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Gender symbols on a public toilet in Switzerland, alt=Image shows male and female symbols incised deeply
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 (1767) and (1771), Carl Linnaeus regularly used the planetary symbols of Mars, Venus and Mercury, , for male, female and hermaphroditic ( perfect) flowers, respectively. Botanists now use for the last.

In genealogy, including kinship in anthropology and pedigrees in animal husbandry, the geometric shapes or are used for male and for female. These are also used on public toilets in some countries.

The modern international pictograms used to indicate male and female public toilets, and , became widely used in the 1960s and 1970s. They are sometimes abstracted to for male and for female.

Biology and medicine

The three standard sex symbols in biology are male , female and hermaphroditic ; originally the symbol for Mercury, , 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. (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.

Genealogy

Kinship charts use a triangle for male and circle for female. Pedigree charts published in scientific papers use an earlier anthropological convention of a square for male and a circle for female.

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'). 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.

Public toilets

The modern gender symbols used for public toilets, for male and for female, are pictograms created for the British Rail system in the mid-1960s. 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 or like a crescent Moon , respectively, to indicate whether the toilet was for use by boys or girls. The British Rail pictogramsoften color-coded blue and redare 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.

These symbols are abstracted to varying degrees in different countriesfor example, the circle-and-triangle variants (male) and 24px (female) commonly found on portable toilets, sometimes abstracted further to a triangle (representing a skirt or dress) for female and an inverted triangle (representing a broad-shouldered tuxedo) for male in Lithuania.

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.

In Poland, an inverted triangle is used for male while a circle is used for female.

In mainland China, silhouettes of heads in profile may be used as gender pictograms, generally alongside the Chinese characters for male ( 男) and female ( 女).

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.

File:Toilets unisex.svg, Standard American Institute of Graphic Arts(AIGA) symbols
File:Female symbol on public restroom.JPG, Non-AIGA women's symbol on a legally mandated circular background in US
File:Male symbol on public restroom.JPG, Non-AIGA men's symbol on a legally mandated triangular background in US
File:Gender Neutral Bathroom.jpg, Gender-neutral sign in US, composed of legally mandated circle and triangle
File:Toilet for everyone.jpg, Accessible gender-neutral sign icon
File:All gender restroom sign.jpg, Idiosyncratic unisex restroom in US (see LGBT symbols)
File:5754-Linxia-City-Xiguan-Lu-public-toilet.jpg, Public toilet in China, with female silhouette to the left and male to the right
File:Restroom (4652458500).jpg, Idiosyncratic symbols in Japan
File:CAM00224 Washroom (11211245793).jpg, Humorous symbols in Austria
File:Toalett (Budapest) 1.svg, Semi-triangular tuxedo and dress shapes in Hungary
File:Toilet Promenadengalerien Linz - sign.jpg, Triangle-plus-circle symbols in Austria
File:Wojska Polskiego WC Jurata (cropped).jpg, Circle (female) and inverted triangle (male) in Poland
File:Sigiŝoaro, duseksa necesejo, 1.jpeg, Sign in Romania, with men's and women's shoes representing gender
File:Separate toilets for three genders.jpg, Male, female and hijra (trans) public toilets in India
File: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
File:Placa multigêner kúyr acessível.jpg, Rainbow accessible multigender icon with gender-neutral word
File:Transgender woman's bathroom symbol.jpg, A bathroom sign in the US showing a transgender flag across a woman's bathroom symbol

Sexual orientation and gender politics

Since the 1970s, variations of gender symbols have been used to express sexual orientation and gender politics. Two interlocking male symbols are used to represent gay men while two interlocking female symbols are often used to represent lesbians. Two female and two male symbols interlocked represent bisexuality, while an interlocked female and male symbol represents heterosexuality.

The combined male-female symbol is used to represent androgyne people; when additionally combined with the female and male symbols to create the symbol , it indicates gender inclusivity, though it is also used as a transgender symbol. The male-with-stroke symbol is used for transgender people.

The Mercury symbol and combined female/male symbol have both been used to represent intersex people. The alchemical symbol for sublimate of antimony is used to represent non-binary people. The neuter symbol is also used to represent non-binary people, especially those who are neutrois or of a neutral gender. A featureless circle is also used to represent non-binary people, especially those who are agender or genderless, as well as asexuality.

Since the 2000s, numerous variants of gender symbols have been introduced in the context of LGBT culture and politics. Some of these symbols have been adopted into Unicode (in the Miscellaneous Symbols block) beginning with version 4.1 in 2005.

Encoding

See also

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Notes

References

External links

{{Sexual identities

Gender and society
Human gender and sexuality symbols