as man or woman.
Nonbinary
A spectrum of gender identities and expressions, often based on the rejection of the gender binary’s assumption that gender is male or female.
Gender conforming
A person whose gender expression is consistent with cultural norms expected for that gender.
Gender dysphoria
The medical diagnosis for being transgender as defined by the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth edition (DSM-5).
Hyperandrogenism
Also known as androgen excess, is a medical condition characterized by excessive levels of androgens (male sex hormones such as testosterone) in the female body and the associated effects of the elevated androgen levels.
Gender bending
A form of social activism undertaken to destroy rigid gender roles and defy sex-role stereotypes.
Androgynous
A combination of masculine and feminine traits or a nontraditional gender expression.
Gender fluid
Someone whose gender identity or expression shifts between male/masculine and female/feminine or falls somewhere along this spectrum.
