Genderfluid - what is it? Meaning

2024 Author: Priscilla Miln | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 00:21

At the moment, the topic of gender is being actively discussed in the Russian and world communities and is of great interest. Due to the fact that these questions are largely new for Russians and residents of the former USSR, confusion in them is inevitable, it is necessary to deal with many definitions that affect the topic of sexual orientation and gender, which deviates from the traditional.

This article will attempt to define the term "genderfluid". This and other types of homosexuality will also be considered.

Concept

Genderfluid - gender identity, in which a person does not identify himself with male or female, but periodically feels like a man, then a woman, or a person without a gender, or both sexes at once. Sexologists and psychologists often argue about the accuracy of definitions of various non-traditional sexual orientations.

Gender identity of gender fluids

For some people, gender is more than just being a man or a woman. This type of person, like gender fluids, can periodically feel like a member of a different gender over a period of time or even every few hours. So all the same genderfluid - what is it? In simple words -an identity in which a person can feel like a man for periods, and after a while a woman, and so on throughout his life.

Translated from English, gender fluid is "sex variability" when gender expression changes between masculine and feminine and can be reflected in the way a person dresses, expresses and describes himself. Progressive gender identification is the norm at some universities in the US, where schools offer gender-neutral bathrooms and restrooms and allow students to use their preferred names regardless of their passport gender.

Manifestation of gender fluidity

Genderfluidity usually manifests itself as a transitional state between masculine and feminine, or as a neutral state of some "third sex". A person may feel like a member of both sexes at the same time, either briefly with either one sex, or something in between a man and a woman.

Individuals who self-identify as genderfluid (what is said above) may experience personality changes regarding gender identity in the long or short term. This state can last for years, months, days, etc.

One of the main problems with the emergence of the concept of "genderfluid" is the ambiguous or erroneous use of this term. It is commonly used as a synonym for concepts such as genderqueer, transgenderor polygender, as well as to criticize the theory of gender binary (that is, the existence of two sexes) and the idea of gender as a "spectrum".

Spreading the term "gender fluidity"

Often academic research highlights the role of social media and geosocial apps (Facebook, Twitter, Tinder, etc.) in building genderfluid communities and spreading the term to the masses. The appearance of the entry genderfluid in the Urban Dictionary takes place in 2007. In Live Journal, a community of people with this gender appears in 2010.

One of the 56 genders available on Facebook in the options is "genderfluid". This meaning has been used since 2014 along with androgyns and bigendars, but this option is not available in other languages of this social network. In 2015, the Dictionary.com page added the term genderfluid.

In October 2015, the Género Fluido group in Spanish is created on the social network Facebook, where people with unstable gender can express themselves and help each other. At the moment, in Russian social networks, traditionally, you can choose only two genders.

Binary gender system

This is a traditional system for classifying gender, which uses two opposite genders (with distinct physiological features) to understand people's sexual identity: male and female.

Binary theory believes that concepts such as "sex", "gender" and "sexuality" automaticallyare always equal to each other. The binary reproductive system has been dominant in the modern world and throughout world history.

According to this gender model, both sexes are the opposite of each other. In addition, this model assumes that in all cases of gender classification, with which men and women are commonly identified, they are inextricably linked to gender identity and external expression. That is, a person called a heterosexual always feels like a person of one sex or another and appears before the world with a certain attitude towards him and appearance. That is, it corresponds to the classical understanding of the behavior of a man and a woman and their mutual sexual attraction.

Shemales

Despite the binary theory, transsexuals often fit into it. Such people often simply change their passport gender, because they do not feel like a representative of the gender they were from birth. Being in their body gives them great discomfort, because in their soul they feel like representatives of the opposite sex, and they go to extreme measures to change this fact, for example, change it.

Change consists of using reconstructive surgery and hormonal therapy to change the appearance in accordance with one's own sense of self. Transsexuals often refer to this state of affairs as a mistake of nature, as their physiology does not match their psychological state.

Based on the reliable research of scientists and sexologists in this field, we can say that this is a certaina genetic defect that confuses a person's gender identity. One type of similar deviation is genderfluid. The significance of this deviation lies in the variability of feelings of being a woman, then a man.

