Common INVISIBLE Assumptions about Gender and Sexuality

1. Being an adult means having a monogamous sexual partnership.

 

2. People date before marrying.

 

3. People who are dating are ‘on their way’ to marriage.

 

4. Relationships are successful only if they are lifelong.

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5. A person wants a partner.

 

6. A person wants an opposite-sex partner.

7. A person necessarily wants to have sex.

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8. An intimate relationship is necessarily sexually intimate, or involves a particular kind of sexual act.

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​9. The purpose of a relationship is creating a family through reproduction.

 

10.  A family includes children.

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11.  A girl/woman would like to be a mother | A boy/man would like to be a father.

 

12. ​Being a mother involves being pregnant and raising your genetic child. | Being a father involves directly impregnating someone and raising your genetic child.

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13. Female-assigned babies come to see themselves as girls​. | Male-assigned babies come to see themselves as boys.

 

14. All girls have X [body part, hormone + hormone level, etc.]. | All boys have Y.

 

15. Boys’ and girls’ bodies have more differences than similarities.

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16. Girls/women have more in common with each other than with boys/men. | Boys/men have more in common with each other than with girls/women.