Gender identity is very different from sexual identity. When we talk about gender identity, we refer to what gender you associate yourself with on the inside. When we talk about sex, we talk more about the genetic factors. One you can define what your gender identity is.
Gender identification also exists over a spectrum, and you may change how you identify over time.
What is Gender Identity?
Gender identity refers to one’s personal sense of their own gender. An individual’s gender identity is not necessarily restricted to being a man or a woman. Because it’s a spectrum, some do not identify with genders while others identify with multiple genders.
Gender Expression
Gender Identity also talks about gender expression. Gender expression is more external, and talks about how an individual presents themselves to the outside world based on how they identify internally.
An individual’s clothing, name, pronouns, and mannerisms are a few ways they choose to express themselves.
What are a few different gender identities?
Because gender identity is a spectrum, there are a number of identities that an individual could choose to identify themselves as. We pick up a few common ones below.
Agender
An individual who identifies as a gender does not identify with any particular gender or may not have a gender at all.
Bigender
An individual who identifies as bigender has two genders they identify with.
Gender fluid
An individual who identifies as gender fluid moves outside of or between societal expectations based on social standards. Gender identity isn’t fixed.
Cisgender
A cisgender individual is one whose sex at birth and the gender they identify with are the same. For example, you are cisgender if your gender identity is male and you were born with male body parts.
Nonbinary
An individual who identifies as non-binary does not identify with the binary genders of male and female. It refers to identifying with a gender other than male or female.
Polygender
Those who identify as polygender experience parts of multiple genders and sometimes even display as such.
Transgender
Transgender is an umbrella term for all those who identify with a different gender than the sex parts they were born with. This also includes nonbinary and genderfluid individuals, apart from trans men and trans women.
