gender

sex is a physical construct; gender is a cultural construct, a complex system of roles, expressions, identities, performances, and more based on society's assumptions of how sex is embodied. Notions of gender vary from culture to culture and from person to person. Our notions of "masculine" tell us how we expect men to behave and our notions of "feminine" tell us how we expect women to behave. When associating a word, activity, or profession with one sex or the other, the only acceptable limitation is genetic sex: a person who is genetically female cannot be a sperm donors because it's biologically impossible; it may be culturally unusual for men to be nannies, but it is not biologically impossible. Although these are currently the ways we tend to differentiate between "sex" and "gender," it's a faulty frame. For one thing, it relies on a narrow binary system of thinking. Just as our biological sex isn't always 100% male or 100% female, "gender" is extremely fluid, and exists on a broad spectrum. "Gender identity" is a person's internal sense or feeling of being female or male, or neither male nor female, which may not be the same as their biological sex. "Gender expression" is how people present their sense of gender to others through dress, mannerisms, and behavior. "Sexual orientation" is independent of "gender identity" and dependent on to whom people are sexually attracted. Reflecting acceptance for more gender options, Facebook currently offers users these choices: agender, androgyne, androgynous, bigender, cis, cisgender, cis female, cis male, cis man, cis woman, cisgender female, cisgender male, cisgender man, cisgender woman, female to male, FTM, gender fluid, gender nonconforming, gender questioning, gender variant, genderqueer, intersex, male to female, MTF, neither, neutrois, non-binary, other, pangender, trans, trans female, trans male, trans man, trans person, trans woman, transfeminine, transgender, transgender female, transgender male, transgender man, transgender person, transgender woman, transmasculine, transsexual, transsexual female, transsexual male, transsexual man, transsexual person, transsexual woman, two-spirit. See also genderfluid, gender roles, graygender, queer (adj.), transgender, two-spirit people.