Agender

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« I discovered non-binary identities last year when I was 18. When I read the definition of "agender", it just clicked. »
— Jay, 19 (Agender)[1]
Agender
Agender.png
Meaning
Black: absence of gender; grey: partial gender; green: gender that isn't related to male or female.
Related identities Agenderfluid and Agenderflux
Under the umbrella term Nonbinary
Frequency 23.8%
Click here to see alternative flags!

Agender (also called genderblank[citation needed], genderfree, genderless, gendervoid[citation needed], non-gendered, ungendered[2], or null gender[citation needed]) is an identity under the nonbinary and transgender umbrella terms. Agender individuals find that they have no gender identity, although some define it more as having a gender identity that is neutral. (See gender neutral for a related identity.)

Agender Pride day is celebrated on the 19th of May.[3][4]

History

A 1997 paper in International Journal of Transgenderism states 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."[2]

The 1998 book Working with Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender College Students: A Handbook for Faculty and Administrators lists "ungendered" as a label used by some transgender people.[5]

A 2000 post on Usenet described the Christian God as agender. In 2005, another Usenet user wrote that "cultures can have transgender, agender, and hypergender individuals."[6]

"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.[7]

Salem X (also known as "Ska" or as their Tumblr user name "transrants") created the agender flag in 2014, sharing the design on Feb 18th.[8] In reference to the colors chosen, they said "The black and white stripes represent an absence of gender, the gray represents semi-genderlessness, and the central green stripe represents nonbinary genders." In 2014, they also created the demiboy, demigirl and deminonbinary flags.[9]

In 2014, agender was one of the 56 genders made available on Facebook.[10]

In 2015, Dictionary.com added an entry for "agender,"[11] which it defined as "a person who does not have a specific gender identity or recognizable gender expression."[12]

On March 10 2017, a resident of Portland, Oregon, USA requested in court to be legally agender, and the request was approved.[13]

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.)[14]

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.[citation needed]

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.[citation needed] 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.[citation needed] 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.[citation needed] 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 2011 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".[citation needed]

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."[15]

agenderfluid. Coined by pleurocarpus. Basically agender, but also genderfluid. Synonym cancegender.[citation needed]

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

agenderfluix. A cross between agenderfluid and agenderflux; "a gender identity that is predominantly agender, but is fluid in nature and fluctuates in intensity over time." May also be called gxnderfluix, agxnderfluix, afluidflux, or flxidflux.[16]

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."[citation needed] Synonym agenderfluid.

genderabyss. When the person tries to picture their gender all they see is a deep abyss of darkness.

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

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"[17] Caution: sometimes used by trangender-exclusionary feminists to identify themself as someone who rejects the concept of gender identity.[18][19]

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

gendervoid. As described by Baaphomett, "A gender consisting of the void (also/originally used to mean the same thing as genderless)."[20]

librafluid. Coined by otterlyradical and pride-flags-for-us. "Mostly agender, but has a strong connection that fluctuates between masculinity, femininity and/or androgyny."[citation needed] See also libragender.

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."[citation needed]

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."[citation needed]

polyagender. Someone who experiences multiple types of agender-spectrum identities; for example they could be a combination of agender, null gender, and gendervoid.[21][22]

Notable people

Angel Haze live at Øyafestivalen 2013.
Andre J. at Dick's Bar in the East Village, March 2007
Chanda Prescod-Weinstein at Becoming Interplanetary talk at the Library of Congress, 2018

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.

