This section contains a list of key terms that appeared throughout the chapter. See how many you can reframe within the context of the pieces we discussed.

• binary: consisting of two things; gender binary is a limited system of gender classification that includes only males or females.
• cisgender: an individual whose gender identity aligns with the one typically associated with the sex assigned to them at birth; a term that is preferable to “non-trans,” “biological,” or “natal” man or woman (Yale School of Medicine).
• emphasized femininity: the dominant or idealized femininity in a specific historical and cultural context, sometimes also referred to as traditional femininity.
• gatekeeping: a means of controlling access to goods and services but particularly to information and people with power.
• gender-affirming care: A supportive form of care that may include different things like medical, mental health, or surgical care for transgender and queer individuals.
• gender dysphoria: a medical/psychological diagnosis that describes a distressed state arising from conflict between a person’s gender identity and the sex the person has or was identified as having at birth.
• gender expression: the way a person communicates their gender identity, typically through their appearance, dress, and behavior that may or may not fit into socially defined masculine or feminine binary ideals.
• gender fluid: an individual who does not have a fixed gender.
• Genderqueer: A gender identity and expression that falls outside the binary/non-normative labels and spaces.
• gender identity: one’s innermost feeling of maleness, femaleness, a blend of both, or neither that may be the same or different from their sex assigned at birth.
• gender nonconforming: a person who views their gender identity as one of many possible genders beyond strictly female or male.
• hegemonic masculinity: the dominant or idealized masculinity in a specific historical and cultural context, also referred to as “traditional masculinity.”
• hegemony: the influence or authority that one dominant social group holds over others.
• heteronormativity: the societal view that promotes heterosexuality as normal and preferred; also includes expected behaviors around heterosexual norms, relates also to sexuality and straightness.
• intersex: a person whose biological sex may be ambiguous due to genetic, hormonal, or anatomical variations (e.g., Klinefelter Syndrome, Adrenal Hyperplasia).
• medicalization: the idea and/or process where a condition or set of conditions becomes medical and systemically studied, diagnosed, and/or treated.
• Queer: an identity term that refers to a non-categorical sexual identity; it is also an umbrella term for all LGBTQIA+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual, and others) individuals.
• secondary sex characteristics: any physical characteristic developing at puberty that distinguishes between the sexes but is not directly involved in reproduction.
• sex (biological sex): a classification of individuals as males and females based on biological, anatomical, and chromosomal differences.
• sexuality: a person’s capacity for sexual feelings.
• sexual orientation/sexual identity: a person’s physical, mental, emotional, and sexual attraction to a other humans.
• sexually dimorphic traits: the condition where the sexes of the same species exhibit different characteristics, particularly characteristics not directly involved in reproduction, including secondary sex characteristics.
• social construct: an idea that has been created and accepted by the people in a society.
• transgender: a person whose gender expression does not conform to the cultural norms and/or whose gender identity is different from their sex assigned at birth.