Editing Gender (section)

==== Societal categories ====
{{infobox symbol
|name           = [[Gender symbols]]
|mark=[[File:Venus symbol (fixed width).svg|60px|♀]] [[File:Male symbol (fixed width).svg|60px|♂]] [[File:Male and female sign.svg|60px|⚥]]<br>[[File:Fire symbol (alchemical).svg|60px|△]] [[File:Square symbol.svg|60px|□]] [[File:Full moon symbol.svg|60px|○]]
|unicode=
}}

[[File:Mollcutpurse.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Mary Frith]] ("Moll Cutpurse") scandalized 17th century society by wearing male clothing, smoking in public, and otherwise defying gender roles.]]
Sexologist John Money [[Neologism|coined the term]] ''gender role'' in 1955. The term ''[[gender role]]'' is defined as the actions or responses that may reveal their status as boy, man, girl or woman, respectively.<ref name="drescher" /> Elements surrounding gender roles include clothing, speech patterns, movement, occupations, and other factors not limited to biological sex. In contrast to taxonomic approaches, some feminist philosophers have argued that gender "is a vast orchestration of subtle mediations between oneself and others", rather than a "private cause behind manifest behaviours".<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Laurie |first=Timothy |year=2014 |title=The Ethics of Nobody I Know: Gender and the Politics of Description |url=https://www.academia.edu/6262250 |url-status=live |journal=Qualitative Research Journal |volume=14 |issue=1 |pages=64–78 |doi=10.1108/qrj-03-2014-0011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211102041812/https://www.academia.edu/6262250 |archive-date=2 November 2021 |access-date=20 June 2015 |hdl-access=free |hdl=10453/44221}}</ref>

===== Non-binary and third genders =====
{{main|Genderqueer|Third gender}}
Historically, most societies have recognized only two distinct, broad classes of gender roles, a [[gender binary|binary]] of masculine and feminine, largely corresponding to the biological sexes of male and female.<ref name="Nadal-re-binary" /><ref name="Llorente-re-binary">Maria Llorente, ''Culture, Heritage, and Diversity in Older Adult Mental Health Care'' (2018, {{ISBN|1615372059}}), p. 184: "Historically, in many, if not most, cultures, gender traditionally has been conceived as binary, but the modern and preferred understanding is that gender actually occurs on a spectrum."</ref><ref>Marie L. Miville, Angela D. Ferguson, ''Handbook of Race-Ethnicity and Gender in Psychology'' (2014, {{ISBN|1461488605}}), p. 47: "In Western societies, as in many regions of the world, gender has been historically conceptualized and constructed as a binary (being either "male" or "female") largely determined by both biological (genetic and hormonal) and social cognitive (social, cultural reinforcement, and modeling of gendered behaviour)."</ref> When a baby is born, society allocates the child to one gender or the other, on the basis of what their genitals resemble.<ref name="Birke, Lynda 2001" />

