Let me start by saying that sex refers to biological aspects of your organs and gender is the state of being a male or female, but it's also the state of being masculine or feminine. By that, I mean that a person can identify as a female but have masculine characteristics.
When you ask people to name off the genders that they know, they only really know five. Which of the two being male and female and the others being gender fluid, transgender, and genderqueer.
People say that you're either female or male, but that's not true. It might be true for sex but not gender. There are thousands of terms known and unknown that describe gender identity.
Some places like Denmark and India have realized that there are more genders and are adding a third gender or are letting them change their gender. But with one exception, you have to be over 18 and you have to go through a six-month "reflection period."
So, adding a third gender is a great inclusive idea, but the reflection period and age limit is not. It's like saying ages 18 and under don't know anything about their gender and what they're feeling so we're going to make them go by what's on their birth certificate. It's also saying that even though you're 18 and believe that you know your gender, you're still a little confused so we're going to make you wait six months. It's like taking one step forward but two steps back.
Telling people or giving the impression to people that they don't know what their gender is wrong. This is like picking a gender for an intersex person before they are allowed to choose for themselves. It's an intrusion of personal rights.
Gender is not something you choose for another person. They chose their own gender. Their gender identity is their gender identity, not yours.
I am recently taking a gender studies class this semester and it has opened my eyes to a lot of things. Recently, we have been talking about gender binary glasses. Gender binary is referring to the idea that there are only two types of people; female-bodied who are feminine and male-bodied who are masculine. So these gender binary glasses are the concept that we only separate things in feminine and masculine categories.
Because of these gender binary glasses, we leave out other genders like genderless, transmasculine, two-spirit, and many others because we find them difficult to understand so we just decline that they are genders. Since we don't understand what we don't know and we don't really want to ask questions, we just leave it alone and leave them out.
We, the society, choose the gender we want to acknowledge. We as a society need to become more aware of what genders are out there, understand them, and add them to our gender binary glasses. That's how we're going to become more inclusive. Stop leaving out or disrespecting people's genders because you don't understand them. Ask them questions, and if they get annoyed by the question then do your own research. Stop saying that a trans girl is a guy when she's not. It's unacceptable and very ignorant.
