Unless you live under a rock, you've probably heard about all of the controversy surrounding restrooms and who can use which one. It's just another battle in this seemingly endless culture war that has has a lot of soundbites and reactive rhetoric passed around. When this is the case, it's often very difficult to hear and see past this information because it looks so credible, and in reality who really can you trust in the media (that's a whole another rabbit hole). There's a lot of issues and words being thrown around, "transgender", "gender dysphoria", and even more simply it seems that the words gender and sex are suddenly no longer as clear as everyone once thought they were. Before we can really get into the complex aspects of restrooms, or even deeper things such as spirituality and gender, we have to start with the basics.
This is an issue where both sides of the spectrum are both partially right and partially wrong. While it is true that sex and gender are often used interchangeably in common speech, they are not exactly the same thing in the realms of biology and psychology. First off, sex, this is your physical anatomy (chromosomes, gonads, and hormones), and it's either male, female, or intersex, which is anyone born with any variation of chromosomes, reproductive parts, or sex hormones that is other than the typical XY-male and XX-female. Gender is the psychological, social, and cultural traits typically associated with male and female, which includes your adoption of social roles based on your sex (gender role), your personal identification of one's own gender based on an internal awareness (gender identity), and how you express these traits (gender expression). In the vast majority of people, these two things align, but for a small group of people, they do not, and when that occurs, it is called Gender Dysphoria, a severe distress of having a psychological and emotional gender that does not align with your biological sex. This is not exactly the same thing as "Transgender", which is anyone who experiences or express their gender identity differently than other people with the same biological sex, the reason for this differentiation is because not all people that experience gender dysphoria are actually transgender and undergo transition. Now, this actually is only a very, very small percentage of the population (0.01% of males and 0.0025% of females), but in recent years it's seem like it's become way more common than that. I often say that it's become "like gluten intolerance, it's become trendy to pretend you have an issue, but on the other hand, some people actually have one." The people who do have one are usually not the ones going around about 76 genders and all of that Tumberlina nonsense.
That's where those people get it wrong, they fail to account for individual differences and think those differences are an entirely different expression itself and therefore gender. These concepts we have for our genders in our society are actually fairly broad and can encompass many different personalities and variations of interests. In other words, they're not talking about differences in gender, but differences in personality and interests within gender, and trying to make every distinction possible to be its own independent gender. That's why almost every one of those genderqueer, which is any gender that different than the norm expressions (bigender, gender fluid, pangender, etc.) is not recognized by any major psychological organization like the APA or NIMH, or even the WHO. However, that does not mean there is only two ways that gender can vary or that there's only two genders. There are cultures that have been and that still exist today with more than two genders, and it's always been that way, and in every society there is evidence that there are some people who do not identify with with some or all of the of the aspects of the gender associated with their biological sex. People who do not fit into their society's aspects of gender exists everywhere and have existed throughout time.
If there's not 76 genders, and it doesn't sound like you're saying there's only two, then how many are there? Well, to be honest that's really not the question to be asking. Gender is less of a binary, spectrum, or whatever, and more just of just a cluster of various psychological traits that one's culture says "that's this", especially considering that psychology is showing that men and women are really not that psychologically different when you take cultural differences away. When it comes to a lot of these new gender identities like being bigender, which is best described as being both male and female, or gender fluid, which is a gender identity that flows between male and female. It seems to be less of an issue of being some kind of different gender, but just have different traits that's different than the majority of men or women. Yes, it's true that there's not all of these different genders and all, but it's also true that just because you are not like most men or women doesn't mean you are an entirely different gender.
I'll include some more simple definitions at the bottom so they can be more easily seen, but my hope is regardless of where you land on this issue that you learned something and were able to see this from a different perspective. Like many things in life, this is a complicated issue that won't have a simple solution. As Christians, I do think that we cannot properly minister to others until we understand them, and not just dismiss their story because it is different than what we experience. That process starts with educating ourselves about those who are different, and that is the point of this blog post and series.
Definitions
Sex: Physical, biological traits that are either male, female, or intersex
Intersex: Having biological traits of both male and female
Gender: Psychological and cultural traits associate with biological sex
Gender Roles: Social roles and expectations associated with one's biological sex
Gender Identity: Your personal identification of one's own gender based on an internal awareness
Gender Expression: How you express your gender
Gender Dysphoria: Severe distress that comes from one's gender not aligning with their sex.
Transgender: Not identifying with the gender associated with your biological sex
Transsexual: Someone who wishes, is, or has transitioned through hormonal treatment and possibly sex-reassignment surgery.
