Gender symbol
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A gender symbol is a pictogram or glyph used to represent sex and gender, for example in biology and medicine, in genealogy, or in the sociological fields of gender politics, LGBT subculture and identity politics.
In his books {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (1767) and {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (1771), Carl Linnaeus regularly used the planetary symbols of Mars, Venus and MercuryTemplate:SndTemplate:Char, Template:Char, Template:CharTemplate:Sndfor male, female and hermaphroditic (perfect) flowers, respectively.<ref name= Stearn>Template:Cite journal</ref> Botanists now use Template:Char for the last.<ref>Niki Simpson, Botanical symbols: a new symbol set for new images, Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, Volume 162, Issue 2, February 2010, Pages 117–129</ref>
In genealogy, including kinship in anthropology and pedigrees in animal husbandry, the geometric shapes Template:Char or Template:Char are used for male and Template:Char for female. These are also used on public toilets in some countries.
The modern international pictograms used to indicate male and female public toilets, Template:Char and Template:Char, became widely used in the 1960s and 1970s. They are sometimes abstracted to Template:Char for male and Template:Char for female.<ref name=BBC>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Biology and medicineEdit
Template:Infobox symbol The three standard sex symbols in biology are male Template:Char, female Template:Char and hermaphroditic Template:Char; originally the symbol for Mercury, Template:Char, was used for the last. These symbols were first used by Carl Linnaeus in 1751 to denote whether flowers were male (stamens only), female (pistil only) or perfect flowers with both pistils and stamens.<ref name= Stearn/> (Most flowering and conifer plant species are hermaphroditic and either bear flowers/cones that themselves are hermaphroditic, or bear both male and female flowers/cones on the same plant.) These symbols are now ubiquitous in biology and medicine to indicate the sex of an individual, for example of a patient.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>Template:Efn
GenealogyEdit
Kinship charts use a triangle Template:Char for male and circle Template:Char for female.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Pedigree charts published in scientific papers use an earlier anthropological convention of a square Template:Char for male and a circle Template:Char for female.<ref name="Schott">Template:Cite journal</ref>
Before a shape distinction was adopted, all individuals had been represented by a circle in Morgan's 1871 System of Consanguinity and Affinity of Human Family, where gender is encoded in the abbreviations for the kin relation (e.g. M for 'mother' and F for 'father').<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> W. H. R. Rivers distinguished gender in the words of the language being recorded by writing male kinship terms in all capitals and female kinship terms with normal capitalization. That convention was quite influential for a time, and his convention of prioritizing male kin by placing them to the left and females to the right continues to this day though there have been exceptions, such as Margaret Mead, who placed females to the left.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Public toiletsEdit
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The modern gender symbols used for public toilets, Template:Char for male and Template:Char for female, are pictograms created for the British Rail system in the mid-1960s.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }} (includes picture of the ideogram, which is copyright).</ref> Before that, local usage had been more variable. For example, schoolhouse outhouses in the 19th-century United States had ventilation holes in their doors that were shaped like a starburst Sun Template:Char or like a crescent Moon Template:Char, respectively, to indicate whether the toilet was for use by boys or girls.<ref>Eric Sloane (1972, 2007) The Little Red Schoolhouse: A Sketchbook of Early American Education. Doubleday & Co.; Dover Books.</ref> The British Rail pictogramsTemplate:Sndoften color-coded blue and redTemplate:CnTemplate:Sndare now the norm for marking public toilets in much of the world, with the female symbol distinguished by a triangular skirt or dress, and in early years (and sometimes still) the male symbol stylized like a tuxedo.<ref name=BBC />
