Gender expression

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Gender expression or gender performance is "The way in which a person expresses their gender identity through clothing, behavior, posture, mannerisms, speech patterns, activities and more." Within the gender binary, the two main categories of gender expression are feminine (femininity) and masculine (masculinity). Additionally, a gender expression can be androgynous (androgyny), though there is no agreement on whether androgyny means a lack of gender markers, or a mix of feminine and masculine gender markers. A feminine person isn't necessarily female, a masculine person isn't necessarily male, and an androgynous person isn't necessarily an androgyne or nonbinary.

Femininity

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Femininity is traditionally associated with womanhood and girlhood. This can include things like long hair, dresses, floral patterns, softness, long nails. People who present feminine often incorporate things that are associate with femininity into their appearance. Being open about your emotions, and expressing yourself in a tactile way is usually considered feminine. Girls are often socialized in a different way compared to boys, which results in a huge rift between how the different groups interact, or handle things like feelings and platonic relationships.

Some gender identities and gender expressions that are usually defined as feminine include femme, demigirl, and trans-feminine.

Masculinity

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Masculinity is often associated with rougher things than femininity. Confidence, violence, and being emotionally closed off are often traditionally masculine traits, which together with most boys being socialized differently results in a huge rift between how the different groups interact, or handle things like feelings and platonic relationships.

Some masculine gender identities and expressions include butch, and by some definitions, boi and demiboy.

Androgyny

See main article androgyny.

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Androgyny is the "in between" of femininity and masculinity, where a person doesn't look fully like one gender or the other. Being androgynous or wanting to present that way doesn't always entail nonbinaryson is nonbinary, and being nonbinary doesn't have to come with presenting androgynous.

Also called epicene.

Some androgynous gender identities and expressions include androgyne, bigender, genderqueer, and intergender, although this depends on the individual's definition.

See also

• Transition
• Gender nonconformity