The Term Sexual Orientation Analysis

The term sexual orientation refers to the sex to which a person is attracted on the emotional, romantic, sexual, and affective plane. If a person is romantically and physically attracted to a member of the opposite sex, then they are heterosexual. Conversely, if someone feels attracted to a person of the same sex, then they are homosexual.

However, sexual orientation is not absolute. There is also bisexuality, when a person is attracted to members of both sexes. In this sense, minorities based on sexual orientation are gay, lesbian, and bisexual people.

The term gender identity refers to a person’s awareness of belonging to the male or female sex. That is, a person may feel a gender identity distinct from their innate physiological characteristics. In other words, they can feel like a woman even though they were born with male sex, or they can feel like a man, even if they were born with female sex.

Gender Dysphoria

Gender dysphoria is a state that implies a conflict originating between the physical or assigned gender of a person and the gender with which they identify. People with gender dysphoria may feel very uncomfortable with the gender they were assigned at birth. Some describe it as a sense of discomfort with their own body, particularly during puberty, or they feel uncomfortable with the expected roles of their assigned gender. People with gender dysphoria can often experience significant difficulties and functioning problems associated with this conflict between how they feel and think about themselves and their assigned physical gender.

Body dysmorphic disorder is a mental disorder in which you can’t stop thinking about one or more perceived defects or flaws in your appearance, a flaw that, to others, is either minor or not observable. However, you may feel so ashamed and anxious that you avoid many social situations.

When you have body dysmorphic disorder, you intensely obsess over your appearance and body image, repeatedly checking the mirror, grooming, or seeking reassurance, sometimes for many hours each day. Your perceived flaw and the repetitive behaviors cause you significant distress and impact your ability to function in your daily life.

You may seek out numerous cosmetic procedures to try to “fix” your perceived flaw. Afterward, you may feel a temporary satisfaction, but often the anxiety returns and you may resume searching for a way to fix your perceived flaw. Treatment of body dysmorphic disorder may include cognitive-behavioral therapy and medication. Transgender is a term that represents those people who do not identify with the biological sex assigned at birth.

Over the years, other terms related to this have been coined, such as the diminutive “trans”, or words like intergender, fluid gender, among others. These individuals have different ways of expressing their experience. The first method can be dressing and acting according to the sex with which they identify. They differ from transvestites, who only dress as the opposite sex occasionally, not as a permanent identity.

Those who belong to this group have a flexible concept of what it means to be a man or a woman, so they do not choose to undergo plastic surgery. The second method involves a total transformation of one’s body. The individual undergoes a medical process that includes hormone therapy and plastic surgeries to convert their body into the desired sex. In this case, we are discussing transsexual individuals.

Professionals use the term “gender dysphoria” to describe the anxiety generated in the individual by the discordance between their assigned biological gender and the gender with which they identify. Once gender dysphoria is professionally diagnosed, the process of support for the transition begins.

Do not confuse transgender identity with sexual orientation. Sexual orientation refers to whom the individual is attracted to, which characterizes them as heterosexual, homosexual, or bisexual. On the other hand, transgender identity refers to the gender with which the individual identifies as, a man or a woman; it signifies who the person is. Therefore, a transgender individual can be heterosexual, homosexual, or bisexual.

The cisgender people are those whose gender identity is concordant with their biological gender; they do not identify with the transgender identity or transsexuality. “Cis” is a shorter term meaning “on this side.” A cisgender woman lives today as a woman biologically. Likewise, a cisgender man lives as a man, biologically. Many cisgender individuals never consider themselves to be cisgender because the coincidence of gender identity and expectations from birth is very common.

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