Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Although a person's sex as male or female stands as a biological fact that is identical in any culture, what that specific sex means in reference to a person's gender role as a man or a woman in society varies cross-culturally according to what things are considered to be masculine or feminine. [63]
The word woman can be used generally, to mean any female human, or specifically, to mean an adult female human as contrasted with girl. The word girl originally meant "young person of either sex" in English; [19] it was only around the beginning of the 16th century that it came to mean specifically a female child. [20]
The gender binary (also known as gender binarism) [1] [2] [3] is the classification of gender into two distinct forms of masculine and feminine, whether by social system, cultural belief, or both simultaneously. [A] Most cultures use a gender binary, having two genders (boys/men and girls/women). [4] [5] [6]
The Britannica dictionary defines gender as “a person's own sense of being male, female, some combination of male and female, or neither male nor female”. [55] The American Heritage Dictionary (5th edition) states that gender may be defined by identity as "neither entirely female nor entirely male"; its Usage Note adds:
AFAB: AFAB is an acronym meaning Assigned Female at Birth (and AMAB refers to Assigned Male at Birth). These are medical terms to help us educate and talk about bodies, but remember, someone's sex ...
Gender gifted [25] Genderfae [ 26 ] : 11 Genderfluid [ 4 ] [ 9 ] [ 3 ] [ 5 ] can be defined as a gender identity that is " at times more masculine or feminine, and at times feeling more like a man or woman."
[15] [16] The adjective female can describe a person's sex or gender identity. [6] The word can also refer to the shape of connectors and fasteners, such as screws, electrical pins, and technical equipment. Under this convention, sockets and receptacles are called female, and the corresponding plugs male. [17] [18]
[118] [119] The terms male and man, or female and woman, were used more or less interchangeably when referring to people of one sex or the other. As the term gender took on new meaning following the work of John Money [55] [additional citation(s) needed], Robert Stoller, and others, a distinction began to be drawn between the terms sex and gender.