Non-fixed gender identity
Gender fluidity
(commonly referred to as
genderfluid
) is a non-fixed
gender identity
that shifts over time or depending on the situation. These fluctuations can occur at the level of
gender identity
or
gender expression
. A genderfluid person may fluctuate among different gender expressions over their lifetime, or express multiple aspects of various gender markers simultaneously.
[1]
[2]
Genderfluid individuals may identify as
non-binary
or
transgender
, or
cisgender
, which means they identify with the gender associated with their
sex assigned at birth
.
[3]
[4]
Gender fluidity is different from
gender-questioning
, a process in which people explore their gender in order to find their true gender identity and adjust their gender expression accordingly.
[5]
Gender fluidity continues throughout lives of genderfluid people.
[6]
History
[
edit
]
Transgender
people (including
non-binary
and
third gender
people) have existed in cultures worldwide since ancient times. The modern terms and meanings of "transgender", "
gender
", "
gender identity
", and "
gender role
" only emerged in the 1950s and 1960s.
[7]
[8]
[9]
As a result, opinions vary on how to categorize historical accounts of gender-variant people and identities, including genderfluid individuals.
The 1928
Virginia Woolf
novel
Orlando: A Biography
features a main character who changes gender several times, and considers gender fluidity:
In every human being, a vacillation from one sex to the other takes place, and often it is only the clothes that keep the male or female likeness, while underneath the sex is the very opposite of what it is above.
[10]
The first known mention of the term
gender fluidity
was in
gender theorist
Kate Bornstein
's 1994 book
Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women and the Rest of Us.
[11]
It was later used again in the 1996 book
The Second Coming: A Leatherdyke Reader
.
[12]
In February 2014,
Facebook
included "Gender Fluid" as one of the 50 identity options available.
[13]
In May 2015,
Dictionary.com
added an entry for genderfluid
.
[14]
Symbols
[
edit
]
The genderfluid
pride flag
was designed by JJ Poole in 2012. The
pink
stripe of the flag represents
femininity
, the
white
represents
lack of gender
,
purple
represents
androgyny
,
black
represents all
other genders
, and
blue
represents
masculinity
.
[15]
[16]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Cronn-Mills, Kirstin (2015).
Transgender Lives: Complex Stories, Complex Voices
. Minneapolis, Minnesota: Twenty-First Century Books. p. 24.
ISBN
978-0-7613-9022-0
.
- ^
McGuire, Peter (9 November 2015).
"Beyond the binary: what does it mean to be genderfluid?"
.
The Irish Times
.
Archived
from the original on 22 November 2015
. Retrieved
1 December
2015
.
- ^
Bosson, Jennifer K.; Vandello, Joseph A.; Buckner, Camille E. (2018).
The Psychology of Sex and Gender
. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications. p. 54.
ISBN
978-1-5063-3134-8
.
OCLC
1038755742
.
Archived
from the original on 28 May 2020
. Retrieved
4 August
2019
.
- ^
Whyte, Stephen; Brooks, Robert C.; Torgler, Benno (25 September 2018). "Man, Woman, "Other": Factors Associated with Nonbinary Gender Identification".
Archives of Sexual Behavior
.
47
(8). Heidelberg, Germany:
Springer Science+Business Media
: 2397?2406.
doi
:
10.1007/s10508-018-1307-3
.
PMID
30255409
.
S2CID
52823167
.
2 out of 7479 (0.03 percent) of respondents to the Australian Sex Survey, a 2016 online research survey, self-identified as trigender.
- ^
Katz-Wise, Sabra (December 3, 2020).
"Gender fluidity: What it means and why support matters"
.
Harvard Health Publishing
.
Archived
from the original on April 12, 2023
. Retrieved
April 12,
2023
.
- ^
Jolly, Divya; Boskey, Elizabeth R.; Thomson, Katharine A.; Tabaac, Ariella R.; Burns, Maureen T.S.; Katz-Wise, Sabra L. (2021-03-12).
"Why Are You Asking? Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Assessment in Clinical Care"
.
Journal of Adolescent Health
.
69
(6): 891?893.
doi
:
10.1016/j.jadohealth.2021.08.015
.
ISSN
1054-139X
.
PMID
34629230
.
S2CID
238580640
.
- ^
Oliven, John F. (1965).
Sexual Hygiene and Pathology: A Manual for the Physician and the Professions
. Lippincott.
- ^
Janssen, Diederik F. (April 21, 2020). "Transgenderism Before Gender: Nosology from the Sixteenth Through Mid-Twentieth Century".
Archives of Sexual Behavior
.
49
(5): 1415?1425.
doi
:
10.1007/s10508-020-01715-w
.
ISSN
0004-0002
.
PMID
32319033
.
S2CID
216073926
.
- ^
Mesch, Rachel (May 12, 2020).
Before trans : three gender stories from nineteenth-century France
. Stanford, California.
ISBN
978-1-5036-1235-8
.
OCLC
1119978342
.
{{
cite book
}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (
link
)
- ^
"Thousands of U.S. copyrighted works from 1928 are entering the public domain"
.
Archived
from the original on 2024-01-13
. Retrieved
2024-01-14
.
- ^
Bornstein, Kate (2016).
Gender Outlaw On Men, Women and the Rest of Us
. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.
ISBN
978-1-101-97461-2
.
OCLC
1155971422
.
Archived
from the original on 2022-01-10
. Retrieved
2023-01-22
.
- ^
Hernandez, Michael M. (1996).
"Boundaries: Gender and Transgenderism". The Second Coming: A Leatherdyke Reader
. Alyson.
OCLC
757653724
.
- ^
Sparkes, Matthew (2014-02-14).
"Facebook sex changes: which one of 50 genders are you?"
.
The Daily Telegraph
.
ISSN
0307-1235
.
Archived
from the original on 2018-05-21
. Retrieved
2023-02-28
.
- ^
"gender-fluid Meaning | Gender & Sexuality"
.
Dictionary.com
. 12 March 2018.
Archived
from the original on 2023-02-13
. Retrieved
2023-01-22
.
- ^
"Flags and Symbols"
(PDF)
. Amherst, Massachusetts:
Amherst College
.
Archived
(PDF)
from the original on 10 May 2017
. Retrieved
20 December
2016
.
- ^
"Gender-fluid added to the Oxford English Dictionary"
.
LGBTQ Nation
.
Archived
from the original on 25 October 2016
. Retrieved
2016-12-20
.
Further reading
[
edit
]
Bibliography
[
edit
]