Expressions of Gender

       Whenever you're filling in forms, trying to choose which public toilet you should use or asked about the gender of your unborn baby, you're somehow lead to believe that there are only 2 possible options: female or male... However life tends to demonstrate that the possibilities in terms of gender are much wider spread than that... Which is why, I've been doing a bit of research and I've come up with my own, somewhat more extensive, list of gender options for your choosing:

Androgyne: [an-druh-jahyn] – noun – Androgyny is the state of indeterminate gender, or characteristics of gender. Androgynous traits are those that either have no gender value, or have some aspects generally attributed to the opposite gender. Physiological androgyny, dealing with physical traits, is distinct from behavioral androgyny which deals with personal and social anomalies in gender, and from psychological androgyny, which is a matter of gender identity. A psychologically androgynous person is commonly known as an androgyne, although there is a politicized version known as genderqueer. The morpheme andr- means 'man', and the morpheme -gyn- means 'woman', derived from Greek.

Bigender: [bi-jen-der] – adj. – Bigender describes a tendency to move between feminine and masculine gender-typed behaviour depending on context, expressing a distinctly "en femme" persona and a distinctly "en homme" persona, feminine and masculine respectively. It is recognized by the APA as a subset of the transgender group.While an androgynous person retains the same gender-typed behaviour across situations, the bigendered person consciously or unconsciously changes their gender-role behaviour from primarily masculine to primarily feminine, or vice versa.

Butch: [booch] – adj. – A person exhibiting stereotypically or exaggeratedly (traditional) masculine traits or appearance. Used especially of lesbians and gay men.

Cisfemale: [cis-fee-meyl] – noun – Female individuals who have a match between the gender they were assigned at birth, their bodies, and their personal identity.

Cisgendered: [cis-jen-derd] – adj. – describes individuals who have a match between the gender they were assigned at birth, their bodies, and their personal identity.

Cismale: [cis-meyl] – noun – Male individuals who have a match between the gender they were assigned at birth, their bodies, and their personal identity.

Drag King: [drag king] – noun – Drag kings are mostly female performance artists who dress in masculine drag and personify male gender stereotypes as part of their performance. A typical drag king routine may incorporate dancing and singing or lip-synching. Drag kings often perform as exaggeratedly macho male characters, portray marginalized masculinities such as construction workers, rappers, or "fag drag", or they will impersonate male celebrities like Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson, or Tim McGraw.

Drag Queen: [drag kween] – noun – Men who assume the character or appearance of women. Drag queens, or "queens" for short, are mostly entertainers who dance, sing, lip sync and perform in costume (often extravagantly presented female attire) at drag shows.

Fa'afafine: – noun – Fa'afafine are biological males who have a strong feminine gender orientation, which the Samoan parents recognize quite early in childhood, and then raise them as female children or rather 'third gender' children. They grow up as Fa'afafines, who are a gender category/identity altogether different from men and women, and so they have their distinct gender roles specific to them, different from both men and women.

Female: [fee-meyl] – noun –  A person bearing two X chromosomes in the cell nuclei and normally having a vagina, a uterus and ovaries, and developing at puberty a relatively rounded body and enlarged breasts, and retaining a beardless face; a girl or woman.

Femme: [fem] – adj. – A person exhibiting stereotypically or exaggeratedly (traditional) feminine traits or appearance. Used especially of lesbians and gay men.

FTM/F2M: – acronym – A trans man, transman, trans guy, FTM is a transsexual or transgender man: a person who was assigned a female sex at birth, but who feels that this is not an accurate or complete description of themselves and consequently identifies as male.

Genderqueer: [jen-der-kweer] – adj. – Genderqueer (GQ) and intergender are catch-all terms for gender identities other than man and woman. People who identify as genderqueer may think of themselves as being both man and woman, as being neither man nor woman, or as falling completely outside the gender binary. They may wish to have none, some, or all features of the opposite sex. Some genderqueer people see their identity as one of many possible genders other than man or woman, while others see "genderqueer" as an umbrella term that encompasses all of those possible genders. Still others see "genderqueer" as a third gender to complement the traditional two, while others identify as genderless or agender. Genderqueer people are united by their rejection of the notion that there are only two genders.
Gender-variant: [jen-der-vair-ee-uhnt] – adj. – An individual who deviates from the expected characteristics of their sexual gender. Pertains to people who transcend the conventional definitions of man and woman, anyone who acts or thinks in a manner not socially approved for the gender assigned him/her at birth.

