Real Identities

Take a look at Dee for a quick recap on the 4 elements of gender and sexual identity. All these elements come together to form our unique, individual gender and sexual identities.

• Gender identity refers to our core sense of who we are as a man, woman, a mixture of both, or neither.
• Gender expression is how we choose to “show up” in the world through clothing, hairstyles, tone of voice, and other forms of self-expression, such as how we hold our bodies, enter a room, or even sit in a chair. Just like gender identity, gender expression can be masculine, feminine, a mixture of both, or neither.
• Attraction relates to how we feel toward others. Attraction is linked to different sexual orientations, including gay, straight, and bisexual, as well as other non-binary sexual orientations that you’ll learn about in identiversity.
• Biological sex refers to physical attributes such as reproductive organs and genitalia, chromosomes, genes, and hormone levels. The terms male and female are used to describe the biological sex characteristics that most—but not all—people have when they are born or develop during puberty. Another term you’ll encounter is intersex, which is an umbrella term used to refer to conditions of atypical sex development, meaning sex characteristics that don’t fit typical definitions of male or female.