[AGTRT-BF47] The distinction between primary and secondary gender identity makes room for androgyny

Jan Bergstra & Laurens Buijs
Amsterdam Gender Theory Research Team

In gender theory, the notion ofgender identity plays a leading role. A person’s gender identity is the gender that a person ascribes to himself, where, according to our formal gender theory (FGT), one can choose from male, female and neutral. In addition to gender identity, there is gender categorization: the gender that others (the government, formal structures) ascribe to a person.

Gender-essentialism is the view that gender categorization should yield the same as bodily gender, whatever one’s gender identity. Gender-co-essentialism is the view that gender categorization produces the same thing as gender identity, whatever one’s bodily gender.

The notion of gender identity does not involve preconditions regarding how a person can, may or should arrive at a determination of their own gender. Can someone just draw lots, or let someone else determine it, or formulate a different preference each month? In gender theory, the concept of gender identity plays a leading role, yet it seems to have little substance.

In formal gender theory (FGT), we do not work to further define the content of the concept of gender identity. We assume that this notion exists and can be used. FGT is thus incomplete, and that is the intention. FGT is about the concept of gender and the evolution of that concept, and in it, gender identity is a parameter.

Complementary to FGT, we also think about androgyny: we call it ABGT(androgyny-based gender theory). From the perspective of ABGT, we try to give more substance to the concept of gender identity.

Androgyny is primarily about the role that masculine and feminine play in consciousness. More attention to the role of gender in consciousness can, we believe, help give concrete meaning to gender identity, and define more precisely the relationship between gender and sexuality. Androgyny also helps flesh out interdisciplinarity in gender studies by connecting insights from psychology, evolutionary biology and sociology, among others.

Because androgyny is primarily about consciousness, it brings into focus the role of gender in people’s personalities. With the term androgyny, qualities or traits in our personality can be referred to as masculine, feminine or neutral. The role that androgyny plays in our personality structure has implications for our mental and emotional well-being, our social and sexual relationships, and our relationship with our bodies.

Within ABGT, it is therefore important to distinguish between gender identity that relates to our bodies (do we feel like a man or a woman, or neutral?), and gender identity that relates to our personality (how do our masculine and feminine qualities relate to each other?).

We propose to organize the terminology as follows. Gender identity is a concept that we limit to FGT. In the context of ABGT, we speak instead of two concepts: primary gender identity and secondary gender identity.

• Primary gender identity: how a person sees their own gender, assuming their physical gender (which may possibly change over time).
• Secondary gender identity: a spectrum of appraisals within the triangle male, female, neutral of personality traits.

One can then be a male primary gender, but be, for example, female in terms of caring and degree of aggression, and neutral in terms of emotional vulnerability and social interest.

It is obvious that persons with male primary gender have predominantly male components in secondary gender, and persons with female gender have predominantly female components. But this correlation is not necessary: a person with male primary gender can also have predominantly female secondary gender, and vice versa.