Axigender
Two settings on one switch: agender at one end, another gender at the other, and never both at once.
- One of twenty-eight Non-Binary identities
- No settled flag
- 4 min read
A shorter entry: the essentials, written to the same standard. The fuller guides are on the main identities.
What it is
Picture an axis with two ends. One end is agender: nothing there. The other end is a gender, man, woman, or anything else. You're at one end or the other. Never in the middle, never both. That's axigender.
It sits in the bigender family, because there are two genders. The difference is the rules. Bigender allows overlap, both at once, stacked. Axigender doesn't: the switch flips, and it flips fast. The record on the wiki says the transition is short, a flip rather than a fade. And one of the two is always the absence.
What it is not: it isn't genderflux. Flux is a dial, a gender getting louder and quieter, passing through every value on the way. Axigender is a switch. There is no 'a bit'. And it's a small word from online non-binary spaces, dated by the wiki that records it to 2016, with nothing written about it beyond definitions. What follows is the mechanics as people describe them, not a documented history.
Pronouns
No pronoun comes with this. Some people run two sets and switch with the flip. Most keep one, often they/them, because it holds at both ends, and tell a few people that the inside moves. If your other gender is a binary one, you may find he or she lands fine on those days and slides off on the others. Neither arrangement is more honest than the other.
Does this sound like you?
Take the test
Twenty questions, about four minutes, nothing leaves your phone. It suggests. You decide.
Nearby identities
The distinction is the useful part.
Two genders as well, but bigender allows both at once and doesn't require either to be agender. If you're ever both, or neither of your two is 'none', bigender is the better-known and better-fitting word.
Compare Axigender and Bigender →Agender baseline with the volume drifting up and down. That's a dial. Axigender is a switch: you're at one end or the other, never partway.
Compare Axigender and Agenderflux →The same abrupt flip between exactly two, with no requirement that either of them is agender. If neither of your two is nothing at all, switchgender names the mechanism and the axis image adds nothing.
Compare Axigender and Switchgender →It might not be you if…
- Your two genders overlap. You're sometimes both at once. That's bigender, plainly.
- The change is gradual. You feel it fading in over a morning. That's a dial, and the dial words are genderflux and agenderflux.
- Neither of your two states is agender. Then the axis image adds nothing — but if the flip is still abrupt and you are never both, switchgender is the word; if it drifts, read bigender or fluid between two.
- You've only ever been at one end. A gender you might have one day isn't a second gender yet. Give it time before you build the machinery.
Questions people ask
Is axigender a kind of bigender?
Yes, in the loose sense: two genders. The wiki record separates them on two points. Axigender never overlaps, and one of the two is always agender. If both of those are true for you, this is the more precise word. If either isn't, bigender fits better and has far more company.
How is this different from agenderflux?
The shape of the change. Agenderflux drifts: a bit more gender, then less, then none. Axigender flips: none, then fully something, then none. If you've ever honestly answered 'a little', you're describing flux.
Do I have to know what the other gender is?
No. The other end can be man, woman, or something you've never named. The word only commits to two things: that there are two states, and that one of them is nothing.
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