GENDER IDENTITY

Sex and gender are two different things. Sex has to do with biology, it’s defined by our sexual organs, how are bodies work and what they’re made of. Gender has to do with behaviour, interest and much more.

The difference from a boy and a girl ; A persons biological sex comes from our chromosomes, half of our mother and half from our father. Two X chromosomes makes a girl and an X and a Y chromosome makes a boy.

People think gender is binary, which means there are only two genders; male and female. Avocates are trying to change the way society views gender.

“Female” and “male” are words used for our sexes. But “feminine” and “masculine” are words associated with each gender.

Each colour have they’re own way of seing gender. In our society people define that pink is for girl and blue is for boys, but things like colour or clothes and many more don’t have genders.

Researchers say that boys and girl behave the way they do because of the way the were brought up by their parents. For example, girl play with dolls; not because they chose them but because it was given to them.

The way people expresse their gender on the gender roles that we are brought up with. For example; boys are thought to be strong, athletic and agressive and girls are tough to be quiet, sweet and pretty. But these gender roles are often led to inequality between sexes.

Having different clothes or hairstyles are all ways to express a gender but most importantly are pronouns. The female pronouns are “she” and “her” and the male pronouns are “he” and “him”. The pronouns we use are labels for gender identity.

A transgender is a person who’s gender identity is different from the sex her or she was born with. People often transition or change their sex to match their gender and do this trough hormone therapy and surgery. A persons decides wether they want therapy or surgery, having therapy and surgery doesn’t make them more of the opposite gender.

It was trough history that these different genders have specific terms to them.

Through out my experience during this project, I got in contact with a transgender man who was willing to share his opinion on gender identity and his personal experience.

While growing up, he didn't know anything other than two genders, female and male. He would makes jokes with his friends saying "what if i were a boy" but never thought about it seriously till puberty. During this period, he started to feel uncomfortable with the body he was in. He didn't know what he was feeling so he decided to go on the internet and found the word transgender. He started reading about it, watching videos and realized he was going through the same thing. 

When coming out to his family and friends it was hard for them to understand. Some of his friends did not accept him but others did. As for his family, it was hard for them to get used to it but they were very supportive. 

He says the best way to support someone who is transitioning, is to use their correct pronouns.

Sexuality is someones sexual orientation.

Gender has to do with biological or identity. 

A persons gender does not determine their sexuality, they are two different things and there are so many different sexualities as well as different genders.

At birth, her child Penelope, was designed female and as of early there were signs that her child was different.

Penelope would say no to everything, no to clothing, no to shoes, no to hair brushing, …

Penelope would say “I’m unhappy because everyone thinks I’m a girl” and her mom said “it’s fine, however you feel on the inside is great” and he said “no, I don’t feel like a boy, I am a boy”, but the mom didn’t know how to handle that.

The mom was raised to be a woman and her child didn't want to be a woman, Penelope would say “I don’t want to look like you, I want to look like dad”.

She thought maybe she did something wrong, and forgot something that was essential to self-pride.

People often think Penelope is to young to know her identity, but identity comes at an early age.

The moment Penelope told her that, the mom didn’t consider her a “she” anymore.

He started to wear boy clothes, but there were still so many gender barriers and they started to realize the different ways we treat a girl from a boy.

His siblings and his friends would protect him, they were there for him.

What the mom isn’t ready for is puberty, because of all the girl symptoms. She wants people to see her son the way he really is, she also thinks that there isn’t a lot of research on what transgender people do medically to their bodies witch make her nervous and it’s scares her that her son needs to inject chemicals such as testosterone in his body to change.

But Penelope is a boy regardless if he wants to change his body or not.