5.11: Conclusion
The international scientific and medical communities view variations of sex, gender, and sexual orientation as normal. It is important to note the difference between sex and gender. Gender is a spectrum, and a person’s biological makeup does not define one’s gender identity. The term intersex is used to define individuals with a variation in sex characteristics, including chromosomes, gonads, or genitals, which highlights the false binary of two distinct sexes or genders. Transgender people have a gender identity or expression that differs from what they are assigned at birth. People who identify as transgender may participate in hormone therapy, which is an effective way to enhance secondary sex characteristics associated with a person’s gender identity. Gender is a social construct, meaning that it is not developed naturally, but is instead a concept, created by cultural and societal norms. Gender socialization begins at birth, and occurs through a variety of major agents of socialization, including family, education, peer groups, and mass media. As a result of gender socialization beginning at birth, it is often difficult for people to ‘come out’ as transgender.
U.S. society continues to consider the gender binary as the ‘norm’, which causes many transgender and non-binary people to experience gender dysphoria. Gender dysphoria can negatively impact a person’s quality of life, especially if a transgender person does not have resources to explore their gender identity. Prescribed gender roles can play a major role in gender dysphoria, and are based on a socially constructed idea of gender, which changes over time. Gender schemas are deeply embedded in a person’s cognitive framework, which is why many transgender and non-binary people have to go through a process of un-learning. This process can be quite difficult, as a result of people being policed at a young age, causing a series of gendered expectations that define the ways people should act, dress, and interact with society, based on the gender that they are assumed to hold.