Women's Studies 2244 Lecture Notes - Lecture 16: Heteronormativity, Cisgender, Genderqueer

• School: Western University
• Department: Women's Studies
• Course: Women's Studies 2244
• Professor: Jessica Polzer

Document Summary

Lecture 16 sexual identification and experiences of health and health care. Sex/gender binary - the notion that there are only two possible sexes (male/female) and genders (man/woman), and that they are opposite, distinct and uniform categories. This view also asserts that gender is determined by sex. Sex/assigned sex - sex / assigned sex is the classification of a person as male, female or intersex based on biological characteristics, including chromosomes, hormones, external genitalia and reproductive organs. The reason we say assigned sex versus biological sex is to acknowledge that sex is often a value determined by medical professionals and is commonly assigned to newborns based on visual assessment of external genitalia. Intersex, frequently overlooked in discussions of sex, serves as a reminder that classification of either man" or woman"; in other contexts, this includes a broader often based on their assigned sex.