| Gender Identity Gender vs Sex 'Gender' and 'sex' are often used interchangeably, but they are separate terms with their own definitions. Gender refers to a person's heart/mental identity. Sex refers to a person's bodily characteristic - biological, genetic, physical, etc.. It is possible for a person to have the heart of a boy and the body of a girl, for example. We would call those whose gender does not match their original sex 'transgender.' Those whose gender and original sex do match are called 'cisgender.' Transgender - FTM & MTF Out of respect, a transgender individual is normally referred to by pronouns related to that person's gender rather than sex. For example, the boy-heart girl-body person would be called a (trans) boy, also known as female-to-male or FTM, and would be referred to as 'he.' The reverse would be a girl-heart boy-body person being called a (trans) girl, aka male-to-female or MTF, and she would be be referred to as 'she.' Gender dysphoria is feeling out-of-place as a member of one's original sex. Transgender individuals might experience varying amounts of gender dysphoria. Non-Binary Genders There are other gender identities that do not fall into the binary of 'male or female.' Some consider themselves sometimes girl and sometimes boy (aka bigender), both girl and boy simultaneously or neither (aka androgyne), neither (aka agender or gender neutral), a third gender / a different gender entirely (ex. kathoey, and some hijras), or some other combination (ex. pangender). Non-Binary Sex Intersexed individuals are people whose bodies were (originally) not clearly male or female. They might have had genitalia of both sexes or might have both XY and XX chromosomes. They might identify as any of the genders (male, female, bigender, agender, etc.). Sexual Orientation vs Romantic Orientation Sexual Orientation Sexual orientation is a physical attraction to a certain gender(s). People describe it as a carnal, burning, excited feeling. A person who is straight/heterosexual is sexually attracted to members of the opposite gender. A gay/homosexual person is sexually attracted to members of the same gender. Bisexual person, sexually attracted to both male and female genders. Asexual person, having no sexual attraction to anybody or having a lack of interest in sex. Pansexual person, sexual attraction to any/all genders. A demisexual person has no physical attraction to anyone until they've formed a strong bond with that person. (This is different than simply not entering a physical relationship until you know the person better. The sexual attraction is initially completely absent. Only when the strong bond is formed does physical attraction happen.) Romantic Orientation Romantic orientation is a romantic/emotional attraction to a certain gender(s). Same logic applies as above. Heteroromantic - romantically attracted to opposite gender. Homoromantic - romantically attracted to same gender. Biromantic - romantically attracted to both male and female genders. Aromantic - feeling little to no romantic attraction to anyone. Panromantic - romantically attracted regardless of target gender. Yaoi (BL), Yuri (GL), and Cross-Dressing Yaoi and Yuri Yaoi / shounen ai, aka boys love or BL, is content with boy x boy relationships. Yuri / shoujo ai, aka girls love or GL, is content with girl x girl relationships. Yaoi and yuri usually refer to stuff with sex scenes, while shounen ai and shoujo ai usually refer to stuff without sex scenes. I'd like to note that although this terminology (shounen ai, shoujo ai) is borrowed from the Japanese language, it has developed a separate and distinct meaning internationally. The definition I gave is what I perceive as the international definition. I think that yaoi and yuri refer to the relationships between certain sexes rather than certain genders. So, a trans boy x boy would not be yaoi, and a trans boy x trans boy would be yuri. If I'm wrong, please message me about it. Cross-Dressing Cross-dressing is the act of dressing as the opposite / a different gender. A transgender person dressing as the gender they identify as would not be considered cross-dressing. It's just dressing. However, I'd admit that cross-dressing is often referred to as dressing as the opposite sex, so it's a grey zone. Cross-dressers don't necessarily identify as trans. They might be any gender and any sexual/romantic orientation. Categorization in the Cross-dressing! Club Why did you sort by sex instead of gender? Ideally, characters would be sorted by / with respect to their gender. The reality is that it is sometimes difficult to tell which gender a character identifies with. Even after deciding, characters might change their minds. Realistically, there is virtually no way for me to verify the gender of every single character, unless I am caught up with every gender bending manga and anime. Even if I decide to put in that effort, I would have to continuously check new content as it comes out or risk inaccuracies (which I refuse to do; as an INTP, I demand accuracy). Another reason is that with the addition of gender as a tag, the taxonomy would be even more complex than it already is. Like, isn't [9z?1x/2xt?,mtf] already convoluted enough? With sex, it is usually explained in the summary/intro/thing, and for the occasional not-explained ones, it is normally not too hard to determine by revisiting parts. Gender is something that might take volumes to pin down, while pinning down sex often takes just one scene. For my peace of mind, I went the sort-by-sex route. Where I could, I'd show respect to transgender folk. For example, this excerpt is from the all gender bending series thread. Caeca said: [m] = boy → girl, MTF without surgery [f] = girl → boy, FTM without surgery [t] = both^ or gender ambiguous/neutral or some mix [mtf] = MTF with surgery [ftm] = FTM with surgery Please don't eat me. tl;dr To summarize: Gender and sex: Gender - heart/mind identity Sex - bodily characteristic Gender dysphoria - feeling out of place with original sex Transgender - gender and original sex do not match Cisgender - gender and original sex match Bigender - both male and female, transitions between the two Androgyne - both male and female simultaneously or neither Agender - neither male nor female Third gender - as it sounds. (ex. kathoey) Pangender - all genders Female-to-male (FTM) - boy heart, girl body Male-to-female (MTF) - girl heart, boy body Intersex - original state of body is not clearly male or female Sexual orientation and romantic orientation: Sexual orientation - physical attraction to a certain gender(s) Romantic orientation - interest (romantically) in a certain gender(s) Heterosexual - physically attracted to opposite gender Homosexual - physically attracted to same gender Bisexual - physically attracted to both male and female genders Asexual - physically attracted to no one or having little to no interest in sex Pansexual - physically attracted to any/all genders Demisexual - physically attracted to no one until a strong bond is formed Heteroromantic - romantically attracted to opposite gender Homoromantic - romantically attracted to same gender Biromantic - romantically attracted to both male and female genders Aromantic - feeling little to no romantic attraction to anyone Panromantic - romantically attracted regardless of target gender Yaoi, yuri, cross-dressing Yaoi/bl - content showing boy x boy Yuri/gl - content showing girl x girl Cross-dressing - dressing as the opposite / a different gender (however, this club has lists that are sorted by sex instead of gender) This article was written in my own words. Any wording identical to content from other sources is a coincidence. - Caeca |
CaecaSep 11, 2014 6:12 PM
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