Neuter: Difference between revisions

| related = [[agender]], [[neutrois]], [[gender neutral]]

2. Without sexual organs, or with incomplete sexual organs. In biology and zoology, this can mean animals that were artificially spayed, [[orchiectomy|castrated]], or otherwise [[sterilization|sterilized]], as well as animals who were normally born in that condition, such as worker bees. In botany, neuter can mean plants without pistils and stamens.<ref>"Neuter." ''Merriam-Webster Dictionary.'' https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/neuter</ref><ref>"Neuther." ''Dictionary.com.'' https://www.dictionary.com/browse/neuter</ref><ref>"Neuter." ''The Free Dictionary.'' https://www.thefreedictionary.com/neuter</ref>

Although the word "neuter" has existed in English with these meanings for hundreds of years, surveys show that it hasn't been common for contemporary [[nonbinary]] people to call themselves neuter.<ref>https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ePCyWMdorSHAaxNcd1Iv64oLvkdgeoZldTdGZZTHlvY/edit#gid=498446722</ref> However, neuter was mentioned as one of many valid nonbinary identities in the 2013 text ''Sexuality and Gender for Mental Health Professionals: A Practical Guide''.<ref>{{cite book|isbn=9781446293133|title=Sexuality and Gender for Mental Health Professionals: A Practical Guide|last1=Richards|first1=Christina|last2=Barker|first2=Meg|year=2013|publisher=SAGE Publications}}</ref>

* '''FTN'''. In some queer communities, this has meant female-to-neuter (or [[neutrois]]) transsexual (or transgender), as a counterpart to more widely-used terms, FTM (female-to-male, meaning a trans man, or someone on the trans-masculine spectrum) and MTF (male-to-female, meaning a trans woman, or someone on the trans-feminine spectrum).<ref name="neutrois_terms">"LGBTQ terms." ''Neutrois.com.'' [http://neutrois.com/definitions/terms/]</ref>

* [[Claude Cahun]] (1894 - 1954) was a surrealist artist and a resistance worker against the Nazi occupation of France in WWII. In Cahun's autobiography, ''Disavowals'', they explained, “Masculine? Feminine? It depends on the situation. Neuter is the only gender that always suits me.”<ref>{{Cite book|title=Disavowals : or cancelled confessions|first=Claude|last=Cahun|date=2008|publisher=The MIT Press|isbn=9780262533034|oclc=922878515}}</ref>

* Autistic activist and [[intersex]] person [[Jim Sinclair]] has said they are "proudly neuter, both physically and socially."<ref>{{cite web|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090207013228/http:/web.syr.edu:80/~jisincla/brief_bio.htm|url=http://web.syr.edu/~jisincla/brief_bio.htm|archive-date=7 February 2009|title=Self-introduction to the Intersex Society of North America|last=Sinclair|first=Jim|date=1997}}</ref>

* M. C. A. Hogarth's science-fiction series about the Jokka, an alien species that can randomly change sex twice at puberty, with three sexes, and three corresponding gender roles: female, male, and neuter. The neuters can't reproduce, but since they're the least vulnerable to succumbing to "mind death" (a kind of stroke that afflicts any member of their species if they exert themselves too hard), their place in society is to do work that requires a hardy body and a good memory. Several main characters don't like the sexes they ended up with, and could be seen as transgender. The main character in the short story "Freedom, Spiced and Drunk" wishes to be neuter; details aren't possible without spoiling the story.