These symbols are abstracted to varying degrees in different countriesTemplate:Sndfor example, the circle-and-triangle variantsFile:Male public toilet icon.svg (male) and File:Female public toilet icon.svg (female) commonly found on portable toilets, sometimes abstracted further to a triangle Template:Char (representing a skirt or dress) for female and an inverted triangle Template:Char (representing a broad-shouldered tuxedo) for male in Lithuania.<ref name=BBC />
In elementary schools, the pictograms may be of children rather than of adults, with the girl distinguished by her hair. In themed locations, such as bars and tourist attractions, a thematic image or figurine of a man and woman or boy and girl may be used.Template:Cn
In Poland, an inverted triangle Template:Char is used for male while a circle Template:Char is used for female.<ref name=BBC />
In mainland China, silhouettes of heads in profile may be used as gender pictograms,Template:Cn generally alongside the Chinese characters for male (男) and female (女).<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Some contemporary designs for restroom signage in public spaces are shifting away from symbols that demonstrate gender as binary as a way to be more inclusive.<ref>Schwartz, M. (2018). Inclusive Restroom Design. Library Journal, 143(8), 28–31.</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
- Toilets unisex.svg
Standard American Institute of Graphic ArtsTemplate:Nbsp(AIGA) symbols
- Female symbol on public restroom.JPG
Non-AIGA women's symbol on a legally mandated circular background in US
- Male symbol on public restroom.JPG
Non-AIGA men's symbol on a legally mandated triangular background in US
- Gender Neutral Bathroom.jpg
Gender-neutral sign in US, composed of legally mandated circle and triangle
- Toilet for everyone.jpg
Accessible gender-neutral sign icon
- All gender restroom sign.jpg
Idiosyncratic unisex restroom in US (see LGBT symbols)
- 5754-Linxia-City-Xiguan-Lu-public-toilet.jpg
Public toilet in China, with female silhouette to the left and male to the right
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Idiosyncratic symbols in Japan
- CAM00224 Washroom (11211245793).jpg
Humorous symbols in Austria
- Toalett (Budapest) 1.svg
Semi-triangular tuxedo and dress shapes in Hungary
- Toilet Promenadengalerien Linz - sign.jpg
Triangle-plus-circle symbols in Austria
- Wojska Polskiego WC Jurata (cropped).jpg
Circle (female) and inverted triangle (male) in Poland
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Sign in Romania, with men's and women's shoes representing gender
- Separate toilets for three genders.jpg
Male, female and hijra (trans) public toilets in India
- Toilet signs in Madrid horticulture garden.jpg
Signs in the Real Jardín Botánico de Madrid; the male is depicted with a large upper body and the female with wide hips
- Placa multigêner kúyr acessível.jpg
Rainbow accessible multigender icon with gender-neutral word
Sexual orientation and gender politicsEdit
Since the 1970s, variations of gender symbols have been used to express sexual orientation and gender politics. Two interlocking male symbols Template:Char are used to represent gay men while two interlocking female symbols Template:Char are often used to represent lesbians.<ref name="LGBTQA">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Two female and two male symbols interlocked represent bisexuality, while an interlocked female and male symbol Template:Big represents heterosexuality.<ref name="mcelroy"/>
The combined male-female symbol Template:Char is used to represent androgyne people;<ref name="Unicode2600" /> when additionally combined with the female Template:Big and male Template:Big symbols to create the symbol Template:Char, it indicates gender inclusivity,Template:Cn though it is also used as a transgender symbol.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Unicode2600" /> The male-with-stroke symbol Template:Big is used for transgender people.<ref name="Unicode2600" />
The Mercury symbol Template:Big and combined female/male symbol Template:Big have both been used to represent intersex people.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="mcelroy"/> The alchemical symbol for sublimate of antimony Template:Big is used to represent non-binary people. The neuter symbol Template:Big is also used to represent non-binary people, especially those who are neutrois or of a neutral gender.<ref name="mcelroy" /> A featureless circle Template:Char is also used to represent non-binary people, especially those who are agender or genderless, as well as asexuality.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="mcelroy" />
Since the 2000s, numerous variants of gender symbols have been introduced in the context of LGBT culture and politics.<ref name="mcelroy">Template:Cite book</ref> Some of these symbols have been adopted into Unicode (in the Miscellaneous Symbols block) beginning with version 4.1 in 2005.
EncodingEdit
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