Dimensions of Gender

Gender

A category of characteristics involving societal expectations for people’s behavior, thoughts, and roles that go along with a person’s assigned sex. ​

Ideas and standards about how people are expected to behave, dress, and communicate based on conditioned beliefs. 

Gender Identity: A person’s internal, deeply held sense of one’s own gender.

• • Cisgender: A term for people whose gender identity aligns with their assigned sex at birth​
  • Transgender: An umbrella term for people whose gender identity is different from those associated with their assigned sex at birth​
  • Nonbinary: Someone whose gender identity isn’t exclusively male or female, may include both, or neither​
  • More identities!​
    • Genderfluid: A gender identity that varies overtime. Sometimes it is consistent and other times it is not. A person who is genderfluid may present the same gender for months, while other time it changes daily. Gender fluidity is when a person’s gender changes, in big or small amounts, in response to different circumstances, people, or environments.​
    • Agender: A term meaning “without gender.” It can be seen either as a non-binary gender identity or as a statement of not having a gender identity. People who are agender can present in any way – masculine, feminine, both or something completely beyond the binary. They can (but don’t have to) experience gender dysphoria if they are unable to express their identity in a way they are comfortable with.
    • Genderqueer
    • Discovering​
    • Two Spirit: This identity refers to a person who identifies as having both a masculine and a feminine spirit, and is used by some Indigenous and First Nation people to describe their sexual, gender and/or spiritual identity. Two-spirit people may also use terms from their Indigenous language to describe same-sex attraction or gender variance, such as winkt (Lakota) or nàdleehé (Dinéh). 
      • • • For more information on ​Two Spirit identities, visit the Two-Spirit Program from the Native Justice Coalition.

Gender is a spectrum. Every person has:

• • Gender Identity: How we feel internally
  • Gender Expression: How we demonstrate our gender
  • Biological Sex: Sex assigned at birth
  • Sexual Orientation: Who we are physically, spiritually, emotionally, and sexually attracted to

Gender Expression

Gender expression is how to express yourself externally. These are influenced by a person’s culture, societal norms, fashion, clothes, and gestures. Your gender expression is unique and different and it does not have to align with societal norms.