Thursday, October 11, 2012

New Tumblr

Tumblr Address: binarybreak.tumblr.com

Terminology

The general Identity parts are covered in the Parts of Identity post, but there are still a few words that people should know. Everyone knows the terms "gay, straight, bi," but if someone said they are "ace," would you know what they meant? Probably not. Below is the different common terms used when discussing identity.

  Sexuality
  • Hetero- pertains to the opposite sex. The slang term for this as an attraction is "straight."
  • Homo- pertains to the same sex. The slang term for this as an attraction is "gay" or "lesbian."
  • Bi- pertains to both sexes. As an attraction, the level of attraction can vary for each sex; it doesn't have to be a 50-50 split. This only includes male and female.
  • A- pertains to neither sex. The slang term for this  as an attraction  is "ace."
  • Pan- is an attraction to all possible genders and biological sexes. This is also known as omnisexuality.
  • Poly- has to do with multiple genders and sexes, but not all of them. What it includes is up to the user. 
  • Demi- is when attraction can only be felt after having a good connection with the person beforehand; they do not have the instinctual "crushes" and "ooh, he's hot" feelings before or right after meeting someone.
  • Queer is an umbrella term for any non-straight orientation, usually to mean an orientation that cannot easily fit under existing terms.
  • Androsexual is the attraction to the male gender or sex. 
  • Gynosexual is the attraction to the female gender or sex. 
  • Androgynosexual is the attraction to androgynous persons or people without a specific gender. 
  • Lithromantic is the feeling of romantic attraction without the desire for those feelings to be reciprocated.
Gender and Sex
  • Male is one of the binary genders, associated with no breasts, a penis, possibly facial hair and muscles.
  • Female is one of the binary genders, associated with breasts, a vagina, possibly a much more "curvy" form than male.
  • Intersex is a physical mix of male and female shapes and attributes.
  • Androgynous is the feeling that the person is right between the male and female genders.
  • Agender is when a person feels they have no gender at all, and usually shows confusion as to what a gender would even feel like.
  • Genderfluid is when a person's gender identity shifts over time. It can change between male and female only (bigender), or shift to third-gender as well (trigender).
  • Genderqueer is an umbrella term for someone who feels their gender identity cannot be described by existing labels.
  • Cisgendered is a state of a person's gender identity and biological sex being the same.
  • Transgendered is a state of a person's gender identity and biological sex being mismatched. This can create feelings of "wrongness" in the individual, since their mental map is telling them one thing and their body is showing them another. Some transgendered persons get surgery so their physical sex matches their identity.
  • Transsexual means that a person has had or plans to have surgery to change their biological sex.
Other Terms
  • Polyamory is a relationship between more than two people.
  • Monogamy is a relationship between only two people.


With all these terms in mind, I will take myself as the final example, to show what a person can be: I am an agender aromantic asexual female. This means I don't feel like I'm any sex, and I don't feel romantic or sexual attraction, but I am biologically female. Because my gender identity (agender) and biological sex (female) don't match, I am transgendered.