  • Actor Ellie Desautels describes themself as nonbinary, transmasculine[23], genderqueer[24], and agenderflux.[25]
  • Christie Elan-Cane is a non-gendered activist based in the UK, "fighting for legal and social recognition outside the societal gender system".[26]
  • Tyler Ford (b. 1990) is an American writer and public speaker of mixed black and white Jewish ethnicity. Ford appeared as the first transgender contestant on The Glee Project in 2012. They are agender.[27]
  • Public Universal Friend (1752 - 1819), an evangelist who preached against slavery in the early United States. The Friend was genderless and asked to be called by no pronouns at all.[28][29][30]
  • 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.[citation needed]
  • Andre J. (b. 1979) is an American party promoter who is a presence in the New York City fashion scene. They have been featured in photo spreads in French Vogue and V magazine. They are genderless[31][32] and agender.[33]
  • Amita Kuttner, PhD., is an astrophysicist who is in the race for leader of Canada's Green Party.[34]. They call themself nonbinary, genderfluid, and agender.[35]
  • Juno Mitchell is an American model. They walked alongside Miley Cyrus in the 2020 Marc Jacobs New York Fashion Week show.[36] Their Instagram profile says they are agender.[37][38]
  • Chanda Prescod-Weinstein (b. 1982) is a cosmologist and science writer based at the University of New Hampshire. She was a founding member of the American Astronomical Society's Committee for Sexual Orientation and Gender Minorities in Astronomy. In an interview, she described herself as a femme agender cis-sex woman.[39]
  • DeAnne Smith is an award-winning Canadian-American comedian, writer and columnist. Smith is agender and transmasculine.[40]
  • Bogi Takács is a Jewish poet, writer, psycholinguist, editor, and translator who has written Torah-inspired work. They won the Lambda Literary Award for Best Transgender Fiction. Their Twitter bio says they are agender.[41]
  • Eris Young is a multi-genre writer known for their debut book They/Them/Their: A Guide to Nonbinary & Genderqueer Identities, published in fall 2019.[42][43] They are agender and genderqueer.[44]
  • Jesse "Plumbella" McNamara, a youtuber and twitch streamer known as one of the main heads of the Sims community, came out as agender (along with being asexual and heteroromantic) in a livestream on March 29th, 2021 and in various tweets.[citation needed]
  • Artist Dane Pop Frippery identifies as Agender as of 2022.[45] She uses she/her for pronouns.


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.[46] Even going so far as to write stories which avoid referring to Ashiok using gendered pronouns at all.[47] 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.[48]
  • Chaos Life Archived on 17 July 2023 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 Archived on 17 July 2023 by Kagome is a comic that features an agender protagonist.
  • *Eri the Cyborg Archived on 17 July 2023[Dead link] by Ren is a comic that features an agender protagonist.
  • Biaggio, in the movie "The Kings of Summer," asserts that they don't see themself as "having a gender."
  • In the video game NiGHTS into Dreams Archived on 17 July 2023 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.[49]
  • 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).
  • The entire race of Chronicoms from Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. are vehemently agender, though they are a race of extraterrestrial androids. They use gendered pronouns based on their current form.
  • The vessels from Hollow Knight. The vessels are part void, and may thus be gendervoid. Their sibling Hornet is known as “the gendered child”.
  • In the indie romance visual novel My Cup of Coffee: Earl Grey Forever After, the protagonist can be male, female, or "gender free". The player can make all other characters genderfree as well, which results in the game using gender neutral language, ne/nem/nir pronouns, and the Mx title.
  • In the Roblox game Phighting!, all characters are confirmed to be agender.

Research

The informal Gender Census survey, which asks respondents "How do you describe your gender?" (among other questions), has included a checkbox option for "agender" since its first year (2013).[50] Of around 2,000 respondents in 2013, 22% selected the "agender" checkbox.[51] In 2024, 11,254 respondents (23.1%) selected this checkbox.[52]

A 2019 study investigated the types of microaggressions that agender and gender non-conforming people experience in romantic relationships, drawing upon responses from 200 self-identified gender non-conforming people and 190 agender people.[53] The survey gave respondents only four options (transmasculine, transfeminine, gender non-conforming, agender) and the demographic information included alongside quotes reveals that participants often described themselves with different words when give a chance (including genderqueer, non-binary, and maverique), making it difficult to tell how many people who selected the agender category described themselves as agender outside the constraints of the survey. Therefore, it may be more accurate to frame the study as about microaggressions experienced by people who identify with a range of non-binary identities, including some agender people.

A chapter of the 2022 Routledge Handbook of Digital Consumption examined how agender people develop and express agender identity on the Internet, arguing Internet spaces enable greater self-expression than offline spaces.[54]

