GLOSSARY

Cisgender

The Latin prefix “cis-” can be translated as “this side” or “within”. Cisgender describes a person identifying  with the gender they were assigned at birth. It forms the opposite to the prefix trans-, which means over, through, or across.

Colonialism

Colonialism refers to the historical process by which European countries colonized and controlled overseas territories beginning in the 15th century and lasted until the latter half of the 20th century.
Colonialism was characterized by economic, political, and cultural oppression as well as exploitation. European colonial powers, including Britain, France, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, and Germany, occupied territories in Africa, Asia, the Americas, and Oceania. The colonial powers claimed political authority over the indigenous populations, often forcing them to perform forced labor, surrender natural resources, or produce raw materials for export. To this day, colonialism shapes the worldview as well as global hierarchies and relationships.

Cross-Dressing / Queer-Dressing

Cross-dressing refers to the act of wearing clothing and adopting a style that is typically associated with a gender different from one’s assigned sex. In the context of queer communities, cross-dressing is often considered a form of gender expression or gender nonconformity. Among others, it can be practiced by individuals who identify as transgender, nonbinary, or cisgender and may be used as a way to explore or express different facets of their gender identity.

Drag

A drag queen usually performs the appearance and behavior of women or femininity in a humoristic and artistic way, a drag king the appearance of men. Playing with (exaggerated) femininity or masculinity is thus a show that is independent of the person’s gender. The most famous exercise of drag is the personification of drag queens. This is often performed by queer men.

Discrimination

Discrimination is the reasoning and justification for unequal treatment along lines of supposedly clear distinctions. Through this unequal treatment, the discriminated persons experience social disadvantages. Discrimination is an extensive system of social relations in which the discriminatory distinctions operate. Thus, discrimination cannot be understood as a consequence of individual characteristics. A well-known example of the structural level of discrimination is the gender pay gap.

Eurocentrism

Eurocentrism describes a worldview that presents Europe’s history and so-called European values as the most valuable (evaluation) standard and thus describes the evaluation of non-European groupings from the perspective of European values and norms. The concept of Eurocentrism thus makes global relations of domination and colonial historical thinking visible.

Feminism

Feminism is an umbrella term for various social and political movements that advocate for the equal rights, self-determination and freedom of women, and more broadly all genders, and against sexism, for example by striving for a fundamental change in societal norms. While feminism was originally understood as the liberation of women from patriarchy, today’s intersectional feminism refers to the commitment to a world in which all forms of oppression, discrimination and exploitation are abolished.

FLINTA*

The acronym FLINTA* stands for women, lesbians, intersex, non-binary, trans and agender people – all those who are patriarchally discriminated against and/or define themselves as feminine because of their gender identity.

Gender Pay Gap

The gender pay gap refers to the gender pay gap between women and men. It is a measure of the average difference in earnings between the sexes in a particular society or labor market. In 2021, women in Austria were paid nearly 19 percent less than men. Causes are often seen in societal expectations of women, such as their prominent role in raising children.

Gender vs Sex

The term “gender” refers to the individual identity and social role of each person in relation to gender and how these are evaluated in a society. Gender is not what we are assigned at birth based on physical characteristics. The term “sex” on the other hand describes the biological gender and refers to different biological and physiological characteristics of males and females, such as reproductive organs or chromosomes.

Heteronormativity

Heteronormativity describes a social value system that recognizes only two genders (man and woman) and heterosexual relationships between the two genders and considers them normal.
In a heteronormative society, social expectations are set according to social gender roles that are linked to the sex.

Intersectionality

The term intersectionality was coined in 1989 by the civil rights activist Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw. It is concerned with the intersection and interplay of social identities and related systems of oppression. Intersectionality focuses on the fact that people are often disadvantaged by or benefit from multiple characteristics. Ethnicity, social and economic positions, and gender can be examples of such interacting categories. For example, a person may be Black and a woman, so she experiences racism and sexism. A white woman, on the other hand, also experiences sexism, but also benefits from her white privilege at the same time. Intersectional feminism thus focuses on understanding and making visible multi-layered perspectives of people who experience overlapping forms of oppression.

LGBTQIA*

LGBTQIA* is a collective term for a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity outside of heteronormative expectations. It is an abbreviation for “Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Trans, Queer, Inter, Asexual.” The asterisk stands for other identities that are perhaps not or not fully covered by this.

(Non-)Binary

The term binarity generally describes a dichotomy. In terms of gender, binarity refers to the concept of dividing gender into only two categories: male and female. These are considered immutable and based only on biological characteristics. Non-binary is an umbrella term that describes gender identities that do not conform exclusively to the categories of male or female. Non-binary individuals may identify as a combination of genders, outside the gender binary, or as genderless.

Patriarchy

Patriarchy is a social system in which men play a dominant role in the social, political, and economic structure and rule over women and other marginalized genders. It is a hierarchical system that maintains male dominance and oppression of women and non-binary persons. In patriarchy, men are usually favored and enjoy privileges, while women and non-binary persons are often discriminated against and disadvantaged. This manifests itself in various areas of life, such as the labor market, politics, family structures, and public life.

QUEER

The literal description and definition of the term “queer” is “strange” or “weird”. From the end of the 19th century, the term was used pejoratively for homosexual people. Starting in the 1980s, this negative meaning was deliberately turned around provocatively by activists and used positively. Nowadays, many people who are not heterosexual and/or cisgender describe themselves as queer.

Racism

When people have to experience exclusion or even violence because of their origin, their outward appearance – such as their skin color – or because of their religion, this is racism. Racism can take many different forms – for example, there is anti-Muslim, anti-black, or anti-Asian racism, which is particularly directed against these groups. Racism manifests itself in various forms, including structural racism, institutional racism, and individual racism.

Sexism

Sexism is discrimination against people based on their gender. Sexism is based on the belief that a particular gender group – usually women – is worth less, has lesser abilities, or should adopt certain roles and behaviors because of their sex. Sexism can occur in a variety of settings, including social, cultural, political, and professional contexts. It manifests itself in prejudice, stereotyping, hostile acts, and unequal treatment of people because of their gender.

Stereotyping

Stereotyping refers to the simplification and generalization of characteristics, traits, or behaviors of a group of people. It does not consider individuals and their differences. It involves simplified ideas or images based on prejudice, assumptions, or insufficient information that are used to divide complex social realities into simple categories.

Transgender

“Trans” is an umbrella term for people who do not identify, or only partially identify, with the gender registered at birth. The word trans comes from Latin and means “beyond”. A person who was assigned male at birth but identifies as female is referred to as a transgender woman. A person who was assigned female at birth but identifies as male is referred to as a transgender male.

Two Spirits

Two-Spirit is a neologism for members of indigenous peoples of North America of one sex who have adopted the social gender role of the other sex. The term emerged from the third spiritual gathering of homosexual indigenous groups in Winnipeg in 1990. It is commonly used by Indigenous groups to refer to a range of roles and identities that span the distinctions between gender, sex, and sexuality, as western categories and binaries are often unable to adequately capture the lived experiences of Indigenous peoples in their own communities and cultures.