+
More

Not all people identify as male or female. Take a look inside the world outside the gender binary.

Some people fall outside of the classic male/female gender binary. They're still totally legitimate.

To a lot of us, the idea that gender extends beyond simply male and female can be confusing.

"It's a boy!" "It's a girl!" We're labeled with a gender as far back as the moment we were born.

But somewhere along the way, some people realize that terms like "male," "female," "man," "woman," "boy," and "girl" don't properly describe their own sense of self.


Some people simply don't fit neatly into those boxes — demonstrated here by YouTube jack-of-all-trades Lindsay Penn — and so many of them have sought out terms that more accurately describe who they are.

GIF via Lindsay Penn.

In May 2015, Dictionary.com added three new words to its database to help describe some of these nonbinary (not simply male or female) genders.

First, there's the word "agender," which is essentially someone without a gender at all.


Then there's "bigender," a term used to describe someone who may most closely identify with both male and female genders.

And then finally, there's "gender-fluid," used to describe someone whose gender shifts between male, female, and everything in between.

For a more thorough dive into these terms, check out the agender, bigender, and gender-fluid pages on Nonbinary.org.

If it sounds like these three terms are describing the same thing (at first glance, they certainly might), try thinking about it as though you're dividing blocks into groups.

If you look at this image, it's pretty easy to divide these blocks into groups according to color, right?

You've got two yellow, two red, and one orange. Right? It's simple.


But what if it's not always so clear cut? And what if instead of there being three colors to choose from, you had the option to select from hundreds?

You could still make the case that there are two yellow, two red, and one orange, but it's not quite accurate.

Because some colors (like #2 and #4) don't quite neatly fit into the previously arranged groups. # 2 is kind of a yellow-orange; #4 is kind of an orange-red.

Gender is a lot like that. Often, we simplify it into these clear-cut boxes: male and female. The issue is that not everyone fits those boxes, and that is OK.

Just as boxes #2 and #4 are no less real colors than #1 and #5, people whose genders don't fit neatly into the categories of male or female are no less valid than those who do.

Gender can be confusing. Just like the Doctor here explains time travel, gender is like that — just more ... gender-y.


GIF via BBC.

And just as boxes #2 and #4 are outside the main groups, they're still very different colors.

Agender, bigender, and gender-fluid identities are outside of the male-female binary, but are still distinct and different from one another.

Last year, Australian model and actress Ruby Rose came out as gender-fluid.

Rose did so after releasing a video called "Break Free" (seriously, watch it). In an interview with News.com.au, Rose said, “I am very gender fluid and feel more like I wake up every day sort of gender neutral."

Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images.

But what if you're not sure what gender someone is? Don't worry about it.

You can't tell someone's gender just by looking at them. Gender isn't what kind of genitals you have. Gender isn't whether you act a certain way or dress a certain way. Gender is a core sense of self that someone has, and it might not line up with what you picture visually.

If someone tells you what gender they are? Great! Please take them at their word.

If they don't, and you're not sure? Don't worry about it.


Sponsored

ACUVUE launches a new campaign to inspire Gen Z to put down their phones and follow their vision

What will you create on your social media break? Share it at #MyVisionMySight.

True

If you’ve always lived in a world with social media, it can be tough to truly understand how it affects your life. One of the best ways to grasp its impact is to take a break to see what life is like without being tethered to your phone and distracted by a constant stream of notifications.

Knowing when to disconnect is becoming increasingly important as younger people are becoming aware of the adverse effects screen time can have on their eyes. According to Eyesafe Nielsen, adults are now spending 13-plus hours a day on their digital devices, a 35% increase from 2019.1. Many of us now spend more time staring at screens on a given day than we do sleeping which can impact our eye health.

Normally, you blink around 15 times per minute, however, focusing your eyes on computer screens or other digital displays have been shown to reduce your blink rate by up to 60%.2 Reduced blinking can destabilize your eyes’ tear film, causing dry, tired eyes and blurred vision.3

Keep ReadingShow less

Karlie Smith shows the meal she's bringing to the restaurant for her son.

A mom who admitted she packs her 2-year-old a meal when they go out to dinner has started an interesting debate on TikTok about restaurant etiquette and how it applies to young children.

The video posted by Ohio mom, Karlie Smith (unbreakablemomma on TikTok), has received nearly 600,000 views and has over 1,850 comments.

“Call me cheap, call me whatever, but if we’re going out to a restaurant, I’m packing my kid a meal," Smith, 21, said in her post. "I do this for many reasons. On Friday nights, my family and I get together, and tonight, we’re getting food out. My son is not getting food out.”

Keep ReadingShow less
Pop Culture

Man rewatches shows from his childhood and his recaps of the bonkers storylines are priceless

Rob Anderson's hilarious recaps of shows like "Mighty Ducks," "Beethoven," and "7th Heaven" might make you wonder how they got made in the first place.

