Agender

« I discovered non-binary identities last year when I was 18. When I read the definition of "agender", it just clicked. » — Jay, 19 (Agender)

Agender

Meaning - Black: absence of gender - Grey: partial gender - Green: gender that isn't related to male or female
Related identities	nonbinary, nullgender, gendervoid
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Agender is also called genderblank, genderfree, genderless, gendervoid, non-gendered, ungendered, or null gender. Agender is an identity under the nonbinary and transgender umbrella terms. Agender individuals find that they have no gender identity, although some define this more as having a gender identity that is neutral.

History

A 1997 paper in International Journal of Transgenderism found that "An individual of any genetic sex may also regard him-herself as [...] an ungendered person, who does not or will not identify with any conventional gender."

"Non-gendered", "genderless", and "agender" were mentioned in a list of valid nonbinary identities in the 2013 text Sexuality and Gender for Mental Health Professionals: A Practical Guide.

Tumblr user transrants (also known as Salem X or "Ska") created the agender flag in 2014.

In 2014, agender was one of the 56 genders made available on Facebook.

In 2015, Dictionary.com added an entry for "agender," which it defined as "a person who does not have a specific gender identity or recognizable gender expression."

On March 10 2017, a resident of Portland, Oregon, USA requested in court to be legally agender, and the request was approved.

A 2018 survey of "Attitudes to Gender", ran by the Britain-based "Future of Legal Gender" project, asked people if they agree or disagree with the statement "More people will identify as agender (not having a gender) in the future." 32.4% selected "agree" and 13.7% selected "strongly agree". 20.6% selected "neither agree nor disagree" and 19.7% "don't know", compared to a mere 6.6% "disagree" and 7% "strongly disagree". (71% of nonbinary respondents agreed or strongly agreed.)

Agender as gender identity or lack of gender identity

Some agender people feel that they have no gender identity, while others feel that agender is itself a gender identity. This can be similar to or overlap with the experience of being gender neutral or having a neutral gender identity.

As some agender people have no gender identity, it is important to not talk about nonbinary or transgender people's experiences only in the sense of gender identity.

Difference between genderless and neutrois

There is little agreement about the difference between terms such as agender, genderless, non-gender, gender neutral, and neutrois. These terms are often used interchangeably, or defined differently by individual writers in ways that don't necessarily match the self-definitions of others using those terms.

It is often said that non-gender or genderlessness is the experience of having no gender identity at all, whereas gender neutral or neutrois is the experience of having a gender identity, a gender identity which is not male or female, but neutral. However, these statements don't match the experiences of everyone who has taken up these identities as their own. This is a result of a disagreement between word definitions that are prescriptivist (telling everyone how they should use a word, and saying that many people use it wrong) and descriptivist (describing how people have actually been using a word, without telling them to change).

Non-gendered as an umbrella term

Some activists, such as Christie Elan-Cane, use non-gendered to mean all gender outside of the gender binary. This use comes from several years before the term nonbinary, but is seen as problematic because it gives the idea that nonbinary gender identities don't exist, or that all nonbinary people are genderless. Nonetheless this usage is in some official organisations' documents and resources as the term to cover all nonbinary people. This is most common in the United Kingdom, for example throughout the recent UK Government Transgender Action Plan.

List of kinds of agender identities

It can be difficult to describe and name a gender identity that involves a lack of inner gender identity. In order to do so, some people see the need to make new names for that gender identity, or to distinguish between different but similar genderless identities. A list of these names, in alphabetical order:

anongender. "A gender that is unknown to you and others".

apogender. Coined by queerspike. "Greek prefix apo, meaning away from, separate, at the farthest point; a subset of agender in which you feel not only genderless but entirely removed from the concept of gender."

agenderfluid. Coined by pleurocarpus. Basically agender, but also genderfluid. Synonym cancegender.

agenderflux. Coined by perfectlybrokenbones. "Where you identify as agender but have fluctuations where you feel feminine or masculine but not male or female. ".

cancegender. coined by prideful-concerto. "An individual is agender as their “base” gender but experiences fluid/fluxing gender feelings in tandem with their emotions. These gender feelings may confuse or upset the individual and cause their emotional state to go haywire, which causes more gender changes." Synonym agenderfluid.

genderblank. As described by Damloz: Having no gender. Also, as described by anonymous: "a gender so indescribable that the only thought one gets when trying to describe it is a blank space"

genderfree. As described by polyamaesthetic, "someone whose gender is not present; someone who feels their gender is insignificant or irrelevant; someone whose gender is kind of ambiguous, but definitely queer; someone whose gender feels blurry, cloudy, whimsical, and free" Caution: sometimes used by trangender-exclusionary feminists to identify themself as someone who rejects the concept of gender identity.

