Explaining the Genderbread Person

     For the purpose of this post, I chose to explain the Genderbread Person and Genderbread Person 2.0 to my parents. Luckily for me, much of the terminology wasn't new to them, as I have ,since college, been constantly running my mouth at home about gender and all that encompasses it. Although, their prior knowledge of at least the basics of gender meant that they didn't have very many questions to ask, so my post is on the shorter side. 

     I decided I'd start with explaining to them the original Genderbread person, because I feel that it is most basic and easily understandable. My dad commented that he would now be conscious to not use gender and sex interchangeably, as many people do. Upon explaining the original Genderbread person, my parents only had one question. They asked me to explain and define "intersex" because they hadn't heard that term before. They said the model was easy to understand and very helpful. 

      When we moved on to version 2.0, they had a few more comments. My mom had never heard of asexuality, and also didn't know there was "enough of a difference between sexual and romantic attraction for them to be on different scales." I explained all of that to her, and told her about how only having the "Sexual Orientation" scale had actually been one of the biggest criticisms of the original version. "Nongendered, Agender," and "Asex," required some explaining. My dad talked about how he liked the updated scales because he understood the idea that you dont have to be less of one thing to be more of another, meaning things such as woman-ness and man-ness, although in the same category under "Gender Expression," aren't related. They are independent of one another and therefore should be measured seperately. He also said, "What I like about the 2.0 version is that it seems to get away from labels because people can move around constantly and there aren't specific names for every single plot compilation possible."

     I am lucky to have extremely educated, open-minded, and loving parents. I have never really had to worry about a negative reaction when explaining these kinds of things to them, at least from my dad. My mom is more "traditional," as she calls it, and usually needs a little bit more simplified and "bigger picture" explainations at first, to then be able to understand the rest. I don't interact with very many people (by choice, of course) who I believe might react negatively to or reject the genderbread person.