Sex characteristics

Sex characteristics is the umbrella term for bodily features tied to sex: chromosomes (XX, XY, and other combinations), gonads, hormone levels, internal and external genitalia, plus the secondary characteristics that develop at puberty (Adam’s apple, breasts, body hair). Everyday thinking assumes these features come neatly bundled — “one male set, one female set” — but in reality they are several relatively independent dimensions, and they combine in more ways than a binary allows. Intersex refers to being born with sex characteristics that don’t fall entirely within typical male/female patterns (see Intersex explained).

In international human-rights language, sex characteristics stand alongside sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression as the “SC” in SOGIESC — the point being that bodily diversity, too, must not be grounds for discrimination. Intersex traits are not in themselves a disease, and they do not need to be — and should not be — surgically “corrected” in infancy (see the intersex surgery myth).

Register note: medical and human-rights vocabulary. In casual Chinese, 性征 usually means secondary sex characteristics; as a framework term it covers all the bodily dimensions above.

Common misuse: equating sex characteristics with “gender” itself. Characteristics describe the body; assigned sex at birth is a registration made on the basis of them; gender identity is the inner sense. Keep the three apart.