What’s the Difference Between Sex, Gender and Sexual Orientation?
Yep, these are not the same and their differences are very much significant.
To start, let’s address the concept of sex. According to GreentPsycologhy, sex is biological; it’s defined by the genitalia you were born with—your reproductive organs and your chromosomal makeup. Historically, this concept was categorized into two sexes, male and female, but some people biologically aren’t part of any of those and instead have both characteristics—they are called intersex. People who are intersex can have both features of male and female genitalia. In the past, anyone who didn’t apply to binarism was called pathological. Nowadays, scientists understand that intersex is just one of the natural variations of sex.
Gender, on the other hand, is social; it has to do with a person’s identity and expression. It’s related to how people feel about themselves and how they want to be seen by society. A person can be born with female reproductive organs but identify as a man and choose to express his gender by wearing a determined kind of clothing.
“Cisgender” (sometimes cissexual or shortened to cis)
describes a person whose gender identity
corresponds to their sex assigned at birth.
A few misconceptions:
Sex is always binary
A person’s gender should be consistent with what their sex is
Sexual orientation is a choice
Sexual Orientation is related to whom a person is sexually attracted. Inside this categorization, we can think of sexual people (those who actually feel sexual desires toward others) and asexual people (those who can feel romantic attraction towards another person but do not experience sexual urges). In the middle of these categorizations, we may find demisexual folks (people for whom arousal is only possible through a deep emotional bond).
If someone experiences sexual attraction, according to their sexual orientation, a person can be homosexual (attracted to people of one's own gender), heterosexual (attracted to people of the opposite gender) or bisexual (attracted to people of either gender). Sexual orientation is not a choice. No one can choose who they’re sexually attracted to.
Even if you think this information is irrelevant to you, remember that talking about someone else with proper words is one of many ways of showing respect to them. So if someone tells you their pronouns or introduces themselves with a new name, treat them as they asked.
Be kind and respectful.
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