Sex/Gender binary

Sex/Gender binary

Sex/Gender binary is the act of categorizing people as either male or female based on their biological features, thus giving people their role and status in society. The sex/gender binary creates the challenge of categorizing the minority groups of people in the society, such as intersex people who represent 1% of the population and the transgender community. Therefore this form of categorization promotes inequality and discrimination.  Thus resulting in mental health problems in several individuals who do not fit in the classification of sex/gender binary portrayed through low self-esteem. The existence of intersex community discredits sex/gender binary because the biological basis of categorization is non-comprehensive. Further sex/ gender binary limits the acceptance and integration of minority groups in society.

Reference

Bauer, G. R., Braimoh, J., Scheim, A. I., & Dharma, C. (2017). Transgender-inclusive measures of sex/gender for population surveys: Mixed-methods evaluation and recommendations. PloS one, 12(5), e0178043.

Hyde, J. S., Bigler, R. S., Joel, D., Tate, C. C., & van Anders, S. M. (2019). The future of sex and gender in psychology: Five challenges to the gender binary. American Psychologist, 74(2), 171.