Non-binary concept of gender

There is also the concept of non-binary gender, which offers a different way of understanding people's personality and gender. The non-binary model involves the separation and separation from each other of certain categories that were once connected. These are concepts such as biological sex, gender identity and psychological expression. Biological sex has such characteristics as a certain number of chromosomes and the reproductive system of people. The term "gender identity" refers to how a person perceives their gender, whether or not they feel comfortable with it.

Also, there is a gender expression in which a person shows their gender to the world through behavior, the way they dress, or the choice of hairstyle. It also shows in the communication style he uses. Transgender people may ask others to call them not by their passport name, but by an invented one.

At the moment, there are a huge number of types of sexual orientation and gender that are contrary to the classical ideas about a man and a woman. Genderfluid is also a kind of non-binary gender identity of a person, that is, different from the traditional one.

Non-binary model covers a large number of terms,used specifically for gender definition, which are the result of a combination of the factors mentioned above. Genderfluid is a word that is often combined or confused with other terms.

Genderqueer

Genderqueer is a term that, in general, covers all concepts that are outside the male or female gender. Thus, this word can be considered as a synonym for the category of "non-standard genders".

However, this is a fairly broad concept, which means that there is no correlation between a person's biological sex and the sex that he perceives and prefers. The relationship between the accepted sex and his sexual orientation is also not mandatory. Genderqueer can be straight, gay, bisexual, etc.

Classification of non-standard genders

Genderqueer usually refers to people who meet any of the following characteristics:

• Androgynous type can combine the simultaneous manifestation of male and female traits.
• Agender is neither male nor female (positioning itself as neutral or genderless).
• Genderfluid is the fluidity (movement) between both genders.
• Some third gender or identification with some other gender (including those that are simply considered "non-binary" or "strange genders").
• Gender is a combination or uncertainty about orientation or gender.

A person can have both traditional sexual orientation and gender identity, butexpress their gender in strange ways.

Medical aspect of genderfluid

Some critics of genderqueer theory argue that gender, sexual identity and sexual orientation are the result of social influence. Therefore, many believe that this concept has nothing to do with human nature.

Anne Fausto-Sterling, a biologist, claims that the fear of confusion about the existence of different sexes prompted science and medicine to look for criteria that would determine anatomical sex and psychological gender.

In particular, a genderfluid human is born with the morphological characteristics of a particular biological sex and decides not to be tied to any binary gender (male or female). Thus, gender fluid in this sense of the word is determined not by the presence of sexual characteristics or sexual orientation, but by the existence of a person alternately in both sexes.

Scientific research of the problem

In 2012, neurologist Vilayanur S. Ramachandran reported the results of a study involving gender fluids. They suffered from an involuntary alternation between the states of the personality of a man and a woman. This phenomenon has been described as an alternating gender mismatch.

Ramachandran has developed a hypothesis that this variation between gender identities is associated with changes in some areas of the brain. It can also be related to some short cycles of the body, which are reflected in the alternation of the use of its hemispheres. These characteristic periods of change can occur several times a day.at the wrong time and can be accompanied by a sensation of having breasts or genitals of the opposite biological sex. At the moment, the results of these studies remain only a hypothesis.

It is important not to confuse genderfluidity with dissociative identity disorder or multiple personality disorder, as there are differences between these conditions and some of the characteristics of people with this trait.

Stars and gender features

Because this is a recent term, one of the factors behind its spread is the growing activity of social networks, as well as the statements of established personalities, especially in the creative environment, which are considered gender fluid. Recently, information appeared in the media that 16-year-old Anna-Maria Efremova (Efremov’s daughter calls herself Myavs on social networks) reported that she was “internally” twenty-four years old, she was a “genderfluid meavs”, a lesbian (prefers girls).

Western stars also keep up and come out. Miley Cyrus is another celebrity who has also taken a position on gender in the media. She stated that she did not want to be treated as either female or male. Gradually, many in society already understand what it is - genderfluid.