Cisgender: Term used to describe "normal" people, those who identify with the gender associated with their biological sex.
Genderqueer: Having a different gender identity that does not fit into a current one
Gender Fluid: Experiencing gender identity in a way that flows or shifts overtime
Bigender: Identifying as both male and female
Agender: Identifying has having no gender
This is an issue where both sides of the spectrum are both partially right and partially wrong. While it is true that sex and gender are often used interchangeably in common speech, they are not exactly the same thing in the realms of biology and psychology. First off, sex, this is your physical anatomy (chromosomes, gonads, and hormones), and it's either male, female, or intersex, which is anyone born with any variation of chromosomes, reproductive parts, or sex hormones that is other than the typical XY-male and XX-female. Gender is the psychological, social, and cultural traits typically associated with male and female, which includes your adoption of social roles based on your sex (gender role), your personal identification of one's own gender based on an internal awareness (gender identity), and how you express these traits (gender expression). In the vast majority of people, these two things align, but for a small group of people, they do not, and when that occurs, it is called Gender Dysphoria, a severe distress of having a psychological and emotional gender that does not align with your biological sex. This is not exactly the same thing as "Transgender", which is anyone who experiences or express their gender identity differently than other people with the same biological sex, the reason for this differentiation is because not all people that experience gender dysphoria are actually transgender and undergo transition. Now, this actually is only a very, very small percentage of the population (0.01% of males and 0.0025% of females), but in recent years it's seem like it's become way more common than that. I often say that it's become "like gluten intolerance, it's become trendy to pretend you have an issue, but on the other hand, some people actually have one." The people who do have one are usually not the ones going around about 76 genders and all of that Tumberlina nonsense.
That's where those people get it wrong, they fail to account for individual differences and think those differences are an entirely different expression itself and therefore gender. These concepts we have for our genders in our society are actually fairly broad and can encompass many different personalities and variations of interests. In other words, they're not talking about differences in gender, but differences in personality and interests within gender, and trying to make every distinction possible to be its own independent gender. That's why almost every one of those genderqueer, which is any gender that different than the norm expressions (bigender, gender fluid, pangender, etc.) is not recognized by any major psychological organization like the APA or NIMH, or even the WHO. However, that does not mean there is only two ways that gender can vary or that there's only two genders. There are cultures that have been and that still exist today with more than two genders, and it's always been that way, and in every society there is evidence that there are some people who do not identify with with some or all of the of the aspects of the gender associated with their biological sex. People who do not fit into their society's aspects of gender exists everywhere and have existed throughout time.
If there's not 76 genders, and it doesn't sound like you're saying there's only two, then how many are there? Well, to be honest that's really not the question to be asking. Gender is less of a binary, spectrum, or whatever, and more just of just a cluster of various psychological traits that one's culture says "that's this", especially considering that psychology is showing that men and women are really not that psychologically different when you take cultural differences away. When it comes to a lot of these new gender identities like being bigender, which is best described as being both male and female, or gender fluid, which is a gender identity that flows between male and female. It seems to be less of an issue of being some kind of different gender, but just have different traits that's different than the majority of men or women. Yes, it's true that there's not all of these different genders and all, but it's also true that just because you are not like most men or women doesn't mean you are an entirely different gender.
I'll include some more simple definitions at the bottom so they can be more easily seen, but my hope is regardless of where you land on this issue that you learned something and were able to see this from a different perspective. Like many things in life, this is a complicated issue that won't have a simple solution. As Christians, I do think that we cannot properly minister to others until we understand them, and not just dismiss their story because it is different than what we experience. That process starts with educating ourselves about those who are different, and that is the point of this blog post and series.
Definitions
Sex: Physical, biological traits that are either male, female, or intersex
Intersex: Having biological traits of both male and female
Gender: Psychological and cultural traits associate with biological sex
Gender Roles: Social roles and expectations associated with one's biological sex
Gender Identity: Your personal identification of one's own gender based on an internal awareness
Gender Expression: How you express your gender
Gender Dysphoria: Severe distress that comes from one's gender not aligning with their sex.
Transgender: Not identifying with the gender associated with your biological sex
Transsexual: Someone who wishes, is, or has transitioned through hormonal treatment and possibly sex-reassignment surgery.
Cisgender: Term used to describe "normal" people, those who identify with the gender associated with their biological sex.
Genderqueer: Having a different gender identity that does not fit into a current one
Gender Fluid: Experiencing gender identity in a way that flows or shifts overtime
Bigender: Identifying as both male and female
Agender: Identifying has having no gender
