• Question: How many genders are there?

    Asked by James to Adrian, Iroise, Joe, Rachel, Ria on 10 Nov 2016. This question was also asked by Mark, Dan.
    • Photo: Joe Bathelt

      Joe Bathelt answered on 10 Nov 2016:

      This question is more difficult when it appears at first glance. First, there is a distinction between biological sex and gender, which is a societal or personal definition of identity. On the biological side, there are the two sexes (male, female), but in rare cases, this difference is not that clear. Then, there are also different biological markers. Someone could be classified based on their genetic make-up (XY, XX) or on their body, i.e. genitals. However, these might not agree for certain genetic conditions.

      As for the question of gender, people may identify as a different gender compared to the one assigned to them through biology or society. Some people may not even be comfortable being assigned to any gender.

    • Photo: Ria Vaportzis

      Ria Vaportzis answered on 10 Nov 2016:

      Although we tend to talk about males and females based on people’s biological characteristics, we have been moving away from this binary distinction. I recently developed a survey and I collect demographic information. The question regarding gender is: “To which gender identity do you identify the most?” The possible responses are: ” Male, Female, Other” In Other, participants can write whatever gender they identify the most. Some examples may be transgender, androgynous, and bigender.

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