Genetic Boy (GB)/Genetic Man (GM): – slang – Male Individual whose gender identity matches with his chromosomal make-up.

Genetic Girl (GG)/Genetic Woman (GW): – slang – Female Individual whose gender identity matches with her chromosomal make-up.

Girlfag: – slang – A woman who is very attracted to gay/bi/trans men. She may (or may not) also feel she is (fully or partly) a "gay man in a woman's body". Girlfags identify primarily as queer, and are often attracted to more types of people than just gay/bi/trans men.

Guydyke: – slang – Guydyke refers to a biologically male person who feels a strong romantic or erotic attraction towards lesbians, female bisexuals, or the culture of women loving women. Guydykes experience lesbian feelings and are commonly referred to as lesbian-identified men or lesbian men, even though not all share the gender identity ‘man’.

Hermaphrodite: [hur-maf-ruh-dahyt] – noun – Historically, the term hermaphrodite has been used to describe ambiguous genitalia and gonadal mosaicism in individuals of gonochoristic species, especially human beings. The term comes from the name of the minor Greek god Hermaphroditus, son of Hermes and Aphrodite. Recently, intersex has been used and preferred by many such individuals, encouraging medical professionals to use the term.

Hijra: [hij-ruh] – noun – Hijras have a long recorded history in the Indian subcontinent, from the Mughal Empire period onwards. Their identity has no exact match in the modern Western taxonomy of gender and sexual orientation, and challenges Western ideas of sex and gender. Most are born apparently male, but some may be intersex (with ambiguous genitalia). They are often perceived as a third sex, and most see themselves as neither men nor women. However, some may see themselves (or be seen as) females, feminine males or androgynes.

Intersex: [in-ter-seks] – adj. – A group of conditions sometimes referred to as disorders of sexual development (DSDs) in which there is a discrepancy between the appearance of the external genitalia and the type of internal (testes and ovaries) genitalia. The condition was formerly termed hermaphroditism or pseudohermaphroditism. One example of intersex is androgen insensitivity syndrome, in which the body's receptors to male hormones do not function properly. In this case, individuals have a male genetic makeup (XY) and testicular tissue but have incompletely formed or female external genitalia. In some cases, known as true gonadal intersex, a person has both ovarian and testicular tissue.

Intergender: [in-tur-jen-der] – adj. – Intergender and genderqueer are catch-all terms for gender identities other than man and woman. People who identify as intergender may think of themselves as being both man and woman, as being neither man nor woman, or as falling completely outside the gender binary. They may wish to have none, some, or all features of the opposite sex. Some intergender people see their identity as one of many possible genders other than man or woman, while others see "intergender" as an umbrella term that encompasses all of those possible genders. Still others see "intergender" as a third gender to complement the traditional two, while others identify as genderless or agender. Intergender people are united by their rejection of the notion that there are only two genders.

Male: [meyl] – noun – A person bearing an X and Y chromosome pair in the cell nuclei and normally having a penis, scrotum, and testicles, and developing hair on the face at adolescence; a boy or man.

MTF/M2F: – acronym – A trans woman, transwoman, FTM is a transsexual or transgender woman: a person who was assigned a male sex at birth, but who feels that this is not an accurate or complete description of themselves and consequently identifies as female.

Neuter: [noo-ter, nyoo-] – noun – Neither masculine nor feminine in gender. Having undeveloped or imperfectly developed sexual organs.

Pangender: [pan-jen-der] – adj. – Pangender is a term used to describe people who feel that they cannot be labeled as male or female in gender. As such it has a great deal of overlap with genderqueer. Pangendered people feel that they do not fit into binary genders, instead identifying as mixed gender (both male and female) or as a third gendered.

Polygender: [pol-ee-jen-der] – adj. – The condition of one having more than one gender. It can be a physical condition, mental state or both. Typically occurs when one is born one gender but thinks he/she should be of the other gender. This condition is also seen physically during transsexual transformation.

