Janelle McAlpine MMRes BA (Human Bioscience) BMid
Registered Midwife
Many people hear the words sex, gender, sexuality, sexual health and sexual rights but don’t really understand what they mean. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has a document that describes these terms. Society and culture will affect how accepted these terms are, however around the world these meanings apply to everyone.
Sex vs gender
A persons sex is physical features make them different from the opposite sex (whether you have girl bits, boy bits or both) (1). These don’t vary between cultures and societies.
Gender says more about the roles we play and how others expect us to behave within in our culture (2).
How acceptable it is for women to smoke, whether women are allowed to drive and who does the housework are examples. These can vary between cultures.
Transsexual vs transgender
Transgender is a term for people who think and act outside their gender. These people often struggle to meet the expectations of their culture.
Transsexual people have the need to live and be accepted as a member of the opposite sex. This may involve making their body match their mind as closely as possible (through surgery and/or hormones) (3). These people might state they feel like a man trapped in a woman’s body or vice versa.
Transgender and transsexual people have specific sexual health needs but are entitled to the same sexual rights as everyone else. They are found in every society, however their state of health and how open they are about their needs will often depend on how their culture views them (2).
Sexuality
Sexuality includes a number of factors including sex, gender, orientation, pleasure, and having children. Factors such as a person’s biology, psychology, their culture and society, their spiritual and religious beliefs can influence how freely a person can be themselves.
Sexual orientation is just one part of a person’s sexuality, however it seems to attract a lot of focus at times.
Sexual orientation is the inbuilt and unchanging emotional, romantic or sexual attraction to other people (1).
Hetero people are attracted to the opposite sex, while homosexual people are attracted toward the same sex.
Bisexual people are attracted to both sexes, whereas asexual people have no attraction to either sex.
If you want to know more about orientation please click here.
Sexual health
Good sexual health needs a state of holistic wellness and encourages respect toward others with regard to their sex and sexuality. People must have their human rights respected in order for them to achieve good sexual health. In some parts of the world however, even basic human rights are not yet accepted (1).
Sexual rights
The World Health Organisation statement on sexual rights is based on the human rights already recognized by agencies around the world.
All people have the right to (1):
- the best possible sexual health,
- access to health care,
- education and information about sex and sexuality,
- respect for their own and other people’s bodies,
- choose their partner for themselves,
- decide to be sexually active or not,
- consent to sex,
- consent to marry,
- decide if they want to have children
- have a safe and enjoyable sex life.
References:
- Defining sexual health: report of a technical consultation on sexual health, 28–31 January 2002, Geneva World Health Organization 2006
- World Health Organisation 2016. What do we mean by ‘sex’ and ‘gender'(http://apps.who.int/gender/whatisgender/en/).
- World Health Organisation April 2016. Transgender people (http://www.who.int/hiv/topics/transgender/en/)