1. Terms
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Androgeny (also androgenous, bi-gendered, no-gendered): A person who identifies as both or
neither of the two culturally defined genders, or a person who expresses merged
culturally/stereotypically feminine and masculine characteristics or mainly neutral characteristics.
Anti-Semitism: Hostility toward, or prejudice or discrimination against Jews or Judaism.
Assigned Sex: A social construct referring to the state of being intersex, female, or male. A
concept that relies on the dichotomous division of various genitive, biological, chromosomal,
hormonal and physiological differences in human. Also, what society creates when it genders a
body.
Bisexual: A person who is emotionally, physically, and/or sexually attracted to both men and
women. Some people avoid this term because of its implications that there are only two
sexes/genders to be sexually attracted to and this reinforces the binary gender system.
Cross-Dresser: Someone who enjoys wearing clothing typically assigned to a gender that the
individual has not been socialized as, or does not identify as. Cross-dressers are of all sexual
orientations and do not necessarily identify as transgender. “Cross-dresser” is frequently used
today in place of the term “transvestite.” This activity seems more obvious when men as opposed
to women engage in it publicly, because of an inequity in societal norms concerning attire and
other components of appearance.
Cultural Humility: A lifelong commitment to self-evaluation and critique, to redressing the power
imbalances in the [interpersonal relationship] dynamic[s], and to developing mutually beneficial
and non-paternalistic partnerships with communities on behalf of individuals and defined
populations. An institution committed to cultural humility would be characterized by training,
established recruitment and retention processes, identifiable and funded personnel to facilitate the
meeting of program goals, and dynamic feedback loops between the institution and its employees
and between the institution and [clients] and/or other members from the surrounding community
(Tervalon).
FtM (F2M)/MtF (M2F): Generally, abbreviations used to refer to specific members of the trans
community. FtM stands for female-to-male, as in moving from a female pole of the spectrum to
the male. MtF stands for male-to-female and refers to moving from the male pole of the spectrum
tot eh female. FtM is sometimes, not always, synonymous with transman. Conversely, someone
who identifies as MtF, may identify as a transwoman.
Gay: Someone who is primarily or exclusively attracted to members of the same sex. In certain
contexts, this term is used to refer only to those who identify as men.
Heterosexual Privilege: Being able to kiss or hug your partner in public without threat or
punishment; adopting or foster-parenting children; dating the person of your desire during your
teen years; receiving validation from your religious community; receiving social acceptance.
Homophobia: The irrational hatred and fear of lesbian and gay people that is produced by
institutionalized biases in a society or culture.
Institutional Oppression: Policies, laws, rules, norms and customs enacted by organizations and
social institutions that disadvantage some social groups and advantage other social groups. These
institutions include religion, government, education, law, the media, and health care system.
Intersex: An anatomical variation from typical understandings of male and female genetics. The
physical manifestation, at birth, of genetic or endocrinological differences from the cultural norm.
Also, a group of medical conditions that challenge standard sex designations, proving that sex, like
gender, is a social construct. At least one in 2,000 children is born with some degree of ambiguity
regarding their primary and/or secondary sex characteristics. In these cases, medical personnel
cannot easily label the child “boy” or “girl.” Most of these children receive cosmetic surgery so
that the child’s genitalia conform to societal and familial expectations of “normalcy,” even thought
such surgeries are not medically necessary and can damage the child’s reproductive organs. The
number of children born with some degree of intersexuality is difficult to estimate. Intersex and
transgender people share some overlapping experiences and perspectives, but the terms are not
synonymous, and the issues are not the same. Though intersexed people are opposed to the word
“hermaphrodite” because it is misleading and stigmatizing, it continues to be widely used in the
medical profession.
Male Privilege: Benefiting from the higher status of men and attributes associated with men and
masculinity within the larger culture.

2. Terms
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14. Multiple Identities: The concept that a person’s identity does not rest solely on one factor (e.g.,
sexual orientation, race, gender, etc.). Therefore, no single element of one’s identity is necessarily
dominant, although certain identities can take precedence over others at certain times.
15. Dialect: the language of a particular district, class, or group of persons. It encompasses the sounds,
grammar, and diction employed by a specific people as distinguished from other persons either
geographically or socially. Dialect, as a major technique of characterization, is the use by persons
in a narrative of distinct varieties of language to indicate a person’s social or geographical status,
and is used by authors to give an illusion of reality to fictional characters. It is sometimes used to
differentiate between characters.
16. Euphemism: the use of an indirect, mild, delicate, inoffensive, or vague word or expression for
one thought to be coarse, sordid, or otherwise unpleasant, offensive, or blunt.
17. Hyperbole: obvious and deliberate exaggeration or an extravagant statement. It is a figure of
speech not intended to be taken literally since it is exaggeration for the sake of emphasis.
Hyperbole is a common poetic and dramatic device.
18. Imagery: the forming of mental images, figures, or likenesses of things. It is also the use of
language to represent actions, persons, objects, and ideas descriptively. This means encompassing
the senses also, rather than just forming a mental picture.
19. Metaphor: a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to a person, idea, or object to
which it is not literally applicable. It is an implied analogy or unstated comparison that
imaginatively identifies one thing with another.
20. Novel: a lengthy fictitious prose narrative portraying characters and presenting an organized series
of events and settings. Novels are accounts of life and involve conflict, characters, action, settings,
plot, and theme. This is considered the third stage of the development of imagination fiction,
following the epic and the romance.
21. Pathos:A quality of a play’s action that stimulates the audience to feel pity for a character. Pathos
is always an aspect of tragedy, and may be present in comedy as well.
22. Personification: a figure of speech in which abstractions, animals, ideas, and inanimate objects are
endowed with human form, character, traits, or sensibilities.
23. Protagonist: the leading character of a drama, novel, etc. This is not always the hero, but is always
the principal and central character whose rival is the antagonist.
24. Scene: the place where some act or event occurs. Sometimes the term is used for an incident or
situation in real life. It is also the division of an act of a play or a unit of dramatic action in which
a single point is made or one effect obtained.
25. Drama: A prose or verse composition, especially one telling a serious story, that is intended for
representation by actors impersonating the characters and performing the dialogue and action. A
serious narrative work or program for television, radio, or the cinema.