In recent years, the issue of gender identity has gradually attracted everyone’s attention, and many Hollywood stars have bravely come forward to express their sexual orientation, such as Canadian movie star Elliot Page, who announced that he is transgender in 2020, and actors who have appeared in Luke Evans from “Fast & Furious 6” and Kristen Stewart from “The Twilight Saga” both admitted to coming out.

Many people are still confused when talking about gender identity. They don’t understand the difference between biological sex and gender identity. Not understanding what “biological female” and “transgender” are, thus causing trans women to encounter many difficulties in real life. What is the difference between biological sex and gender identity? What are the difficulties faced by biological women? Let us take you to find out!

What is gender identity? What is the difference with biological sex?

Gender identity refers to the gender that the person subjectively identifies as, such as male, female, intersex, or somewhere in between, rather than being determined by biological sex. Biological gender is defined through the physical differences between male and female. differences in sexual characteristics.

Children have the concept of gender identity when they are about 2 years old, and will judge male or female based on the external characteristics of others; when they are 6 to 7 years old, they will enter the gender constancy stage and begin to accept their biological sex and play social gender roles. Psychological and biological gender are consistent; in adolescence, a small number of people will be affected by social values ​​​​or environmental expectations, and they will need to wait until adulthood to gradually determine their gender identity.

Bullying, verbal discrimination, three major problems often faced by “biological girls”

In today’s society, many people still have stereotypes about women. They believe that they must be beautiful in appearance and gentle and graceful in their words and deeds. They even regard “heterosexuality” as an eternal law of sexual orientation, resulting in “Biologically female and psychologically male” (also known as transgender men) who are biologically female and whose gender identity is male face many problems in real society, including workplace or school bullying, and not knowing whether to go to the men’s or women’s bathroom when using the restroom. toilets, and unintentional verbal discrimination from others in daily life.

More than half of transgender people have had the experience of being afraid to go to the toilet in daily life; even if up to 24% of transgender people are sick, they often choose to delay or be unwilling to seek medical treatment because of their gender identity. In addition, nearly 20% have experienced being harassed or attacked in public spaces.

How to solve the problems faced by “biological women”?

Whether in the workplace, on campus, or in public places, unfair treatment of “biologically female” transgender people often occurs. Here are several ways to deal with the three major problems mentioned above:

Encountering workplace or school bullying

A few years ago, a junior high school girl was often humiliated by her seniors at school because she dressed unisexly, calling her a “pervert and a freak.” On her way out of school, she was even forced into a dark alley by her seniors, who insulted her and threw insults at her. drinks, and after the sexual bullying incident was revealed, the senior sister actually said: “It was just a joke!”

Not only this junior high school girl, but also many “biological girls” who dress neutrally have often been sexually bullied since childhood because of their gender temperament and sexual orientation. The so-called sexual bullying refers to the behavior of belittling, attacking or threatening others’ sexual characteristics, gender temperament or sexual orientation through verbal, physical or other violence.

In order to prevent the recurrence of sexual bullying incidents, in addition to strengthening the promotion of gender equality education courses, the government has also formulated the “School Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Prevention Guidelines” to make more detailed plans for campus safety, including regular reviews of the planning of campus spaces and facilities. , record the space where sexual bullying incidents have occurred on campus, and strengthen the complaint channels for sexual bullying victims or reporters to protect the rights of victims.

In addition, sexual bullying may also exist in the workplace, when the bully inflicts physical harm on the bullied person, causing the bullied person to be injured, or insults the bullied person through words or online messages. If the bully’s reputation is damaged, the bully can request damages from the bully in accordance with Articles of the Criminal Law.

Should I go to the women’s room or the men’s room?

Transgender biological women often decide to go to the women’s restroom according to their biological gender in order to avoid being looked at differently by others. However, in response to the needs of people with multiple genders, gender-friendly toilets have been installed in some public places.

Although gender-friendly toilets are not yet widespread, with the promotion of gender equality education and the government’s efforts to be gender-friendly, gender-friendly toilets have been expanded to more public places.

“You are more manly than boys!” Is this a compliment or verbal bullying?

When many people praise female-to-male transgender people, they unintentionally use expressions that may be discriminatory, causing the other person to be embarrassed or even hurt internally.

For example, today a transgender man dressed up very handsomely, but someone said to him: “Wow! You did such a successful job! You are more manly than a boy, and you can’t even tell that he is a woman!” However, this sentence seems to Sincere praise will not only fail to make the other person confident, but will make him think that this person is full of discrimination against him.

If you see transgender men and want to compliment them, you might as well say simply: “You are handsome today!” or “You have great taste!” and other statements that do not emphasize your transgender identity, not only can Make the other party happy and avoid misunderstanding by the other party.

Gender Identity Disorder

What used to be known as Gender Identity Disorder is now termed Gender Dysphoria and is the stress between one assigned gender and one’s gender identity. 

It is described as a distressful experience due to incongruence between one’s gender identity and the gender one was assigned at birth. 

There are feelings of estrangement in an individual’s own body and oftentimes, a person with Gender Dysphoria feels a sense of detachment from their true identity.