See also


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External links

References

  1. ↑ This quote is a snippet from an answer to the survey conducted in the year 2018. Note for editors: the text of the quote, as well as the name, age and gender identity of its author shouldn't be changed.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Eyler, A.E.; Wright, K. (1997). "Gender Identification and Sexual Orientation Among Genetic Females with Gender-Blended Self-Perception in Childhood and Adolescence". International Journal of Transgenderism. Archived from the original on 17 July 2023. An individual of any genetic sex may also regard him-herself as neither a woman nor a man, but a member of some other gender, as is common in non-Western cultures (and is becoming increasingly recognized in the West as well), or as an ungendered person, who does not or will not identify with any conventional gender.
  3. ↑ "Important LGBT Dates". LGBTLifeWestchester.org. Archived from the original on 17 July 2023. Retrieved 11 November 2021.
  4. ↑ Ohene, Benjamin. "Agender Pride Day". Believe Out Loud. Archived from the original on 17 July 2023. Retrieved 11 November 2021.
  5. ↑ Sanlo, Ronni, ed. (1998). Working with Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender College Students: A Handbook for Faculty and Administrators. p. 37. Archived from the original on 19 July 2023. Retrieved 4 October 2021. Transgender persons are those who are not comfortable living within the confines of the social stereotype of gender as applied to themselves. Labels used include cross-dresser, drag king, drag queen, intersexed, transsexual, butch, femme, ungendered, androgynous, and more. The labels are many and changing, and they are not always accepted by the people to whom they are applied.CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  6. ↑ "What Does It Mean to Be Agender?". them. 7 August 2018. Archived from the original on 17 July 2023. Retrieved 13 June 2020. sj Miller
  7. ↑ Richards, Christina; Barker, Meg (2013). Sexuality and Gender for Mental Health Professionals: A Practical Guide. SAGE Publications. ISBN 9781446293133.
  8. ↑ "Agender Flag – Majestic Mess Designs". Majestic Mess. Archived from the original on 12 June 2022. Retrieved 24 March 2023.
  9. ↑ "Interview: Creator of the Agender Flag – Majestic Mess Designs". Majestic Mess. Archived from the original on 28 February 2022. Retrieved 24 March 2023.
  10. ↑ Shapira, Eve. Gender circuits: Bodies and identities in a technological age.
  11. ↑ "New words added to Dictionary.com". Dictionary.com. May 6, 2015. Archived from the original on 17 July 2023. Retrieved 24 March 2023.
  12. ↑ "Agender". Dictionary.com. Archived from the original on 17 July 2023. Retrieved 24 March 2023.
  13. ↑ O'Hara, Mary Emily (23 March 2017). "Judge grants Oregon resident the right to be genderless". NBC News. Archived from the original on 17 July 2023. Retrieved 1 June 2020.
  14. ↑ "Survey Findings". The Future of Legal Gender. Archived from the original on 17 July 2023. Retrieved 9 April 2020.
  15. ↑ "genders coined by queerspike". 25 August 2014. Archived from the original on 17 July 2023.
  16. ↑ "Agenderfluix". Gender Wiki. Archived from the original on 17 July 2023. Retrieved 25 January 2021.
  17. ↑ "genderfree + flowers". Tumblr. 1 April 2019. Archived from the original on 17 July 2023.
  18. ↑ Williams, Rachel Anne (25 April 2019). "Can You Actually Be #Genderfree?". Medium. Archived from the original on 17 July 2023. Retrieved 4 April 2020.
  19. ↑ "Queerios on Tumblr". Tumblr. Archived from the original on 17 July 2023.
  20. ↑ mogai-archive. "masterpost of genders coined by baaphomett". Archived from the original on 19 July 2023. Retrieved 22 February 2017.CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  21. ↑ "Polyagender stamp by SilenceTheFox". DeviantArt. 20 March 2018. Archived from the original on 17 July 2023. Retrieved 24 March 2023.
  22. ↑ "nonbinary resource". Tumblr. Archived from the original on 17 July 2023. Retrieved 24 March 2023.
  23. ↑ Barasch, Alex (12 March 2018). "Rise's Ellie Desautels Talks Playing a Transgender Teen on Network TV". Slate Magazine. Archived from the original on 17 July 2023. Retrieved 9 April 2020.
  24. ↑ "Ellie Desautels profile". Instagram. Archived from the original on 17 July 2023. Retrieved 24 March 2023.
  25. ↑ Brent Dundore (17 August 2018). "Ellie & Wren". They Them Project. Archived from the original on 17 July 2023. Retrieved 9 April 2020.
