Gendergender

When someone experiences a gender, but that gender is unexplainable and can only be identified as "gender" and nothing else.

Definition

When someone experiences a gender, but that gender is unexplainable and can only be identified as "gender" and nothing else. The person knows they have a gender and experiences it - but cannot describe, name, or characterize what it actually is beyond the bare fact of its existence.

Etymology

Coined on or before July 27, 2014, by an anonymous user via the now-deleted Tumblr blog mogai-archive.

History

Originated on MOGAI-archive, a Tumblr blog (2013-2015) dedicated to coining and collecting microlabel identity terms. The flag was created by Tumblr user imoga-pride on November 30, 2018. Gendergender is distinct from related identities: it is not about complexity (comgender) but essential inexplicability; unlike xenogender, gendergender people cannot gesture at their gender at all; unlike agender, the gender is present but cannot be named.

Common myths

  • "Gendergender is a joke label." The reduplicated name is unusual, but the experience it names - a felt, definite gender that resists all description - is consistently reported and meaningfully distinct from agender, quoigender, and xenogender.
  • "If you can't describe your gender, you don't have one." Describability and existence are separate. Many internal experiences are real but resist language.