gendernull. As described by Baaphomett, "A gender like gendervoid but without the void."

gendervoid. As described by Baaphomett, "A gender consisting of the void (also/originally used to mean the same thing as genderless)."

librafluid. Coined by otterlyradical and pride-flags-for-us. "Mostly agender, but has a strong connection that fluctuates between masculinity and femininity."

null gender. Coined by dieselwolfe. "Undefinable, intangible, the uncreation of gender. Its taking everything everyone throws at you, saying male, female, pick one, pick this, pick that, and taking it in, only to expel it, poisonous crystals erupting from your skin, armor against those who don’t listen. A 'I don’t want a label because labels don’t fit but they help shut people up sometimes, so here have a label' gender label. A fall-back plan, a red herring to give people who can’t conceptualize the absence, void, nullification of gender. It is, and is not. All and none. Nonexistant but present."

oneirogender. Coined by anonymous. "Being agender, but having recurring fantasies or dreams of being a certain gender without the actual dysphoria or desire to actually be that gender day-to-day. e.g. oneiroboy, oneirogirl, oneirononbinary, etc."

Notable people

Angel Haze live at Øyafestivalen 2013.

See main article: Notable nonbinary people

There are many more notable people who have a gender identity outside of the binary. The following are only some of those notable people who specifically use the words "agender," "genderblank," "genderfree," "genderless," "gendervoid," "non-gendered," or "null gender" for themselves.

• Raeen Roes (Angel Haze) (b. 1991), a well known agender rapper. They have been nominated for awards with MTV, O Music Awards, BET Awards, and GLAAD Music Awards. They announced on Twitter that they were agender.
• Jinkx Monsoon (b. 1987) an American drag performer, actor, comedian and singer best known for winning the fifth season of RuPaul's Drag Race. In a Facebook post about transphobia and the drag scene, Monsoon stated "I, myself do not identify as cis-gendered. I am genderless."
• Christie Elan-Cane, non-gendered activist.
• Public Universal Friend (1752 - 1819), an evangelist who preached against slavery in the early United States. The Friend claimed to be genderless and asked to be called by no pronouns at all.
• Tyler Ford, activist and media personality, came out as agender in 2014.
• Comedian DeAnne Smith is agender.

Agender characters in fiction

See main article: Nonbinary gender in fiction

There are many more nonbinary characters in fiction who have a gender identity outside of the binary. The following are only some of those characters who are specifically called by the words "agender," "genderblank," "genderfree," "genderless," "gendervoid," "non-gendered," "null gender," or not having a gender, either in their canon, or by their creators.

• “Ashiok” from the popular card game Magic: The Gathering is explicitly referred to as being nongendered. Though some depictions of the character include “he” as a pronoun, a lead designer from the company that makes the game has insisted on numerous occasions that the character is explicitly nongendered. Even going so far as to write stories which avoid referring to Ashiok using gendered pronouns at all. Ashiok's card can be found here.
• Roswell, in the podcast The Adventure Zone, is an Earth Elemental made of living clay in a suit of armor, who talks via a small bird. Roswell is agender and uses they/them pronouns.
• Chaos Life by A. Stiffler and K. Copeland - A light-hearted, semi-autobiographical webcomic about the everyday idiosyncrasies of an agender person, their female partner, and their cats.
• 6ses by Kagome is a comic that features an agender protagonist.
• *Eri the Cyborg by Ren is a comic that features an agender protagonist.
• Biaggio, in the movie "The Kings of Summer," asserts that he doesn't see himself as "having a gender."
• In the video game NiGHTS into Dreams the character "NiGHTS is neutral, and therefore has no gender. The impressions of the character with regards to gender are totally up to the player" according to Takashi Iizuka, the lead designer of the game.
• Bone Dance by Emma Bull. Character: the protagonist, Sparrow, is canonically described as "sexless" and "genderless." The exact details of their identity are a matter of debate (spoilers).

See also

There are 39 alternative pride flags for this identity. Go to gallery!

• Gender Neutral
• Neutrois
• List of nonbinary identities
• Nonbinary celebrities

External links

• Neutrois Nonsense: On the difference between agender, genderless and neutrois
• A Fine Line: J.M. Cottle talks about Genderless identity
• Chroanagram: Gender neutral=Genderless?
• Genderqueer Identities: Genderqueer identities and terms list
• Nonbinary Tumblr: When activists don't represent, Christie Elan-Cane and Gender Identity
• Hell Yeah, Agender! (blog)
• Agender on Gender Wiki