Chapter Highlights for My Life, My Body: Sex Ed Made Easy - Biological Sex and Gender

Welcome to the next blog in the series - Chapter Highlights for My Life, My Body: Sex Ed Made Easy.

This blog is about chapter twelve - Biological Sex and Gender.

What is the difference between biological sex and gender?

What is intersex?

Why does it matter?

What if I feel like I am different?

These are all valid questions around biological sex and gender. Many people do not know there is a difference between biological sex and gender, so here is a quick explanation of the difference.

Biological Sex - the assigned sex at birth according to external genitals - male (penis) and female (vulva). Everyone is assigned either male or female at birth.

Gender - This one is a little more complicated for some, gender is a performative role we take on throughout life. Gender is girl, woman, boy, man and non-binary. Research shows us that by the age of 4, we know if we are a boy or girl and that in most cases, it aligns with our biological sex. Female - Woman and Male - Man.

Where people struggle is when the gender they are, doesn’t fit with how they feel. Some people feel like they are another gender which is where they could explore what being transgender could mean for them, or they feel like they fit neither woman or man and fit somewhere between them as a non-binary person.

Where the child is born intersex (when the external genitals are identified as neither male or female), the parents have the opportunity to assign a sex at birth. Usually the child is then raised with the gender that is aligned with the chosen sex.

Intersex is a condition that has over 40 variations and is not always identifiable at birth. For some people, they are not aware of the condition until they either have a delayed start in puberty, or want to have children and come across difficulties conceiving.

Intersex people are often stigmatised and discriminated against, for simply existing. As are non-binary and transgender people.

So, we have a short explanation of biological sex, gender and intersex variations in this blog but the chapter in My Life, My Body: Sex Ed Made Easy breaks down more in-depth information into an easy to understand format.

We also learn about common pronouns she/he/they and that we can only control our own pronouns and must respect other people’s pronouns.

While the chapter is informative, the underlying tone is respect. Respecting other people for who they are and not what we want them to be.

My life, My Body: Sex Ed Made Easy is available now to download onto a phone, iPad or tablet device.

Not only does it make comprehensive sexual health education easy, it also supports the reader to have privacy while learning.