Gender neutral
A neutral gender: not a man, not a woman, not a mix, not a midpoint. Also, separately, the word for toilets and names that take no side.
- One of seventeen Agender 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
Gender neutral does two jobs, and most of the confusion around it comes from not saying which one is meant. As an adjective it describes things: a gender-neutral toilet, a gender-neutral name, gender-neutral language. Nothing about the person, everything about the thing. That is the meaning most people search for, and it needs no page.
As an identity it is a gender that is neutral. Not male or masculine. Not female or feminine. Not somewhere between the two, and not a blend. The LGBTQIA+ Wiki records it being used interchangeably with unaligned and abinary, and lists neutrois and agender as the identities most often described as neutral. Some people mean by it that the masculine and feminine cancel out; more mean that neither was ever there to cancel.
The line between neutral and androgynous matters here. Androgynous is both at once. Neutral is neither. From the outside the two can look identical; from the inside they are different answers. And the identity and the look are separate: the wiki is explicit that not everyone with a neutral gender presents neutrally, and not everyone who presents neutrally has a neutral gender. A woman in a boiler suit is gender neutral in the adjective sense and entirely a woman.
Pronouns
They/them is the pronoun most people reach for, because it is the neutral one in English. Some use neopronouns. Some keep he or she for family peace or safety and change nothing audible. Using gender-neutral pronouns does not make anyone gender neutral, and having a neutral gender does not oblige anyone to change theirs.
Does this sound like you?
Is Gender neutral you?
The test ranks all 136 identities by how closely they fit your answers, so you see where Gender neutral lands for you. Twenty questions, about four minutes, nothing leaves your phone. It suggests. You decide.
Nearby identities
The distinction is the useful part.
The older, more specific word for a neutral gender, and it usually carries a wish for a neutral body with it. Gender neutral is the plain-English label with no claim about the body attached. Many people use both about themselves.
Compare Gender neutral and Neutrois →No gender at all rather than a neutral one. A blank versus a zero. The two overlap heavily and the community has never settled the border; the wiki lists agender among the neutral genders. If you would say “nothing there” rather than “something, and it is neutral”, that is the page.
Compare Gender neutral and Agender →Both, not neither. Masculine and feminine switched on at once, or a genuine midpoint. Neutral is the absence of both. The wiki draws exactly this line.
Compare Gender neutral and Androgyne →It might not be you if…
- You mean the adjective. Gender-neutral clothes, names, language, toilets. That is a description of things and needs no identity behind it.
- You are both. Masculine and feminine at once, deliberately, and you like the mix. That is androgyne.
- There is nothing there, and neutral sounds like too much of a something. Agender is the more accurate word.
- You want a neutral body as much as a neutral label. Neutrois is the word built around that, and its page says so.
Questions people ask
Is gender neutral a gender identity or just a description?
Both, depending on the sentence. “A gender-neutral bathroom” describes a thing. “I am gender neutral” describes a person with a neutral gender: not male, not female, not between. The LGBTQIA+ Wiki records both uses and adds a third, the presentation: dressing in a way that indicates neither. Say which one you mean and the confusion goes away.
What is the difference between gender neutral and non-binary?
Non-binary is the umbrella for any gender outside man and woman. Gender neutral is one specific shape under it: neutral, neither, no lean. Plenty of non-binary people are not neutral at all; they are both, or fluid, or something with no name. Every gender-neutral person is non-binary in the broad sense. The reverse does not hold.
What are gender-neutral pronouns?
Pronouns that take no side. In English, they/them is the common one, and neopronouns such as xe/xem or ey/em do the same job. Anyone of any gender can be referred to neutrally; using they for someone does not say anything about their gender, only that you are not assuming it.
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