People may think that gender is black and white, man or woman.

“Gender is fake,” junior Gillian Noffert said.

Gender to many, is how they see themselves, not based on anything biological.

“It means your identity, like how you see yourself, and how you want others to see you,” sophomore Nephele Moore said.

In mainstream history and media, though, gender is the idea of ‘man or woman and nothing in between,’ some don’t want to be part of that restrictive society.

“The word gender, I believe, is a box,” senior Thomas Owens said. “Not many people like being in that box, so I and others believe that box is a trap. And once you leave that box then you’ll be much better off.”

Others see it differently.

“Gender doesn’t really mean anything to me, because I don’t know if I have a gender,” Noffert said.

Society was relegated to the same gender binary, but in recent years, many have begun to break out of that cage and express their gender in different ways. 

Gender expression can be a collection of different things – how you talk, what parts of a song you sing. Often, though, gender expression is showcased in clothing choices.

“I feel more masculine when I wear certain clothes,” Owens said. “It’s the same case for when I feel feminine. Yet even though I might wear clothes that are ‘gendered,’ it’s all just how I feel that day that determines how I actually feel.”

In 1966, John Mooney suggested that the word gender shoud be used to describe the socially constructed differences between men and women, which differed from ‘sex’ which is the biological differences, according to the kinsey institute.  Although based on biological sex, the male and female gender are created by society not by biology.

Biological sex may be used by some to create expectations, but gender is not what creates the expectations. Instead the expectations create gender.

“I like to dress up and do my makeup, but at the end of the day when I look at myself, I don’t see girl or boy, nor do I feel either of those things. I just feel like I’m both and neither at the same time,” Moore said.

Some don’t believe that femininity and masculinity are separate but instead, rely on each other to exist.

“I don’t think that masculinity and femininity aren’t necessarily one or the other, they have to exist together in order to exist properly. So feeling masculine includes feeling feminine and vice versa,” Noffert said.

The idea of the gender spectrum – ranging from masculine to feminine – doesn’t mean you fall into one single spot.

“I identify as gender-fluid but that doesn’t mean that I float through the spectrum. It just means that I am the gender spectrum. Male and female all at once,” Noffert said