Gender Binaries

This entry explores gender binaries, the division of gender into two discrete and apparently separate categories of male–female. Unlike the term dichotomy, the term binary does not attribute a value to each side of the division. Thus, a gendered dichotomy is often a way of discussing the hierarchies that pertain to male–female, although binaries do assume that there are opposite sides. Therefore, a gendered binary presumes that men and women are opposite to each other, but does not necessarily suggest that one side of the binary is inferior or superior to the other. This entry will first outline normative gender binaries before moving on to explore how these binaries are destabilized. Then, it will look at how gendered binaries are recreated.