“Gender” was first used to express a social and psychological difference between men and women in 1955 by psychologist John Money (1921-2006). The philosopher Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986) helped to theorize it and highlighted the social components in its construction (hence her phrase “You are not born a woman, you become a woman”, quoted in Enem 2015). Advances in scholarship in the 1970s and 1980s, especially in the social sciences, reinforced the dissociation between gender and genitals (or other physical characteristics). An example is transgenderism, which has been much discussed in recent years, but it is also not “new”: the term “transgender” was created by psychiatrist John F. Oliven 50 years ago and has been well accepted by science since then.
each thing is one thing
The terms that we will explain below are not necessarily related.
1. Gender identity
It is the gender with which the person identifies. There are those who perceive themselves as a man, as a woman, as both or even as neither gender: these are the so-called non-binary. cisgender someone who identifies with the same gender they were given at birth. Already transsexual or transgender someone who identifies with a gender other than the one they were assigned at birth.
2. Sexual orientation
It depends on the gender for which the person develops sexual attraction and romantic bonds. Heterosexual is someone who is attracted to someone of another gender. Already homosexual is someone who is attracted to someone of the same gender. O bisexual is attracted to both. Asexuality is usually defined as the absence of sexual desire for any gender. But that is asexuality in a strict sense. There is a “gray zone” of asexuals who are attracted to one gender (or both) only under specific circumstances.
3. Expression (or performance) of gender
It refers to the ways people use to express their gender in society, from the use of clothing and accessories to physical details such as gestures, attitudes and voice timbre. A person can be cisgender and heterosexual and still dress in ways traditionally associated with the opposite gender to which they identify.
4. Genitals
Penis, vagina or both – a small percentage of the population is born with both organs simultaneously for genetic reasons. The sexual organs themselves and other biological characteristics do not necessarily have to do with the gender with which a person identifies, nor with their sexual orientation, nor with their gender performance.
Sources: Daniela Andrade, transsexual activist, member of the OAB – Osasco Sexual Diversity Commission, Luciana Vasconcellos, transvestite, and Bárbara Aires, transsexual activist; articles Gender, What Is It?by Maria Eunice Figueiredo Guedes, The Traffic in Women – Notes on the “Political Economy” of Sexby Gayle Rubin, book gender issuesby Judith Butler, and websites PLC122, tansfeminism It is Brasil.gov.br.