Gender Identity Vs Gender Expression vs Sex

Oh yes, we’re doing this. It has recently come to my attention that people still don’t understand the difference between these three things, and as an educator, I have found the need to educate you, so buckle up.

First things first, it is very important to know that gender identity has no correlation to sexual orientation, nor gender expression or biological sex sex. You got that? Good.

From there let's tackle the easiest of these first, gender expression. Gender expression is simply the way you present yourself, and like all things we will be talking about today it is a spectrum, usually from Masculine to Feminine. Now, in between those two points there is androgyny, a point where a person who expresses that way looks neither masculine or feminine, they just simply dress or style their hair neutrally. Anyone of any gender of sex can dress or present anywhere along this spectrum, because it is not tied in anyway to sex or gender. A particular hair style or article of clothing doesn’t belong to one gender.

Now, the next thing we need to talk about is gender identity. This is for some reason a topic that has a lot of fighting happening over it, even though it is relatively simply to understand. The thing is, gender identity has nothing to do with bio sex, or ‘what parts you have’, gender is more of a feeling than anything. A complex in your brain rather than what's between your legs. In fact, studies have actually been done to show that gender does affect brain function, or rather, gender is something that is map able in your brain. The studies have shown that while biological sex may tell you one thing, gender identity is actually in your brain.

Another thing about gender identity is that it's also a spectrum, and a much wider one than gender expression. Picture it as a square, or a box rather than a line, and people can identify with any spot there. Now, before anyone comes at me saying ‘oh, but that's not true, there only two genders xx and xy’ well hold your horses buddy because I was about to get to that.

The thing about biological sex that people don’t tend to realize, is that like all things, its a spectrum, and people can be anywhere along that spectrum. Yes, the two chromosome types are xx and xy, or as most people know it, male and female. But the thing is, those aren’t really something that a person can always go by accurately, because there are many cases where a person born with xx chromosomes has had a penis, and visa versa. Even with something that appears to only have two sides, is a spectrum, remember that.

So, what did we learn? Hopefully, that everything is a spectrum, and not always as it seems. Gender identity, expression and biological sex have nothing to do with each other and most importantly, that you can’t say you only listen to science, when the science behind this, is right there.