Expression

Gender nonconforming

Looking, sounding or behaving in ways your gender isn't 'supposed' to. It describes presentation and says nothing about what you are.

A way of presenting, not an identity
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A way of presenting, not a gender identity. Gender nonconforming describes how someone presents (clothes, hair, voice, manner), not what gender they are; it is a way of looking and behaving, not a gender identity.

A shorter entry: the essentials, written to the same standard. The fuller guides are on the main identities.

What it is

Gender nonconforming means your appearance, mannerisms or behaviour don't match what's expected of your gender. A woman with a shaved head and a welding kit. A man who paints his nails and cries at adverts. A non-binary person in a suit. It's a description of the outside, of expression, and it's true of a lot of people who never think about it.

It isn't an identity. You can be gender nonconforming and cis. You can be gender nonconforming and trans. You can be trans and entirely conforming: a trans woman in a floral dress is not GNC just for being trans. The Wikipedia record puts it plainly: a person can be gender nonconforming regardless of their gender identity.

It's also not a measurement. There's no threshold, no council deciding whether your haircut qualifies. The rules being broken are local ones, and what passes unremarked in one city is a statement in another, so the label moves with the room. People shorten it to GNC. The older, more clinical phrase is gender variance.

Pronouns

Being gender nonconforming says nothing about pronouns. Most GNC people use the pronouns of their gender, because their gender hasn't changed, only the way it's dressed. If someone's presentation makes you unsure which to use, that's a reason to ask, not a reason to guess.

Does this sound like you?

Strangers read you as the wrong gender several times a week, and you correct them or not depending on how much energy you have.

You might know exactly which shops will serve you without a look and which won't.

Someone who meant well has asked 'so are you trans?', and you had to explain that no, this is just what a woman in a boiler suit looks like.

You might have had a parent, a partner or a manager tell you to 'make an effort', meaning conform, and known precisely what the effort would cost.

You are completely settled in your gender and completely unbothered by the rules attached to it. The mismatch is theirs, not yours.

You might pick toilets by which one will cause less trouble today rather than which one is yours.

There is a photo from before you stopped conforming that people still prefer, and a strong sense that the person in it was tired.

Nearby identities

The distinction is the useful part.

Non-Binary

An identity: a gender that isn't man or woman. Gender nonconforming is an expression. Many non-binary people are also GNC, and many aren't. A woman with a shaved head may be, completely and permanently, a woman.

Compare Gender nonconforming and Non-Binary →

Butch

A specific gender-nonconforming tradition: masculinity built inside queer life, with history and a scene. Butches are GNC by definition. Most GNC people are not butch, and the word isn't for everyone who breaks the rules.

Compare Gender nonconforming and Butch →

Tomboy

The everyday word for a girl or woman who dresses and plays against expectation, often with no queer history attached. Gender nonconforming is the broader, more neutral description.

Compare Gender nonconforming and Tomboy →

Genderqueer

Where the refusal to resolve into man or woman is the point. That's an identity claim. GNC makes no claim about what you are, only about how you look.

Compare Gender nonconforming and Genderqueer →

Transgender Female

A woman who was assigned male at birth. That's identity, not expression. She may present in the most conventional way possible and still be trans; being trans does not make someone gender nonconforming.

Compare Gender nonconforming and Transgender Female →

Compare Gender nonconforming with…

It might not be you if…

The mismatch you feel is on the inside: the word woman or man itself is wrong, not just the rules bolted on. Test it. Imagine every rule gone. If the word still chafes, that's about identity, and the non-binary and transgender pages are where to look.
You present in the expected way and dislike the expectations. That's a political position and a fair one, but it isn't nonconformity until it shows.
You're describing one outfit at one party. Nonconformity is a pattern of how you live, not a costume.
You're using it as a polite word for trans. It isn't. Trans people can be GNC or not; cis people can be GNC or not. The two axes are separate, and collapsing them erases both.

Questions people ask

Is gender nonconforming the same as non-binary?

No. Non-binary is a gender. Gender nonconforming is a way of presenting. A non-binary person in a plain jumper and jeans might not read as GNC at all; a cis woman with a buzz cut and a toolbox is GNC and still, entirely, a woman.

Are gender nonconforming people transgender?

Some are, most aren't, and the record says it both ways: not all gender-nonconforming people identify as transgender, and not all transgender people are gender nonconforming. If your gender matches what you were assigned and it's only the presentation that breaks the rules, you're cis and GNC, and that's a complete answer.

Is 'gender nonconforming' a diagnosis?

No. Clinical writing has used 'gender variance' as a description, and there's a literature on childhood gender nonconformity, but the phrase names behaviour, not a condition. Nobody needs a professional to tell them their haircut breaks a rule.