Gender detachment: Difference between revisions

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    Gender detachment is a term coined by sociologist Canton Winer, based on Winer's interviews with asexual people.<ref name=":0">Winer, C. (2025). Does Everyone Have a Gender? Compulsory Gender, Gender Detachment, and Asexuality. ''Socius'', ''11''. <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.1177/23780231251339382</nowiki> (Original work published 2025)</ref> Gender-detached individuals do not feel that gender is a useful or relevant lens for understanding themselves. In other terms, they can be said to lack a gender identity. They may express a degree of apathy around gender or feel that gender is something externally imposed on them.
    Gender detachment is a term coined by sociologist Canton Winer, based on Winer's interviews with asexual people.<ref name=":0">Winer, C. (2025). Does Everyone Have a Gender? Compulsory Gender, Gender Detachment, and Asexuality. ''Socius'', ''11''. <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.1177/23780231251339382</nowiki> (Original work published 2025)</ref> Gender-detached individuals do not feel that gender is a useful, meaningful, or relevant lens for understanding themselves. In other terms, they can be said to lack a gender identity.  
     
    Gender-detached people may express a degree of apathy around gender or feel that gender is something externally imposed on them. They may dislike being asked to claim a specific gender identity or set of pronouns, because it feels too much like an assertion of identity. 


    Winer observes that gender detachment poses a problem for models of gender which assume that everyone has a gender identity. Winer calls the belief that everyone has or should have a gender identity "compulsory gender".<ref name=":0" />  
    Winer observes that gender detachment poses a problem for models of gender which assume that everyone has a gender identity. Winer calls the belief that everyone has or should have a gender identity "compulsory gender".<ref name=":0" />  
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    == Complete vs ambivalent detachment ==
    == Complete vs ambivalent detachment ==
    == Quotes ==
    <blockquote>My gender is like an empty lot; there may have been a building there at some point, but it’s long since fallen away, and there’s no need to rebuild it. The space is better for being left empty.</blockquote>-  Ollia, a white 23 year old from California, quoted by Winer<ref name=":0" />


    == Reception  ==
    == Reception  ==


    == References ==
    == References ==

    Revision as of 22:43, 20 September 2025

    Gender detachment is a term coined by sociologist Canton Winer, based on Winer's interviews with asexual people.[1] Gender-detached individuals do not feel that gender is a useful, meaningful, or relevant lens for understanding themselves. In other terms, they can be said to lack a gender identity.

    Gender-detached people may express a degree of apathy around gender or feel that gender is something externally imposed on them. They may dislike being asked to claim a specific gender identity or set of pronouns, because it feels too much like an assertion of identity.

    Winer observes that gender detachment poses a problem for models of gender which assume that everyone has a gender identity. Winer calls the belief that everyone has or should have a gender identity "compulsory gender".[1]

    Relationship to nonbinary identity

    Complete vs ambivalent detachment

    Quotes

    My gender is like an empty lot; there may have been a building there at some point, but it’s long since fallen away, and there’s no need to rebuild it. The space is better for being left empty.

    - Ollia, a white 23 year old from California, quoted by Winer[1]

    Reception

    References

    1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 Winer, C. (2025). Does Everyone Have a Gender? Compulsory Gender, Gender Detachment, and Asexuality. Socius, 11. https://doi.org/10.1177/23780231251339382 (Original work published 2025)