Gender Glossary

From Infoshop OpenWiki

Please note that this glossary is neither definitive nor complete. Language in Trans, Genderqueer, and “gender variant” communities is constantly being developed and changed, and the understanding of some of these terms may shift depending on the person or community one is interacting with. This, however, may give you a clearer understanding of some of the language and concepts in current Trans and Genderqueer movements.

• Ambisexual: Of all sexes or sexually attracted to persons of any sex. Defined this way, ambisexual can be applied to gender identity or sexuality.
• Bigendered: Identifying and expressing one’s gender as both “man” and “woman.”
• Bio: Biological. Refers to one’s assigned gender at birth. Bio Woman, Bio Man, Bio Boy, Bio Girl.
• Butch: Masculine qualities. Also, a person who displays masculine qualities/characteristics or inhabits a masculine gender identity.
• Compulsory Heterosexuality: Originally coined by Adrienne Rich in her groundbreaking essay “Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence,” compulsory heterosexuality can be briefly defined as the concept that a heterosexist power structure forces people to assume heterosexual identities, desires, and relationships through coercion, violence, and lack of options.
• Cross-Dresser: Someone who dresses in the clothing opposite of the gender they were assigned at birth.
• Drag King: A female embodied person who dresses in men’s clothing, often exaggerating masculine characteristics and gender roles.
• Drag Queen: A male embodied person who dresses in women’s clothing, often exaggerating feminine characteristics and gender roles.
• Femme or Fem: Feminine qualities. Also, a person who displays feminine qualities/characteristics or inhabits a feminine gender identity.
• FTM: Female-to-male. Most often used for transsexual identities, but sometimes also used for gender expressions along a female-to-male gender spectrum.
• Gender: Amy Sonnie defines gender as “Characteristics of masculinity and feminity learned or chosen. A person’s assigned sex does not always match their gender…and most people display traits of more than one gender.” In My Gender Workbook, Kate Bornstein defines gender as “Anything that categories people is gender, whether it’s appearance or mannerisms, biology or psychology, hormones, roles, genitals, whatever: if we’re trying to categorize or separate people out, it’s gender” (Bornstein 26). Bornstein goes on to define “sex” only as related to sexual expression/activity.
• Genderfuck: Intentional crossing of gender cues/signals in order to disrupt rigid gender constructions.
• Genderqueer: Someone who “queers” gender. Someone who doesn’t identify as either a man or a woman, but a different gender entirely. Someone who identifies as both a man and a woman. Someone who creates hir own gender outside of binary concepts. Also, someone who identifies both their gender identity and sexuality as contrary to “acceptable” heterosexual, gender dichotomous constructions and uses this term as a way to show connections between their oppression as a Gay/Lesbian/Bi person with their oppression as a Trans or “gender variant” person.
• Gender regime: A gender regime dictates that there are only two genders and regulates what it means to be a boy or a girl, a man or a woman. The idea that males should be masculine and females should be feminine. A gender regime informs our understandings of our bodies, our “roles,” and the punishments that come with challenging these roles. A gender regime has built-in controls to keep us in our assigned roles, such as the threat of violence, ridicule, or rejection and the lack of models for anything different. A gender regime is policed and upheld by heterosexism and patriarchy.
• Heterosexism: The belief, upheld by heteropatriarchy, that heterosexual desire is the only “natural” or “normal” sexuality and is superior to other sexual orientations, and therefore the perceived right to dominate Gay/Lesbian/Bi/Trans/Queer people. Also, the assumption that everyone is essentially heterosexual, and that other sexual orientations are simply a deviation from or replication of heterosexuality.
• Hir: Pronounced “here.” An alternative possessive pronoun to “her” or “his.”
• Internalized Homophobia: The fear and hatred of internal feelings of emotional/spiritual/sexual desires toward someone of the same gender. Also, homophobic feelings from one Gay/Lesbian/Bi/Trans/Queer person toward others in the GLBTQ community.
• Intersexed: Describes people born multisexed (born with some combination of male and female sex organs.) According to the Intersex Society of North America, “Anatomic sex differentiation occurs on a male/female continuum, and there are several dimensions.” It is estimated that anywhere from 1 in 100 to 1 in 2000 infants is born intersexed, but the most common reaction by the medical establishment is to “fix” these babies immediately. Many consider “fixing” these babies mutilation.
• MTF: Male-to-female. Most often used for transsexual identities, but sometimes also used for gender expressions along a male-to-female gender spectrum.
• Misogyny: The hatred of women.
• Monosexism: The belief that love and attraction to one gender is superior to all other sexualities.
• Monosexual: A person who is attracted to only one gender.
• Omnisexual/Pansexual: A person who is attracted to all genders. Many people are moving away from the term Bisexual to Omnisexual or Pansexual in order to disrupt the male/female gender binary.
• Oppression: The domination of one group of people over another, enforced and maintained by institutional power.
• Patriarchy: Literally, “rule of the father.” The system of male domination.
• Privilege: Special rights and access granted only to those in a ruling class (white people, men, temporarily able-bodied people, etc), bestowed simply because one is part of that group.
• Relative Privilege: Privilege that may occur in specific locations/contexts/experiences. (Example: a FTM perceived as a BioMan may experience relative privilege walking down the street but experiences oppression in contexts where his gender identity is disclosed or exposed.)
• Sexism: Institutionalized fear, hatred, and marginalization of women. (Sexism=Prejudice + Power).
• S/he: Pronounced “see.” An alternative pronoun to “she” or “he.” Also, see “ze” in this glossary.
• Tranny: A Trans person. While embraced by many Trans people, some Trans communities and individuals may find the term offensive.
• Trans: From transgender, transsexual and transvestite. An umbrella term often used in the transgender community to demedicalize the words used for our identities.
• Transgender: An umbrella term for people whose gender expression and gender identity fall outside constructed gender norms.
• Transman: See FTM.
• Transphobia: Hatred and/or discrimination against people who break or blur gender roles and sex characteristics. Transphobia is mandated by a gender regime that says we are either man or woman, masculine or feminine.
• Transsexual: A person whose gender identity is different from the sex they were assigned at birth, so they take hormones or get sex reassignment surgery (SRS). There is an incredible range of reasons for taking this step. In many states after a period of time SRS recipients can legally change their name and other legal documents. Sometimes called TS.
• Transwoman: See MTF.
• Transvestite: A person who dresses in clothing opposite of their assigned sex. Usually used in reference to heterosexual males, though sometimes used in reference to Gay/Bi men and Lesbian/Bi women. Usually distinct from Drag King and Drag Queen.
• Two-Spirit: A contemporary term in First Nations/Native communities that refers to constructions of gender and sexuality within First Nations traditions. Created as an umbrella word in English by and for Native people and as an alternative to the offensive anthropological term “berdache,” which has an original meaning of “boy kept for unnatural purposes.” Please note that the use of the term Two-Spirit as an identity label for non-Native people is usually considered offensive.
• Ze: Pronounced “zee.” An alternative pronoun to “she” or “he.”

Definitions taken from the book Revolutionary Voices: A Multicultural Queer Youth Anthology edited by Amy Sonnie. Alyson: Los Angeles, 2000.

Qwo-Li Driskill, 2004. qwo-li@dragonflyrising.com www.dragonflyrising.com