Agender, sometimes known as gendern't, describes having a complete lack of gender and/or being completely genderless. Someone who identifies as agender has a gender that is neither male, female, or any other gender or gender alignment. Whilst having a complete lack of gender is the main definition of agender, some beings may also identify as agender if:
- Their gender is neutral (neutral genders)
- Their gender is unknown, or undefinable (uingender / uingenders)
- Their gender does not align with any binary or non-binary gender identities
- They don't feel connected to gender or the concept of gender
- They do not care about their own gender (cassgender)
History & Coining[]
The first recorded use of the word agender online appears to come from a post on the site UseNet on July 28th, 2000. The user Miriam Wolfe wrote "All I understand is that God is amorphous, agender...". There were a few other instances of the word being used around the same time, but these uses were usually used in the context of God or gender presentation.
The first instance where the word was used as a specific identity seems to also come for UseNet. The user man_in_black529 wrote "But despite this near-universality of gender, cultures can have transgender, agender, and hypergender individuals."
In both of these cases, the word agender was not defined The word agender likely existed before these posts, and possibly had a similar meaning to what it does now. However, earlier uses of the word are not recorded.
Flags & Symbols[]
The original agender flag was designed by the Tumblr user Transrants aka Salem in 2014. The color meanings are as follows:
- Black represents an absence of gender
- Grey represents partial gender
- Green represents the non-binary nature of this gender because green is the inverse of lavender (a mixture of pink and blue, representing a mix of female and male)
A common Agender symbol
Agender planetary symbol
Alt Agender symbol
Several agender symbols exist. The most common is a circle (in reference to the male and female symbols and many other gender symbols), with a line through it, either horizontally or diagonally (∅), likely representing gender being crossed out and absent.
Resources[]
https://lgbta.wikia.org/wiki/Agender
https://groups.google.com/g/alt.messianic/c/Egv3-Fufvsw/m/FIGdiv-8z7AJ?pli=1 - first mention of agender in context of God
https://groups.google.com/g/alt.politics.democrats/c/ZNxbzT3GPrg/m/hmVZJTBrlFkJ - first mention of agender in context of human gender
https://pride-color-schemes.tumblr.com/post/147170289630/agender