What is the Gender Binary?

So, to accompany #3’s explanation of Gender, I think I’ll also take a crack at answering, “What is the Gender Binary?”

Simply put, the gender binary is the false dichotomy of “purely” male OR female traits, looks, expressions, acts, and ways of being in society.

Nonbinary people simply feel they do not fit one or the other (or sometimes even both) and that their looks and/or ways of being in society don’t coincide with the traditionally masculine OR feminine categories of Western culture.