Gender bender is an informal term used to refer to a person who actively transgresses, or "bends," expected gender roles. Gender bending is sometimes a form of social activism undertaken in response to assumptions or over-generalisations about genders. Some gender benders identify with the gender assigned them at birth, but challenge the norms of that gender through androgynous behavior and atypical gender roles. Gender benders may self-identify as transgender or genderqueer, feeling that the gender assigned to them at their birth is an inaccurate or incomplete description of themselves; some are transsexual and desire to change their physical sex through hormone therapy or sex reassignment surgery, while others were born intersexual.
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Famous quotes containing the words gender and/or bender:
“But there, where I have garnered up my heart,
Where either I must live or bear no life;
The fountain from the which my current runs
Or else dries up: to be discarded thence,
Or keep it as a cistern for foul toads
To knot and gender in!”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“Despite compelling evidence that she will be working at 35, by choice or necessity, today’s 21-year-old woman has difficulty looking beyond the ceremonies of her marriage and her babies’ christenings.”
—Marilyn Bender (b. 1925)