Editing Gender identity

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'''Gender identity''' is the experience of one's own gender, regardless of physical characteristics ([[sex]]), intentional appearance and behavior ([[gender expression]]), or [[sexual orientation]]. Most people identify as the gender that they were [[Sex#gender assigned at birth|assigned at birth]], which is called being [[cisgender]]. [[Transgender]] people don't identify as the genders they were assigned at birth.

All societies and cultures have certain categories that people use to express their gender. In the western culture (i.e. Europe, America, Australia...) these categories are typically [[male]] and [[female]] ([[Binarism]]).  There are, however, other societies that have more than two recognized gender identities.

== Binary genders ==
''See main article: [[binary genders]]''

Western society uses the [[gender binary]] system of categorizing all people into only one of the binary genders: [[female]] (woman) and [[male]] (man). The gender binary system is coercive and limiting, but the binary genders themselves are valid identities.

== Nonbinary genders ==
''See main article: [[nonbinary gender]]''

[[Nonbinary gender]] is any gender that exists outside of the gender binary. That is, any gender not described by just "male" or "female". Even in societies that recognize only two genders, there are still people who find that they don't fit into those two. Despite the lack of recognition of nonbinary genders in Western [[Binarism|binarist]] society, nonbinary genders are still valid identities.

Nonbinary gender identities are not recognised by most people in the western society, but there are societies where a third (or even more) gender is recognised: for example, [[Two-spirit]] (native Americans), [[Hijra]] (India) or the [[Gender in Bugis society|five genders of the Bugis people]] in Indonesia (''makkunrai'', ''oroané'', ''bissu'', ''calabai'', and ''calalai'').

== Fluidity ==
Gender identity can remain the same or change over the course of an individual's life.

[[Genderfluid]] people experience frequent changes in their gender identity, as often as monthly, weekly, or even several times a day. Genderfluid is a broad category of gender identities that share the characteristic of frequent change. This category can include [[multigender]] identities, such as [[bigender]], depending on how an individual defines themself under those terms.

However, other people have the same gender identity throughout their entire life, with little to no change. It depends on the individual.

[[Category:Concepts]]