Gender binary

Gender binary

The gender binary is the idea that human gender exists in two forms: masculine and feminine. The term also describes the system in which a society divides people into male and female gender roles, gender identities and attributes. Gender role is one aspect of a gender binary. Every known society has used the gender binary to divide and organize people, though the ways this happen differ among societies. A universal aspect of the gender binaries is that women give birth. Gender binaries exist as a means of bringing order. Certain notable religions are often used as authorities for the justification and description. Islam, for example, teaches that mothers are the primary care givers to their children and Catholics believe only males may serve as priests.

Exceptions have widely existed to the gender binary in the form of transgendered people. Besides the biological identification of intersexuals, elements strictly of the opposite sex have been taken by people biologically female and male such as two-spirited Native Americans and hijra of Indians. In the contemporary West, transgendered break the gender binary in the form of genderqueer, drag queens, and drag kings. Transsexuals have a unique place in relation to the gender binary because they transition from one side of the gender binary to the other.

Criticism

Author, transsexual advocate, and biologist Julia Serano has criticized the overuse of the concept of gender binary. While acknowledging the usefulness of seeing oneself outside the traditional gender binary, she also asserts that when the term is used, frequently it is used to form a different gender binary of "radical/conservative" where "radical" genders (such as genderqueer or androgyne) are seen as superior and "conservative" genders (male and female) are seen as inferior. She describes this as a form of sexism.

Related gender terminology

The terms androgyny, intergender, bigender, multigender, third gender, neuter/neutrois/agender, and gender fluid may also be used to describe where one lies on a gender spectrum or in gender spheres outside of the normal binary genders.

See also

* butch and femme
* queer
* genderqueer
* genderfuck
* intergender
* third gender
* androgyne
* two-spirit
* Hijra (South Asia)
* list of transgender-related topics

External links

* [http://gendercrash.com/ Gender Crash!] Intersection of Boston's Queer, Transgender, and Gender Queer Communities Resources, Rants, and Information for Everyone!
* [http://cydathria.com/ms_donna/asig_main.html Alt.Support.Intergendered]
* [http://unitedgenders.org United Genders of the Universe] a genderqueer organization
* [http://androgyne.0catch.com Androgyne Online]
* [http://myspace.com/queering_gender Gender is Not Binary: Queering the Gender of Social Networking and Beyond] Support, resources, safe space, and activism around expanding gender inclusiveness on and off the World Wide Web.


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем сделать НИР

Look at other dictionaries:

  • gender binary — noun A view of gender whereby people are categorized exclusively as either male or female, often basing gender on biological sex …   Wiktionary

  • Gender Trouble — (1990) by Judith Butler is a highly influential book in academic feminism and queer theory. It is also the book credited with creating the germinal notion of gender performativity. Chapter 1. Subjects of Sex/Gender/Desire Butler begins Gender… …   Wikipedia

  • Gender identity disorder in children — Gender Identity Disorder of Childhood Classification and external resources ICD 10 F64.2 ICD 9 302.6 …   Wikipedia

  • Gender variance — is a term that refers to those expressions of gender (masculinity and femininity) that do not conform to the dominant gender norms of Western culture. The term is used by scholars of psychology [Lynne Carroll, Paula J. Gilroy, Jo Ryan (2002),… …   Wikipedia

  • Gender — This article is about the distinction between male and female entities and concepts. For other uses, see Gender (disambiguation). Gender is a range of characteristics used to distinguish between males and females, particularly in the cases of men …   Wikipedia

  • Gender role — During World War II, women performed roles some of which would otherwise have been considered male jobs …   Wikipedia

  • Gender-specific pronoun — A language has gender specific pronouns when personal pronouns have different forms according to the gender of their referents.The English language has three gender specific pronouns in the 3rd. person singular, whose declined forms are also… …   Wikipedia

  • Gender differences — A Gender difference is a distinction of biological and/or physiological characteristics typically associated with either males or females of a species in general. In the study of humans, socio political issues arise in classifying whether a sex… …   Wikipedia

  • Gender —    In particular local cultures, the question of gender may be a significant determinant of shamanic ability, acceptability, and authority. However, it is rarely as simple a matter as saying “among this group, shamans are always male, while among …   Historical dictionary of shamanism

  • gender — 1. noun /ʤɛndə,ʤɛndɚ/ a) A division of nouns and pronouns (and sometimes of other parts of speech), such as masculine, feminine, neuter or common. Susans gender is neither male nor female; ze identifies as two spirit. b) Th …   Wiktionary

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
… Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”