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Gender-Affirming Surgery

Any one of a number of surgical procedures intended to alleviate the dissonance between a person’s body and their gender identity. Colloquially, gender-affirming surgery may be referred to as “bottom” or “top” surgery, with bottom surgery pertaining to removal and/or reconstruction of a person’s primary sex characteristics and/or external genitalia, and “top surgery” consisting of removal, reconstruction, or augmentation of the breast tissue. Not all transgender people elect to have surgery as part of their medical transition, and some transgender people choose not to transition at all medically.

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Bodily Autonomy

An ideology that supports a person’s fundamental right to self-governance over their body without external influence or coercion. The concept of bodily autonomy (or bodily integrity) is applicable to a wide range of scenarios, including the freedom to choose one’s family planning options, consensual sexual partners (regardless of gender), and medical treatment. The phrase “my body, my choice” is a feminist slogan that reflects one of the fundamental principles of bodily autonomy.

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Bisexual

A person who is sexually and/or romantically attracted to two or more genders (not necessarily men and women). Bisexual people may feel equal levels of attraction to both (or more) genders or tend to experience attraction to one gender more frequently; however, a person’s gender often factors into their attraction. More recently, the term has been used to describe a level of sexual fluidity in which a person’s attractions may move in one or more directions along a spectrum of sexuality.

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Binding (Chest)

Flattening or reshaping one’s chest with constricting material to minimize the appearance of having breasts and create a more traditionally masculine or androgynous appearance. Some binding methods, including using duct tape or Ace bandages, may pose long-term health risks, including muscle tears, lung damage, and/or rib bruising. Medical-grade binders are made with stretchier, more breathable material, offering some transgender people a lower-risk way to bind. Some transgender people have created community organizations to send other trans people safe, medical-grade binders for free, preventing some of the health problems associated with binding (see our Binding Guide).

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Neurosexism

The misuse of neuroscientific facts to support the notion that women and men are “categorically different by virtue of brain anatomy and neurological functioning” (Dussauge and Kaiser, 2012). Common examples include the traditionalist assertion that cisgender men are neurologically predisposed to have superior spatial reasoning to cisgender women, or that cisgender women are naturally inclined to be more “verbal,” or linguistically oriented, than cisgender men. (See: biological essentialism, gender binary.) Dussauge, Isabelle, and Anelis Kaiser. “Neuroscience and Sex” Neuroethics, vol. 5, December 1, 2012. ResearchGate, 10.1007

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Binary

Refers to two concepts or constructs that are seen as opposed and mutually exclusive. Among transgender communities, the term may refer to the gender binary (see: biological essentialism) or a transgender person who transitions from one binary gender to the other. Hunter is a binary transgender man: although assigned female at birth, he identifies exclusively as male.

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Biological Essentialism

The notion that men and women are naturally and categorically different from one another due to chromosomal, anatomical, endocrinological, and/or neurological variations related to birth assignment. Biological essentialism reinforces the idea that only two sexes and genders exist, defined by a person’s primary and secondary sex characteristics rather than their internal, personal experience of gender (see: gender binary, neurosexism).

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