@hearthrobert/TikTok

These plots makes zero sense.

While there are no doubt some timeless classics from our childhood that remain every bit as amazing as we remember, many are straight-up cringey upon a later viewing. Really, it’s to be expected as societal viewpoints change…sort of a marker of how far we’ve collectively come.

And so, what do we do with these problematic pieces of old-school pop culture? Well, we can certainly update them to better reflect a more modern attitude, but that also comes with a set of potential problems. Or we could simply never watch them again. Certainly an option given all the content out there. But then we might miss an opportunity to better understand what seemed to work for the mainstream then, and why it doesn’t work now.

And then there’s the third option—allow ourselves to be entertained by their cringiness.

That’s certainly the route taken by Rob Anderson. Over on TikTok, Anderson has taken ultra-popular movies and television shows from his childhood and given them hilarious recaps capturing how absurd some of the storylines are.
Keep ReadingShow less

"Fun" dad versus "lazy" mom.

Last November, Upworthy published a popular story about Chloe Sexton, a mother who went viral on TikTok for a video she made explaining “daddy privilege” or the idea that fathers are applauded for doing things that mothers are supposed to do.

"In my opinion, 'daddy privilege' is that subtle upper hand men sidestep into as parents that allows them to gain praise for simply…being a parent," she said. "You fed the baby? What a great dad! You held the baby while mommy bathed? So considerate of you! You picked up something for dinner? What would your family do without you?! It's all the little ways mothers do exactly what the world expects of them without a second thought and then watch fathers get praised for simply showing up."

Sadly, the post resonated with a lot of mothers, because it's true. Expectations for fathers are so low that men are commended for handling basic parenting tasks. But if a mother falls short of perfection, she faces harsh criticism.

Mary Catherine Starr, a mother living in Cape Cod who owns a design studio and teaches yoga, is getting a lot of love on Instagram for her cartoon series that perfectly explains daddy privilege.

Keep ReadingShow less
Joy

Woman decides that she is the love of her life and marries herself at her retirement home

“I said, you know what, I’ve done everything else. Why not?”

77-year-old woman decides she's the love of her life and marries herself.

We joke about marrying ourselves or a platonic friend if some arbitrary amount of time has passed without a proposal from an imaginary suitor. And sure, some people do wind up marrying a friend in more of a business arrangement, but it's not very common that someone follows through with marrying themselves.

Dorothy "Dottie" Fideli, decided that she was going to break the mold. The 77-year-old sat down and thought about all of the things she had done in life and who was with her the entire time cheering her on. It was an easy answer: herself. She was her biggest cheerleader, the person who always showed up and the love of her life, so Fideli made the plan to marry herself.

On a beautiful May day, friends and family gathered in the O’Bannon Terrace Retirement Community, where Fideli is a resident, to witness the ceremony.

Keep ReadingShow less
Joy

12-year-old Texas girl saves her family from carbon monoxide poisoning

She knew something was wrong with her mom and brother, which wound up saving her whole family.

Fort Worth 12-year-old helps save family from carbon monoxide poisoning.

Carbon monoxide is called a silent killer for a reason. Many people don't realize they're experiencing carbon monoxide poisoning before it's too late. The gas is colorless and odorless and tends to have a sedating effect that causes people to sleep through the fatal poisoning. Having carbon monoxide detectors is one of the most effective ways to identify the gas before it's too late to get out of the house, but not every home has one.

A little girl in Fort Worth, Texas, experienced a terrifying encounter with the deadly gas, but her quick actions saved her entire family. Jaziyah Parker is being held up as a hero after she realized something was wrong with her family members and called for help.

The girl called 911 after she noticed her mom pass out. On the call with the dispatcher, Jaziyah says she thinks her mother has died before explaining that there was something now wrong with her baby brother, who was just 5-months-old.

Keep ReadingShow less

Drew Barrymore speaks during the FLOWER Beauty launch at Westfield Parramatta on April 13, 2019, in Sydney, Australia.

Drew Barrymore, 48, has been in the public consciousness since she starred as Gertie in 1982’s mega-blockbuster, “E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial,” a performance that earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. So, it makes sense that many people of a certain age feel as if they’ve grown up with her.

Barrymore has consistently starred in hit films and movies that are rewatchable cable-TV staples, such as “Charlie's Angels” (2000), “Never Been Kissed” (1999), “Scream” (1996), “The Wedding Singer” (1998), “50 First Dates” (2004) and “Fever Pitch” (2005).

Now, she’s an even more significant part of people’s lives as the host of “The Drew Barrymore Show,” which runs every weekday on CBS. So far, the show has been a big success, attracting an average of 1.21 million views per show, and ranks as the #4 talk show in syndication. It was recently renewed through the 2024 season.

Keep ReadingShow less