Gender

Gender refers to a person's experience of their identity relative to the categories of [./https://gender.wikia.org/wiki/Masculinity masculinity] and [./https://gender.wikia.org/wiki/Femininity femininity]. Every person's gender is a complex and unique experience, and it can be difficult to express this gender to others. Some parts of the experience of gender include:


 * [./https://gender.wikia.org/wiki/Gender_identity Gender identity]: How a person thinks of their own gender within themselves. In nearly all circumstances, this is what is meant when discussing 'gender'. Gender identity is a personal choice and cannot be dictated by others.


 * [./https://gender.wikia.org/wiki/Gender_expression Gender expression]: The way a person chooses to present themselves to others in order to communicate their gender.
 * [./https://gender.wikia.org/wiki/Sex Sex]: The way the person's physical body reflects characteristics associated with gender. [./https://gender.wikia.org/wiki/Gender_v_Sex Sex and gender identity] are often conflated, but are separate in that sex is physical whereas gender is psychological.


 * Relationship to [./https://gender.wikia.org/wiki/Gender_roles gender roles]: The way a person views the roles that society expects them to play based on their gender.


 * [./https://gender.wikia.org/wiki/Dysphoria Dysphoria]: Discomfort with any of the above, or a desire to change any aspects of one's gender ([./https://gender.wikia.org/wiki/Transition transition]).

Gender is not related to [./https://gender.wikia.org/wiki/Sexual_orientation sexual orientation], except in that societal [./https://gender.wikia.org/wiki/Gender_roles gender roles] might include the expectation of sexual attraction to a particular gender.

As humans are a sexually dimorphic species, societies tend to be largely influenced by a [./https://gender.wikia.org/wiki/Gender_binary gender binary], which assumes that all people can be categorized via their sexual characteristics as either [./https://gender.wikia.org/wiki/Male male] or [./https://gender.wikia.org/wiki/Female female]. However, there are many people who [./https://gender.wikia.org/wiki/Transgender do not identify with their assigned sex], or consider their gender to be [./https://gender.wikia.org/wiki/Non-binary outside of the binary].

Because gender is a personal experience which cannot be shared directly, many find it challenging to imagine that others experience gender differently to the way they do, which often leads to gender-based discrimination.