Title: Has Gender Always Been Binary? | Psychology Today
Headings: Has Gender Always Been Binary?
Karen L. Blair Ph.D.
Has Gender Always Been Binary?
Gender has historically been viewed in a more fluid manner.

Content: This isn't to say that there is no such thing as a male dog or a female dog, but rather, it emphasizes our cultural investment in perceiving someone's (or some dog's) gender correctly and using that piece of information as an overarching tool through which to understand the person or dog that we have just encountered. Yet, while the gender binary is certainly well anchored within society and our social mores, there is actually a long history of gender not being viewed in such a black and white manner. Indeed, many indigenous cultures around the globe held more fluid and dynamic understandings of gender before encountering Western theories of gender. Even within Western cultures, the characteristics associated with one gender or the other have changed stripes so many times through history that it is almost surprising how adamantly we now argue that heels, wigs, makeup, and the color pink are only for women and girls, when all of these things were previously reserved only for men and boys. Thus, while it may seem like discussions about non-binary understandings of gender and acceptance of gender nonconforming behavior are new additions to the daily dialogue, there is perhaps more in our collective past to point us towards a more diverse understanding of gender than there is to keep us focused on rigidly defined, binary gender roles. article continues after advertisement
While these topics seem to come up most frequently when discussing transgender and non-binary individuals and their respective rights, as well as the controversies that surround their ability to access those rights, the concept of dismantling a binary view of gender is actually one that applies to everyone, whether you identify as cisgender (someone whose gender identity and expression is the same as the sex they were assigned at birth), transgender (someone whose gender identity and/or expression is different from the sex they were assigned at birth), non-binary (someone who does not define their gender based on the binaries of men and women) or agender (someone who identifies as not having a gender). Adopting a more open and fluid understanding of gender certainly makes it easier to accept transgender, non-binary and agender individuals, but it also makes it easier to be accepting of anyone who possesses, expresses, or desires qualities that have previously been earmarked as being the prevue of only one gender or the other. In my next few posts, I will be exploring some recent research related to the gender binary, including a study that examined whether an individual’s gender non-conforming behavior is seen as more or less threatening when the individual is transgender vs. cisgender and a recent symposium that explored the experiences of transgender and gender nonconforming individuals around the globe. SHARE
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Can you explain the
Submitted by Caiti on September 17, 2018 - 1:15am
Can you explain the difference between non binary and agender please? Is the former like saying you are a mix of genders and the latter is not feeling like you have any gendered traits?