Sexual identity It is the own and immutable conscience of belonging to one sex or another, that is, to be male or female.
Formation of sexual identity
The formation of sexual identity is a complex process that begins at conception, but becomes key during the gestation process and even in life experiences after birth.
There are many factors and quite a few combinations of them that can lead to confusion, but tradition in most societies insists on cataloging each individual by the appearance of their genitalia. For this reason, many conflicts arise in people born with intersex traits. If, for example, a person is socially assigned the sexual identity of a man, but his genitalia are female, this person may experience what has been called gender dysphoria, that is, a deep disagreement with the gender role that you have to live.
Some studies indicate that sexual identity is fixed in early childhood (not beyond 2 or 3 years) and thereafter is immutable. This conclusion is generally obtained by asking transsexual people when they first realized that the sexual identity assigned to them by society does not correspond to the sexual identity with which they identify.
Conflicts with sexual identity
Many people born with combinations of traits of both sexes, that is, they face complications when society mocks or scandalizes their physique, which often happens with intersex people or insists that they assign an individual a sex with the that what usually happens among transsexual people is not identified.
In the case of transgender people, their problems are usually reduced when they can go through the sex reassignment process, which includes sex reassignment surgery, misnamed sex change operation. On the other hand, sexual identity tends to try to differentiate itself from sexual orientation , in which heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual and asexual individuals can occur.
Like sexual orientation, sexual identity cannot be chosen. Wrongly, there are people who define transsexuality with extreme homosexuality ; In other words, according to these people, a transsexual person loves the other sex so much that he ends up identifying with it. However, research in sexology from the Free University of Amsterdam suggests that identity and sexual orientation are completely different facts, which is why transsexuals with different sexual orientations can occur.
In fact, there are studies that indicate that more than 30% of the transsexual population is homosexual or bisexual, well above 5% or 10%, a percentage that usually occurs in the non-transsexual population. In relation to sexual identity, it is also common to speak of gender identity or gender role, that is, the assumption and manifestation of what one feels based on social norms.
Sexism and discrimination
There are probably as many ways of understanding sexual and gender identity as there are humans, however societies tend to classify individuals into immovable compartments and assign them roles that are sometimes very small.
This ethnocentrism is revealed when observing that in some societies there are other kinds of social roles; for example, the Hijra of India are intersex people and are considered the third sex within their culture.
Sometimes the border between sexual identity and gender identity is not very clear. At this point, Queer theory rejects the categorization of the individual into universal categories such as “homosexual”, “heterosexual”, “male” or “female”. According to this theory, people’s sexual orientation and sexual identity are the result of a social construction. If so, there would be no sex roles that are essentially or biologically inscribed in human nature.
Sexism against transsexuals has also recently been identified and has not yet been included in public discourse. Traditionally, transsexuality has been seen as a psychological problem related to a gender identity disorder. However, recent medical research on the brains of transsexuals indicates that the composition of transsexuals often shows the composition of the sex with which the individual identifies rather than the sex of birth. This supports the theory that an individual’s brain can develop in a different sense than their genitalia, so that transsexuality is of innate and not psychological origin. The research also supports the expressions man trapped in the body of a woman and woman trapped in the body of a man.
So, it could be said that sexism is understood as any way of emphasizing the differences between men and women, essentially biological ones, from a discriminatory perspective between the masculine and the feminine. It is considered from this point of view, as an ideology similar to racism, which on the one hand contains prejudices and discriminatory practices towards women and on the other, beliefs taken for granted about the ‘natural’ differences between men and women, which explain their social environments. According to liberal feminists, due to sexism, women are limited and discriminated against from childhood to maturity in such a way that they can only adopt roles specific to their condition. Sexism can be interpreted, therefore, as,the aspect or expression of a society in which women are not only different or unequal, but also oppressed, subordinate, and shaped and used by men. Therefore, sexism is fundamentally a type of invisible discrimination.
Sexism is one of the strongest pillars of patriarchal culture and mentalities, which is why not only men act with sexism, but also women. The most relevant forms in which sexism presents itself are machismo, misogyny, homophobia, and stereotypes.
Relevant forms of sexism Machismo Machismo encompasses the set of attitudes, behaviors, social practices and beliefs designed to justify and promote the maintenance of discriminatory attitudes against women, and against men whose behavior is not ‘adequately’ masculine in the eyes of the macho person.
Traditionally, machismo has been associated with the hierarchization and subordination of family roles in favor of greater comfort and well-being for men. In this sense, the use of any type of violence against women, in order to perpetuate the emotional or hierarchical control of men, is part of machismo. In fact, this can be presented as a form of coercion, not necessarily physical, but psychological, being an expression of discrimination, since the capacities of women are underestimated, alleging that they are weak. Likewise, it punishes any feminine behavior in men, which is the basis of homophobia.
Therefore, men who marginalize, segregate, discriminate and objectify women are macho, although in the same way when they overprotect them and when they use them, they mistreat, frighten, harass and violate, in ways so diverse that they can include even very “gallant” manners.
Misogyny Misogyny, a word that has its origins in Greek, means ‘hatred of women’. It is the aversion or hatred of women, or the ideological or psychological tendency that consists in despising them and, with it, everything that represents femininity.
Similarly, misogyny occurs when women are believed to be inferior to men and even because they are powerless or incapable by nature; likewise when they are harassed, attacked and subjected through the use of patriarchal legitimacy.
Misogyny can also be practiced by women in different situations, among which is a devaluation of their aptitudes to carry out positions, functions or hierarchical positions before men, considering that they have a greater capacity to do so. In the same way, women are misogynistic when they take advantage of the oppression to which they are subjected to abuse, use, exploit, subject or exclude another woman / s and, above all, when it is believed that this attitude is won, without even noticing that this contributes to discriminate against their ‘gender’ through patriarchal power. In short, misogyny is a resource of power that oppresses women, even before acting or existing, just because of their generic condition. Female oppression brings together the articulation, between machismo and misogyny,By interacting, they empower each other.
Homophobia Sexism also finds its expression in homophobia; for example, when it is considered that heterosexuality is superior and positive and, by antagonism, that homosexuality is inferior and negative. That is why homophobia concentrates hostile attitudes and actions towards homosexual people. In many cultures, various forms of violence towards homosexuality are considered legitimate, unquestionable and justified. Sometimes seemingly ‘innocent’ jokes and taunts stereotype people for this condition and attack them.
Stereotypes In the same way, as predetermined social molds used to ‘educate’ people according to their sex –generally through various communication channels–, stereotypes constitute another of the ways in which sexism is expressed. These guidelines, incorporated into the personality and beliefs of individuals, reproduce within them the social structures of power and oppression that have affected the majority of human beings, and women in particular, from the formulation of categories. antagonistic as the stronger sex-weaker sex and the public sphere-private sphere.