Research Summary

"A stereotype is a widely accepted judgment or bias about a person or group — even though it’s overly simplified and not always accurate."

In the context of gender stereotype, there are four basic types: personality traits, domestic behaviors, occupations and physical appearance. The exaggerated gender stereotypes lead to personal internal struggles and abusive relationships. To clearify, since any gender outsie of the binary are negatively considered by the public for breaking the "gender" stereotypes, the stereotypes are also very binary. Hoever, gender is much more complicated. "Gender is the complex interrelationship between three dimensions:" body, identiy and expression. The body is the biological sex, but even that is not just male and female, there's also intersex. The identity is one's internal experiance; one can be man, woman, both, neither, or anywhere in between those. "Descriptors for gender identities are rapidly expanding." Finally expression, which refers to how one present themselves to others around them. This catagory is effected by society and stereotypes the most. People make assumptions of others' genders based on their expression of themsleves according to society norms and stereotypes.

Sexual orientation is often confused with gender identity but is completely different and almost unrelated. Their relation mostly comes from the societal concept of homosexualality. Many people tend to confuse a transgender person to be homosexual because stereotypically gay men are more feminine than straight men, and lesbian women are more masculine. However, "Sexual Orientation is a term used to describe our patterns of emotional, romantic, and sexual attraction—and our sense of personal and social identity based on those attractions." In regards to stereotyes, there are four "sets of nonverbal cues" people use to catagories someone's sexual orientation: "adornment, actions, acoustics, and appearance." Adornment is how people dress or generally how they present themselves; action is simply their mannerisms; acoustics is how someone sound besides the content of their speech, and finally appearance is the facial characteristics. Interestingly enough, homophobic people are less likely to correctly judge others' sexual orientation while being more confident about their judgement, where as straight people who have gay friends are more likely to be correct but less confident.

As a side note, I am personally offended by how loosely people use the term gender, even scholars and respectable feminist organizations. When people write about "gender gap", they mean the ratio between men and women, and nothing about any other gender is mentioned, which, to me, means the correct phrase should've been "sex gap".