  26. ↑ "elancane - Profile". LiveJournal. Archived from the original on 17 July 2023. Retrieved 24 March 2022. My core identity is neither male nor female
  27. ↑ Childress, Sarah (30 June 2015). ""I Like to Exist as a Person": What It Means to Live Beyond Gender". FRONTLINE. Archived from the original on 17 July 2023. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
  28. ↑ Lamphier, Peg A.; Welch, Rosanne (2017). Women in American History. p. 331.
  29. ↑ Brekus, Catherine A. (2000). Strangers and Pilgrims: Female Preaching in America, 1740-1845. p. 85.
  30. ↑ Juster, Susan; MacFarlane, Lisa (2018). A Mighty Baptism. p. 27-28.
  31. ↑ AlphaKitty (29 November 2007). "Andre J is glam, genderless &....an Alpha Kitty". YouTube. Archived from the original on 17 July 2023. Retrieved 17 May 2020.
  32. ↑ Wolfer, Alexis. "Andre J. : On Real Beauty". Archived from the original on February 18, 2011.
  33. ↑ Instagram bio, retrieved 17 May 2020
  34. ↑ Parsons, Vic (10 March 2020). "This astrophysicist could become the first non-binary person to lead a major political party in Canada". PinkNews. Archived from the original on 17 July 2023. Retrieved 18 May 2020.
  35. ↑ Kuttner, Amita (2019). "Identity in Politics". amitakuttner.ca. Archived from the original on 17 July 2023. Retrieved 18 May 2020.
  36. ↑ Lankston, Charlie (2 March 2020). "EXCLUSIVE: Genderless trans model who strutted the Marc Jacobs runway with Miley Cyrus opens up about their 'refreshing' heart-to-heart with the singer - while urging the industry to be more accepting of non-binary people". Daily Mail. Archived from the original on 17 July 2023. Retrieved 1 June 2020.
  37. ↑ "Juno Mitchell profile". Instagram. Archived from the original on 30 November 2023. Retrieved 24 March 2023.CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  38. ↑ "Jinkx Monsoon on Facebook". Facebook. Archived from the original on 17 July 2023. Retrieved 24 March 2023.
  39. ↑ McNeill, Leila (9 May 2019). "Bonus: Talking Feminist Astrophysics with Chanda Prescod-Weinstein — Lady Science". Lady Science. Archived from the original on 17 July 2023. Retrieved 17 May 2020.
  40. ↑ TheMelbComedyFest (14 May 2017). "DeAnne Smith - Comedy Up Late 2017 (S5, E2)". YouTube. Archived from the original on 17 July 2023. Retrieved 1 June 2020.
  41. ↑ "@bogiperson profile". Twitter. Archived from the original on 17 July 2023. Retrieved 24 March 2022.
  42. ↑ "On Writing and Growing: A Q&A with Eris Young". The Ampersand Project. Archived from the original on 17 July 2023. Retrieved 26 June 2020.
  43. ↑ Inglis, Becca (10 September 2019). "Eris Young on They/Them/Their: 'It's like a primer guide to being a non-binary person'". The List. Archived from the original on 17 July 2023. Retrieved 26 June 2020.
  44. ↑ @Young_E_H (10 February 2020). "I identify sometimes or partly as agender but also partly or sometimes as genderqueer!" – via Twitter.
  45. ↑ https://danepopfrippery.com/
  46. ↑ "A Voice for Vorthos – Posts tagged with "Ashiok"". Doug Beyer’s Blog – A Voice for Vorthos. Archived from the original on 17 July 2023. Retrieved 24 March 2023.
  47. ↑ "A Voice for Vorthos – Ok so when are we going to learn more about the specifics about Ashiok? Ashiok is not in the first novel at all and nothing is depicted in the cards". Doug Beyer’s Blog – A Voice for Vorthos. Archived from the original on 17 July 2023. Retrieved 24 March 2023.
  48. ↑ "Roswell". The Adventure Zone Wiki. Archived from the original on 17 July 2023. Retrieved 24 March 2023.
  49. ↑ Taylor, Mike (5 December 2007). "Interview: Takashi Iizuka Talks NiGHTS". Nintendo Life. Archived from the original on 17 July 2023. Retrieved 24 March 2023.
  50. ↑ https://gendercensus.com/results/2013-worldwide/
  51. ↑ https://www.gendercensus.com/results/2013-worldwide/
  52. ↑ Gender Census 2024 Unprocessed Results.https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1EJXhTOLDdgsv8hQcBc9gStKV-BrInUdF8ZtuObp9x38/edit?gid=779426998#gid=779426998
  53. ↑ Pulice-Farrow, L., McNary, S. B., & Galupo, M. P. (2019). “Bigender is just a Tumblr thing”: microaggressions in the romantic relationships of gender non-conforming and agender transgender individuals. Sexual and Relationship Therapy, 1–20. doi:10.1080/14681994.2018.1533245
  54. ↑ Ketola, M., Selander, S., & Ruvio, A. (2022). "Identity expressions of agender individuals in a digital world". In Llamas, R., & Belk, R. (Eds.),The Routledge Handbook of Digital Consumption (2nd ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003317524
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