Third gender/Third sex: The terms third gender and third sex describe individuals who are categorized (by their will or by social consensus) as neither male nor female, as well as the social category present in those societies who recognize three or more genders. The term "third" is usually understood to mean "other"; some anthropologists and sociologists have described fourth, fifth, and even some genders. Although biology determines genetically whether a human being is male or female (on the basis of the XX or XY or a variation thereof chromosomes), the state of being neither male nor female is sometimes considered in relation to the individual's gender role in society, gender identity, sexual orientation or any other characteristic. To different cultures or individuals, a third sex or gender may represent an intermediate state between men and women, a state of being both (such as "the spirit of a man in the body of a woman"), the state of being neither (neuter), the ability to cross or swap genders, another category altogether independent of male and female. This last definition is favored by those who argue for a strict interpretation of the "third gender" concept. In any case, all of these characterizations are defining gender and not the sex that biology gives to living beings.

Tomboy: [tom-boi] – noun – A tomboy is a girl who behaves according to the stereotypical gender role of a boy. This can include various things such as wearing non-feminine clothes, typically for comfort or practicality and enjoying boy's stereotypical games, interests and activities, such as running, jumping, climbing trees, science and ball games.

Transgender: [trans-jen-der, tranz‐] – adj. – A transgender person is someone whose personal idea of gender does not correlate with his or her assigned gender role. It does not exclusively refer to transsexual persons, i.e. those who are transitioning or have transitioned from one gender to another; all transsexual persons are transgender, but not all transgender persons are transsexual. A transgender person is anyone who fully accepts a gender identity --androgynous, hermaphroditic, intersex, transsexual, third gender, bigender, or otherwise gender non-conformist -- does not match his or her assigned gender.

Trans man/Transman: [trans-man] – noun – The term "trans man" is used as a short form for either identity (transsexual man and transgender man). Trans men may identify as transsexual, as transgender, neither, or both. "Transgender man" is an umbrella term that may include anybody who was assigned the female sex at birth but identifies as male. For instance, some drag kings, cross dressers, androgynous, bigendered, and genderqueer people might identify as trans men.

Transsexual: [trans·sex'u·al] – adj. – A person whose gender self-image contradicts with the physical gender he/she was born with. One who has changed or is in the process of changing his/her physical sex by undergoing medical treatment such as hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and/or sex reassignment surgery (SRS).

Trans woman/Transwoman: [trans-woom-uhn] – noun – A trans woman (sometimes trans-woman or transwoman) is a male-to-female (MTF) transsexual or transgender person and the term trans woman is preferred by many such individuals over various medical terms. Other non-medical terms include t-girl, tg-girl and ts-girl.

Trigender: [tri-jen-der] – adj. – Similar to bigender, trigenderism is a gender identification or feeling that a person is moving between or among genders: masculine, feminine and a third gender (genderless, neutrosis, a mix of masculinity and femininity, or any other variety of genderqueer identities). A trigender may transition from one gender to another rigidly and completely depending on the mood of the individual or based on the situation. In contrast, someone who is gender fluid and identifies as trigender may mix two or more genders at a time.

Two-spirit: Two-Spirit People (also Two Spirit or Twospirit), an English term that emerged in 1990 out of the third annual inter-tribal Native American/First Nations gay/lesbian American conference in Winnipeg, describes Indigenous North Americans who fulfill one of many mixed gender role found traditionally among many Native Americans and Canadian First Nations indigenous groups. The mixed gender roles encompassed by the term historically included wearing the clothing and performing the work associated with both men and women. A direct translation of the Ojibwe term, Niizh manidoowag, "two-spirited" or "two-spirit" is usually used to indicate a person whose body simultaneously houses a masculine spirit and a feminine spirit.

Womyn: [wim-in] – plural noun – used by some feminists as a nonsexist spelling of "woman" in order to avoid the suffix "man".

Xanith: – noun – The xanith form an accepted third gender in Oman, a gender-segregated society. The xanith are male homosexual prostitutes whose dressing is male, featuring pastel colors (rather than white, worn by men), but their mannerisms female. Xanith can mingle with women, and they often do at weddings or other formal events. Xaniths have their own households, performing all tasks (both male and female). However, similarly to men in their society, xaniths can marry women, proving their masculinity by consummating the marriage. Should a divorce or death take place, these men can revert to their status as xaniths at the next wedding.