Bigender

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Bigender (bi+gender) is a tendency to move between feminine and masculine gender-typed behaviour depending on context, expressing a distinctly "en femme" persona and a distinctly "en homme" persona, feminine and masculine respectively. It is a subset of transgender. It is recognized by the APA as a subset of the transgendered group.^[1] A 1999 survey conducted by the San Francisco Department of Public Health observed that, among the transgendered community, less than 3% of those who were genetic males and less than 8% of those who were genetic females identified as bigender.^[2]

While an androgynous person retains the same gender-typed behaviour across situations, the bigendered person consciously or unconsciously changes their gender-role behaviour from primarily masculine to primarily feminine, or vice versa.

Use of term

It is worth noting that this concept emerged from within the transgender community itself, rather than being adopted after it was created by another sub-culture (for example, transsexual was defined first by the mental health community).

Because bigender is still a self-applied label, it is not possible to give a definitive outline of the typical bigender. Any description of a bigender is just an example of what someone who identifies as bigender might be like. Although there are patterns, the only firm characteristic is the sense of dual gender.

Expression

Some express their bigender identity through crossdressing or performing as a drag king/drag queen; others may adopt a strictly masculine, feminine, or androgynous appearance and experience the shift between genders on a purely mental, or only subtly physical, level.

Sexual orientation

It might seem that a bigender identity must go with a bisexual identity but gender identity and sexual orientation are independent. It is possible to be bigender and not bisexual, or bisexual but not bigender.

For some bigender people, labels like gay, lesbian or bisexual can seem less relevant or satisfactory due to their focus on physiological sex. Some might prefer terms that refer to gender (see Gynephilia and androphilia) while others might prefer to not specify a sexual orientation at all. Since bigender is a gender-related term, not an erotic one, a bigender person can, of course, be asexual.

Popular culture

While performers such as David Bowie and Boy George are known for combining masculine and feminine aspects, performers who switch between a primarily masculine or feminine image, such as Eddie Izzard, Chris Crocker^[3] and Annie Lennox, better fit the bigender label. Crossdressing is not always related to gender identity, however.

Multiplicity involving Multiple Genders

When two or more people share one body and are of different genders, as opposed to the sense of one person sometimes experiencing themselves as masculine and sometimes as feminine, they may use the term "bigender" to describe themselves in the event that the two people are of different genders. In this situation, at times when the person who is of the opposite gender to the body sex is dominant, they may experience similar feelings to a transsexual.

See also

• List of transgender-related topics

Notes