Biological Clock

In relation to birthing people, the biological clock refers to the sense of pressure people feel to have children during their “peak” reproductive years. While it is true that fertility declines after a certain age, it is still possible for many people to get pregnant later in life. When it comes to storytelling, the biological clock is often used as the sole motivator for a woman’s character arc, reducing her only to her desire to have children.

Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD)

A body-image disorder characterized by persistent, intrusive preoccupations with perceived flaws or defects with any part of one's body, which, in reality, might be slight or nonexistent. BDD affects 2.2% of men and 2.5% of women in the U.S.

Damsel in Distress

A stereotype where a woman character finds herself in a situation where she needs to be rescued, almost always by a man. She is portrayed as helpless and unable to do anything about her own situation. This trope is especially common in fairy tales and/or stories about princesses.

Domestic Worker

Hired to perform household and caregiving duties in an employer’s private home or residence (e.g., housekeeper, nanny, gardener, au pair, chauffeur, in-home aide, babysitter). These professionals (majority women, mostly immigrants and BIPOC) do difficult, skilled work, often without basic labor rights and protections.

Emotional Labor

The process of managing feelings and expressions in order to fulfill the emotional requirements of a job. More specifically, when workers have to regulate emotions to shape the minds of superiors, co-workers, and customers. Emotional labor more often falls on BIPOC people, especially women (e.g., swallowing down feelings about a racist or sexist comment so as not to make things awkward for another individual, having to fake positivity to placate a customer).

Gender Binary

The false, long-held societal and cultural categorization of gender into just two distinct and opposite terms: male or female, man or woman, masculine or feminine. Attached to this classification are gendered traits, behaviors, and appearances attached to these distinctions (e.g., men should be strong, aggressive, and wear masculine clothes; women should be kind, domestic, and wear make-up and feminine clothes). The binary generally assumes someone’s gender identity and pronouns all align with the sex they were assigned at birth. However, gender isn’t binary; it’s an infinite spectrum, with people whose gender identities fall between and outside of the man/woman framework.

Gender Expansive

An umbrella term most often used to describe young children who haven’t fully articulated a concrete gender identity (i.e., who are exploring and questioning their gender, but who may not be ready to say they're transgender or who may turn out not to be transgender). This includes people who expand notions of gender expression (e.g., clothing, appearance, mannerisms) and identity beyond expected societal norms.

Gender Inequality

How society treats men, women, and non-binary people unequally based on perceived biological, psychological, or cultural differences. It’s prevalent in issues of life expectancy, education, careers, etc. See more on the causes of gender inequality, as well as a snapshot from the United Nations on the current state of gender inequality around the world.

Generational Trauma

The long-term psychological effects of trauma (both personal and communal) that can be passed down through generations of families and cultures. Beyond psychological, these generational effects are also familial, social, cultural, neurobiological, and possibly even genetic.

Identity

An intrinsic, embodied part of who someone is (e.g., race, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability), not to be confused with the various experiences, ideologies, and preferences they identify with (e.g., careers, politics, hobbies). Identity shapes our everyday life, psychology, culture, relationships, behavior, and shared history. Identity is deeply personal and language used to describe it is ever-evolving. We must be open to new language as understanding shifts; it’s vital to use the terms, names, and pronouns others use for themselves. Note: Avoid the phrasing “identify as” (e.g. “she is a woman” instead of “she identifies as a woman”; “they are non-binary” vs “they identify as non-binary”).

Intimate Partner Violence (IPV)

Physical, verbal, psychological, economic, or sexual violence committed by a current or former partner. While domestic violence is committed by any member of a household toward another member of that household (e.g., father abuses son, wife abuses husband), IPV encompasses violence involving partnered people regardless of whether they live together. Most IPV portrayals feature straight women in relationships with men, but people of all gender identities, gender expressions, and sexual orientations can experience or commit IPV. LGBTQIA+ people experience IPV at comparable rates but are less likely to report it due to stigma, lack of resources, and perceived power balance in same-gender relationships.

Mean Girls

A stereotype of girls and young women characterizing them as socially aggressive and unkind. These characters are usually “popular” or “cool” and resort to behaviors such as bullying or backstabbing, even among other characters they consider friends. These portrayals not only enforce the bad behavior, but they fail to address the larger social issues girls and women face like insecurity, lack of confidence, and pressure to fit the “feminine beauty ideal.”

Misogynoir

Coined by the queer Black feminist Dr. Moya Bailey in 2010, the term blends concepts that combines “misogyny” (extreme hatred of women) and the French word for black, “noir.” Per Ms. Bailey, misogynoir is the anti-Black racist misogyny that Black women experience. As noted by the Blackburn Center, misogynoir comes in many forms in daily life, for instance 1) Black women are viewed as threatening or angry whenever they speak up for themselves, and 2) Maternal mortality rates for Black women are three times higher than for white women in the United States, with many attributing that to racial bias in the healthcare system.

Misogyny

Hatred, dislike, or distrust of women, girls, and femininity. This manifests in many ways, such as violence against women, violence against feminine men, rape culture, the devaluing of traditionally feminized work, jokes (e.g., “dumb blond,” “my wife is a nag,” rape jokes), etc.

Othering

A pattern of exclusion and marginalization based on having identities that are different from the perceived “norms” of a community, social group, nation, etc. It relies on an “us vs. them” mentality.

Patriarchy

A form of mental, social, economic, and political organization of society where men, individually and collectively, oppress people of other genders. Unlike sexism, the term “patriarchy” names the social power dynamic involved. This dynamic plays out individually (e.g., street harassment, talking over women, policing children’s gender expression), institutionally (e.g., segregated bathrooms, the wage gap, caretaking work relegated to women), and culturally (e.g., women depicted as sex objects in media, myth of the gender binary). See more on the levels of patriarchy.

Sapphic

A term to describe women and non-binary people who are attracted to women, especially those assigned female at birth. This can include women and non-binary people of any sexual orientation (e.g., lesbians, bisexual non-binary femmes, pansexual women, wlw, etc.). The term is derived from the name of the Greek poet Sappho of the Greek Island, Lesbos, whose writing famously portrays love and desire among women. For more.

Social Determinants of Health (SDoH)

The conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work, and age. These are shaped by the distribution of money, power, and resources at global, national, and local levels. Conditions (e.g., social, economic, physical) in these various environments and settings (e.g., school, church, workplace, neighborhood) have been referred to as “place.” In addition to the more material aspects of “place,” patterns of social engagement and sense of security and well-being are also affected by where people live.

Resources that enhance quality of life can have a significant influence on population health outcomes (e.g., safe and affordable housing, availability of healthy foods, toxin-free environments). How population groups experience “place” directly impacts the specific social components of SDoH (e.g., access to educational, economic, and job opportunities; public safety; language and literacy) and public components of SDoH (e.g., natural environments, built environments). See here for more details.

STEM

A term used to group the academic disciplines in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math in education, the workforce, and recreational hobbies (e.g., computer coding, NASA, science fair projects).

Here’s a creator’s toolkit from the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media for those looking to tell stories about women and girls in STEM.

The Male Gaze

A sexually objectifying way of portraying women in media from a masculine perspective meant to pleasure straight men. This can be conveyed through a man behind the camera, as a character in the story, and/or as an audience member. The male gaze empowers men and diminishes women by emphasizing aspects considered interesting, pleasing, or titillating to the assumed straight male viewer (e.g., zooming in or focusing on women’s breasts or butt, especially when failing to do the same to male characters). The term was coined by Laura Mulvey in her 1975 essay, "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema."