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, meaningful, or relevant lens for understanding themselves. In other terms, they can be said to lack a gender identity. | '''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. Others find the whole concept of gender identity confusing. | 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. Others find the whole concept of gender identity confusing. | ||
Some gender-detached people feel totally detached from gender, while others feel some resonance with a specific gender alongside the detachment.<ref name=":0" /> | Some gender-detached people feel totally detached from gender, while others feel some resonance with a specific gender alongside the detachment.<ref name=":0" /> | ||
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== Relationship to nonbinary identity == | == Relationship to nonbinary identity == | ||
Some gender-detached people use nonbinary terms like [[agender]] to describe themselves. However, they often see them as the closest or most convenient language available, rather than representations of a "true" self.<ref name=":0" /> | Some gender-detached people use [[nonbinary]] terms like [[agender]] to describe themselves. However, they often see them as the closest or most convenient language available, rather than representations of a "true" self.<ref name=":0" /> | ||
== Gender performance == | == Gender performance == | ||
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== Quotes == | == 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" /><blockquote>My feelings about gender, for myself, are very detached and distant. I just don’t identify really with most concepts of gender, because it honestly just confuses me. I just don’t get it. I don’t know ''why'' I don’t get it for myself, but I just find existing with preconceived notions on who I “should” be tiring to follow, confusing to understand, and stifling to my true person. Gender, for me, is archaic and not worth the energy. </blockquote>Faye, a Latine 18 year old from Illinois, quoted by Winer<ref name=":0" /><blockquote>I would say that I’m mostly a cis woman, but I don’t feel super strongly about it? I saw a Tumblr post once that said something like, “I’m a ‘she’ in the same way inanimate objects are ‘she’ to gays and sailors” and like . . . yeah? I’m a she because nothing else fits or feels right, but it’s a loose concept. . . . I think more than anything, my gender is something aesthetic? I’m loosely attached to it as a concept, but I do construct it in a certain way that most people generally interpret as at least feminine-leaning, and I’m content with that. </blockquote>Dana, a white 27 year old from Massachusetts, quoted by Winer<ref name=":0" /> | <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" /> | ||
<blockquote>My feelings about gender, for myself, are very detached and distant. I just don’t identify really with most concepts of gender, because it honestly just confuses me. I just don’t get it. I don’t know ''why'' I don’t get it for myself, but I just find existing with preconceived notions on who I “should” be tiring to follow, confusing to understand, and stifling to my true person. Gender, for me, is archaic and not worth the energy. </blockquote>Faye, a Latine 18 year old from Illinois, quoted by Winer<ref name=":0" /> | |||
<blockquote>I would say that I’m mostly a [[cis]] [[woman]], but I don’t feel super strongly about it? I saw a Tumblr post once that said something like, “I’m a ‘she’ in the same way inanimate objects are ‘she’ to gays and sailors” and like . . . yeah? I’m a she because nothing else fits or feels right, but it’s a loose concept. . . . I think more than anything, my gender is something aesthetic? I’m loosely attached to it as a concept, but I do construct it in a certain way that most people generally interpret as at least [[feminine]]-leaning, and I’m content with that. </blockquote>Dana, a white 27 year old from Massachusetts, quoted by Winer<ref name=":0" /> | |||
== Reception == | == Reception == | ||
Latest revision as of 12:41, 21 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. Others find the whole concept of gender identity confusing.
Some gender-detached people feel totally detached from gender, while others feel some resonance with a specific gender alongside the detachment.[1]
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[edit | edit source]
Some gender-detached people use nonbinary terms like agender to describe themselves. However, they often see them as the closest or most convenient language available, rather than representations of a "true" self.[1]
Gender performance[edit | edit source]
Winer found that some interviewees wanted to alter their presentations or other elements of their gender expression to be more neutral. However, many gender-detached people Winer interviewed had no desire to move away from their existing performance of gender, even if others viewed it as gendered.[1]
Quotes[edit | edit source]
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]
My feelings about gender, for myself, are very detached and distant. I just don’t identify really with most concepts of gender, because it honestly just confuses me. I just don’t get it. I don’t know why I don’t get it for myself, but I just find existing with preconceived notions on who I “should” be tiring to follow, confusing to understand, and stifling to my true person. Gender, for me, is archaic and not worth the energy.
Faye, a Latine 18 year old from Illinois, quoted by Winer[1]
I would say that I’m mostly a cis woman, but I don’t feel super strongly about it? I saw a Tumblr post once that said something like, “I’m a ‘she’ in the same way inanimate objects are ‘she’ to gays and sailors” and like . . . yeah? I’m a she because nothing else fits or feels right, but it’s a loose concept. . . . I think more than anything, my gender is something aesthetic? I’m loosely attached to it as a concept, but I do construct it in a certain way that most people generally interpret as at least feminine-leaning, and I’m content with that.
Dana, a white 27 year old from Massachusetts, quoted by Winer[1]