However, some societies have historically acknowledged and even honored people who fulfill a gender role that exists more in the middle of the continuum between the feminine and masculine polarity. For example, the Hawaiian [[māhū]], who occupy "a place in the middle" between male and female,<ref>{{cite web |date=27 May 2014 |title=Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu – TedxMaui |url=https://tedxmaui.com/hinaleimoana-wong-kalu/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200504061735/https://tedxmaui.com/hinaleimoana-wong-kalu/ |archive-date=4 May 2020 |access-date=17 February 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Intersections: Transgender, Queens, Mahu, Whatever': An Oral History from Hawai'i |url=https://intersections.anu.edu.au/issue6/matzner.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200712194953/https://intersections.anu.edu.au/issue6/matzner.html |archive-date=12 July 2020 |access-date=17 February 2022}}</ref> or the [[Ojibwe language|Ojibwe]] ''ikwekaazo'', "men who choose to function as women",<ref name="Treur2011">{{cite book |last1=Treuer |first1=Anton |title=The Assassination of Hole in the Day |date=2011 |publisher=Borealis Books |isbn=978-0873518017 |chapter=Women and Gender |access-date=17 October 2016 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1aIrg3wiUyoC |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210227120241/https://books.google.com/books?id=1aIrg3wiUyoC |archive-date=27 February 2021 |url-status=live}}</ref> or ''ininiikaazo'', "women who function as men".<ref name="Treur2011" /> In the language of the [[sociology of gender]], some of these people may be considered [[third gender]], especially by those in gender studies or anthropology. Contemporary [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American]] and [[FNIM]] people who fulfill these traditional roles in their communities may also participate in the modern, [[two-spirit]] community,<ref>{{Cite book |title=Third Sex Third Gender: Beyond Sexual Dimorphism in Culture and History |publisher=Zone Books |year=1996 |isbn=978-0-942299-82-3 |editor=Gilbert Herdt |oclc=35293440}}</ref> however, these umbrella terms, neologisms, and ways of viewing gender are not necessarily the type of cultural constructs that more traditional members of these communities agree with.<ref name="Kehoe">{{cite web |last=Kehoe |first=Alice B. |author-link=Alice Beck Kehoe |date=2002 |title=Appropriate Terms |url=https://www.saa.org/publications/saabulletin/16-2/saa14.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041105120021/https://www.saa.org/publications/saabulletin/16-2/saa14.html |archive-date=5 November 2004 |access-date=2019-05-01 |work=SAA Bulletin |publisher=Society for American Archaeology 16(2), [[UC-Santa Barbara]] |issn=0741-5672 |quote=At the conferences that produced the book, ''Two-Spirited People'', I heard several First Nations people describe themselves as very much unitary, neither "male" nor "female," much less a pair in one body. Nor did they report an assumption of duality within one body as a common concept within reservation communities; rather, people confided dismay at the Western proclivity for dichotomies. Outside Indo-European-speaking societies, "gender" would not be relevant to the social personae glosses "men" and "women," and "third gender" likely would be meaningless. The unsavory word "berdache" certainly ought to be ditched (Jacobs et al. 1997:3–5), but the urban American neologism "two-spirit" can be misleading.}}</ref>

The [[hijra (South Asia)|hijras]] of [[India]] and [[Pakistan]] are often cited as [[third gender]].<ref>[[Serena Nanda|Nanda, Serena]] (1998). ''Neither Man Nor Woman: The Hijras of India''. Wadsworth Publishing. {{ISBN|0-534-50903-7}}</ref><ref>Reddy, Gayatri (2005). ''With Respect to Sex: Negotiating Hijra Identity in South India.'' (Worlds of Desire: The Chicago Series on Sexuality, Gender, and Culture), University of Chicago Press (2005). {{ISBN|0-226-70756-3}}</ref> Another example may be the [[muxe]] (pronounced {{IPA|zap|ˈmuʃe|}}), found in the state of Oaxaca, in southern Mexico.<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/07/weekinreview/07lacey.html "A lifestyle distinct: the Muxe of Mexico,"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200424055510/https://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/07/weekinreview/07lacey.html|date=24 April 2020}} ''New York Times'', 6 December 2008.</ref> The [[Bugis]] people of [[Sulawesi]], [[Indonesia]] have [[Gender in Bugis society|a tradition]] that incorporates all the features above.<ref>Graham, Sharyn (April–June 2001) [https://www.insideindonesia.org/edit66/bissu2.htm Sulawesi's Fifth Gender] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060618180935/https://www.insideindonesia.org/edit66/bissu2.htm|date=18 June 2006}}. ''Inside Indonesia''.</ref>

In addition to these traditionally recognized third genders, many cultures now recognize, to differing degrees, various [[genderqueer|non-binary gender identities]]. People who are non-binary (or genderqueer) have gender identities that are not exclusively masculine or feminine. They may identify as having an overlap of gender identities, having two or more genders, having no gender, having a fluctuating gender identity, or being third gender or other-gendered. Recognition of non-binary genders is still somewhat new to mainstream Western culture,<ref>McGee, R. Jon and Richard L. Warms (2011). Anthropological Theory: An Introductory History. New York, McGraw Hill.</ref> and non-binary people may face increased risk of assault, harassment, and discrimination.<ref name="Harrison2011">{{cite journal |author1=Jack Harrison |author2=Jaime Grant |author3=Jody L. Herman |year=2011–2012 |title=A Gender Not Listed Here: Genderqueers, Gender Rebels, and Otherwise in the National Transgender Discrimination Survey |url=https://www.thetaskforce.org/downloads/release_materials/agendernotlistedhere.pdf |url-status=dead |journal=LGBTQ Policy Journal |volume=2 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120725182217/https://www.thetaskforce.org/downloads/release_materials/agendernotlistedhere.pdf |archive-date=25 July 2012 |access-date=20 December 2017}}</ref>