Seeing Gender Identity

• Levensbeschouwing
• Middelbare school
• havo, vwo
• Leerjaar 2

Seeing Gender Identity

Look at the image and write down:
- Feelings: What am I feeling looking at this?
- Thoughts/assumptions: What is running through my mind?
- Questions: What do I wonder about this person?

What do you think the common response to this person is?

Think about your answer to the last question. Write down: What in our culture might make us feel this way?

Where do we learn about what men and women should look like?

Gender 

•Gender Identity: How one identifies on the inside (man, woman, both, neither, somewhere in between)

•Gender Expression: How we show gender through hairstyle, clothes, voice, etc.

For both: Does not always meet expectations!

This person is ...

1. A transgender women
2. Non-binary
3. A transgender man
4. A woman who survived breast cancer

This person is ...

1. A transgender women
2. Non-binary
3. A transgender man
4. A woman who survived breast cancer

Non-binary?

Some people don’t feel like they fully fit into the category of “boy” or “girl.” They might feel like a bit of both, neither, or something different altogether. These people might call themselves non-binary.

Just like there isn’t only vanilla and chocolate ice cream, gender isn’t just “male” or “female” — there are more flavours! Non-binary is a way of saying, “I don’t feel like I fit in the two boxes society usually gives us.”

Some non-binary people:

Use they/them pronouns (instead of he or she).

Dress in ways that don’t match typical ideas of “male” or “female.”

Just want to be seen and treated as themselves — not as a boy or a girl

This person is ...

1. A transgender woman
2. Non-binary
3. A transgender man
4. A man

A man who looks like a woman?

The person on the last slide is an American-Vietnamese Drag Queen - an artists who performs in woman's clothes.

He was born male and identifies as male. He simply dresses up as a woman as a form of art - to express other sides of himself.

This person is...

1. A transgender woman
2. Non-binary
3. A transgender man
4. A woman

Transgender?

When a baby is born, people usually say “It’s a boy!” or “It’s a girl!” based on their body. But as kids grow up, some realize that how they feel inside doesn’t match the gender they were given at birth.

A transgender person is someone who says:

“I was told I’m a boy, but I actually feel like a girl.”. Or

“I was told I’m a girl, but I know I’m a boy.” Or

“I don’t feel like either. I’m just me.”

That’s what being transgender, or trans, means — your gender identity (how you feel inside) is different from what people expected when you were born. Some transgenders will start hormone therapy or undergo surgery to let their outside (their expression) match better with their inside (their identity).