# Dichotomy > It refers to a way of thinking that divides certain objects or concepts into two: women and men, animals and humans, white people and people of color, nature and the artificial, instinct and learning, and so on. It refers to a way of thinking that divides certain objects or concepts into two: women and men, [animals](https://wiki.g15e.com/pages/Animal.txt) and , white people and people of color, nature and the artificial, instinct and learning, and so on. A binary distinction is not in itself always a problem. Even when the boundary is blurry, there are many distinctions that are useful as terms referring to concepts (see: [the difference between frameworks and libraries](https://wiki.g15e.com/en/pages/Differences%20between%20framework%20and%20library.txt)). The problem arises when we cut continuous or multidimensional reality into two categories and then believe that those categories accurately reflect reality. The gender binary and the animal-human dichotomy discussed below are such cases, and when that happens, it becomes a [false dichotomy](https://wiki.g15e.com/pages/False%20dichotomy.txt). ## Cases ### Gender binary The gender binary is an ideological system or social institution that divides human sex/gender into female or male. The sexes of all species that engage in , including humans, are not divided dichotomously. Because the composition of sex chromosomes, the responsiveness of hormone receptors, and the developmental pathways of reproductive organs each vary across their own ranges, nothing—not the , not the , not the —is cleanly divided in a binary way. The very practice of calling such variations "abnormal" already presupposes a dichotomous standard (see: ). ### Animal-human dichotomy The animal-human dichotomy is an attitude and social institution that treats humans as if they were not animals, and as if there were a qualitative difference between humans and animals, even though humans are a kind of animal. What "animal protection" actually means is not the protection of all animals, but the protection of some nonhuman animals. (In [Korea](https://wiki.g15e.com/pages/Republic%20of%20Korea.txt), the "Animal Protection Act" uses the word animal to mean only some , excluding humans.) Since [Darwin's theory of evolution](https://wiki.g15e.com/pages/Darwinism.txt), it has become common knowledge that there is no essential difference between humans and nonhuman animals, but our attitudes and social institutions still have not caught up with this common knowledge. ## Dichotomy, hierarchy, and distancing Once dichotomous categories have been established, hierarchical thinking usually comes into play, in which one category is regarded as superior to the other. Men are regarded as superior to women, humans to animals, white people to people of color, nondisabled people to disabled people, and discrimination is justified. Dichotomy contributes not only to the justification of discrimination, but also to the carrying-out of discrimination. Through dichotomous thinking, if I distinguish between the "superior" group to which I belong and the "inferior" group to which I do not belong, I can widen the psychological distance between the ingroup and the outgroup. Once that distance is created, it becomes easier actually to put discrimination into action, such as by making discriminatory remarks toward those who belong to the outgroup. says in [Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows](https://wiki.g15e.com/pages/Why%20we%20love%20dogs,%20eat%20pigs,%20and%20wear%20cows.txt) that, more important than whether the categories by which we divide animals are actually accurate is the "belief that they are accurate." That is because the purpose of dichotomous division is to create enough distance that we can eat the corpses of animals without discomfort. The animal-human dichotomy contributes to the justification of [speciesism](https://wiki.g15e.com/en/pages/Speciesism.txt) and [carnism](https://wiki.g15e.com/en/pages/Carnism.txt), the female-male dichotomy contributes to the justification of [sexism](https://wiki.g15e.com/pages/Sexism.txt) and the oppression of women, and the people of color-white dichotomy contributes to the justification of .