bifurcated consciousness
The experience of a division between the directly lived, bodily world of women’s lives and the dominant, masculine, abstract, institutional world to which they must adapt.
Dorothy Smith referred to this phenomenon as bifurcated consciousness (Smith, 1987).
cisgendered
A term that refers to individuals whose gender identity matches the gender and sex they were assigned at birth
As opposed to cisgendered individuals, who identify their gender with the gender and sex they were assigned at birth, individuals who identify with the gender that is the opposite of their biological sex are transgendered.
doing gender
When people perform tasks based upon the gender assigned to them by society.
When people perform tasks or possess characteristics based on the gender role assigned to them, they are said to be doing gender (West and Zimmerman, 1987).
dominant gender schema
An ideological framework that states that there are only two possible sexes, male and female, and two possible genders, masculine and feminine.
However, having a gender or sexual identity only appears natural to the degree that one fits within the dominant gender schema (Devor, 2000).
double standard
A concept that prohibits premarital sexual intercourse for women, but allows it for men.
The belief that men have — or have the right to — more sexual urges than women creates a double standard.
gender
A term that refers to social or cultural distinctions of behaviours that are considered male or female.
allegations that Caster Semenya, no matter what gender identity she possessed, was biologically a male.
gender identity
An individual’s sense of being either masculine or feminine.
allegations that Caster Semenya, no matter what gender identity she possessed, was biologically a male.
gender role
Society’s concept of how men and women should behave.
The term gender role refers to society’s concept of how men and women are expected to act and how they should behave.
heteronormativity
The belief and practice that heterosexuality is the only normal sexual orientation.
North America is a heteronormative society, meaning it supports heterosexuality as the norm, (referred to as heteronormativity).
homophobia
An extreme or irrational aversion to homosexuals.
Much of this discrimination is based on stereotypes, misinformation, and homophobia — an extreme or irrational aversion to homosexuals.
intersex
Individuals with a mixture of male and female sexual organs or physical characteristics.
It was not until the 1950s that American and British psychologists and other professionals working with intersex and transsexual patients formally began distinguishing between sex and gender.
queer theory
A scholarly discipline that questions fixed (normative) definitions of gender and sexuality.
Queer theory is a perspective that problematizes the manner in which we have been taught to think about sexual orientation.
sex
A term that denotes the presence of physical or physiological differences between males and females.
In this chapter, we will discuss the differences between sex and gender, along with issues like gender identity and sexuality.
sexism
The prejudiced belief that one sex should be valued over another.
Sexism refers to prejudiced beliefs that value one sex over another.
sexuality
A person’s capacity for sexual feelings and the orientation of their emotional and sexual attraction to a particular sex (male or female).
In this chapter, we will discuss the differences between sex and gender, along with issues like gender identity and sexuality.
transgendered
A term that refers to individuals who identify with the behaviours and characteristics that are the opposite of their biological sex.
The experience of transgendered people also demonstrates that a person’s sex, as determined by his or her biology, does not always correspond with his or her gender.
transsexuals
Transgendered individuals who alter their bodies through medical interventions such as surgery and hormonal therapy.
They may also be known as male-to-female (MTF) or female-to-male (FTM) transsexuals.
These terms were extracted from Introduction to Sociology – 2nd Canadian Edition by William Little, eCampusOntario (originally published by BCcampus, 2016) which is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Based on Introduction to Sociology by OpenStax (© 2013 Rice University), licensed under CC BY 3.0.