Gender is not black and white

The slogan ‘Gender is not black and white’ is intended to start moving away from the idea that there are two types of person: the physically male and the physically female.  The fact that transsexuals exist, people who identify so strongly with the ‘opposite sex’, is evidence that gender identity is based upon much more than just our genitalia.  Some people argue that it is entirely a social construct, but the developing scientific knowledge has something to suggest that it is at least partially to do with our brains.

There are also more ways to be born than XX and XY.  Some people are born XXY, or XYY, or XO.  Last year Channel 4 screened a documentary, ‘Secret Intersex’, which showed the early lives of two sisters with AIS – Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome.  Outwardly they both appeared what we would deem ‘female’ – inwardly, each had a womb but also testes.  Fortunate to have extremely open minded parents they had been brought up to think of themselves as not male, or female, but as ‘intersex’.

Gender is not a black and white construct.

There are more ways to be female than to have female genitalia.

It is possible to be physically ‘somewhere inbetween’ the two sexes but identify more with one than the other.

It is possible to have a body and a gender identity that do not match each other.

This last type of case is the focus of this section, but there is a wealth of information available both online and offline for anybody interested in finding out more about intersex conditions.