What Is Gender?

Not too long ago, gender was an easy and simple thing to understand. Babies were born and parents were proud to announce their new son or daughter. There were girls or boys, pink or blue. Hiding behind those labels though were kids who felt differently then their assigned gender. Thankfully, those rigid gender titles and roles are relaxing and embracing differences. Now girls are more free to love girls, boys are more free to love boys, kids can change gender through the miracles of modern medicine or they can choose to be non binary (not identifying under any particular sex). Pronouns like he, she, them are used fluidly and are chosen rather than assigned. For some of us older population this business may seem confusing or difficult to comprehend. That’s ok. What’s important is that we attempt to understand and we support our youth with any choices, decisions or questions they may have. Life and gender are not black or white but thankfully more like a rainbow, beautiful and colourful!

The most difficult thing to possibly get used to is using the pronoun they/them when referring to a single person. It’s easy to stray to the familiar him/her or she/he. I hope our young can be patient with us older generation as we get more comfortable with the new use of these terms as we were once patient with them when they were learning something new as a child. Hopefully the following images will help anyone who is still coming to terms with pronouns being used in a new way. Check out the information below: