SMC Wellbeing
Gender Identity
Gender Identity is a person’s own sense of who they identify themselves as. Whether it be male, female, both, neither or somewhere in between. Sex and gender often get confused. Gender is the gender that someone identifies with while sex refers to the sex someone is assigned at birth. An excellent way to remember it is sex is between your legs and gender is in your heart/head. Gender identity can be influenced by many factors, culture, thoughts, feelings and also the people around us. Sometimes our ideas on what it means to be male or female are hindered by society’s expectations. Typical stereotypes form the basis of judgements. This isn’t helpful when one is trying to figure out their gender, as they may be confused about what traits and personalities they should have to identify as that specific gender.
Common terms and what they mean;
Sex - The classification of a person as male or female.
Bi-gender - Someone who associates as having two genders
Agender - Means without gender, someone who often associates as a person, not a gender
Androgyne - someone who feels that their gender is between male and female
Intersex - Someone born with genitals that can not be classified as male or female
Gender Fluid - Someone who doesn't confine themselves to one gender
Cisgender - Someone whose gender identity is the same as the one they were assigned at birth eg. someone born as a female who is living as a female
Some videos to have a look at!
