Gender Entitlement

As coined by Julia Serano in 2013, gender entitlement refers to the idea that we project our own ideas and expectations about sexuality and gender onto others, thereby invalidating the experiences of other individual's gender and sexual identities and experiences. Gender entitlement also encompasses the practice of placing judgement on other people's sexual and gender identities and behaviors, such as asserting that some genders or sexualities are "good" while others are "bad". Writes Serano: "anyone who truly accepts heterogeneity" -- thereby rejecting gender entitlement -- "will recognize that bodies, genders, and sexualitise are not inherently good nor bad, but rather simply different." Gender entitlement also means silencing or invalidating those whose gender or sexual identity does not match one's expectation. Gender entitlement can also evolve into violence, rape, and abuse. Serano proposes "gender ethics" as a solution to avoiding gender entitlement, and this means listening to, validating, and recognizing someone's gender as they express it consensually, thereby stopping "nonconsensually projecting" our beliefs about gender onto others.