'My gender is like an empty lot' − the people who reject man, woman and any other gender label

[littlemissmartypants]

People who experience gender detachment don’t feel gender is important to how they understand themselves. gremlin/E+ via Getty Images
‘My gender is like an empty lot’ − the people who reject man, woman and any other gender label

Published: October 30, 2025 8:27am EDT

When I asked Manisha to describe her gender identity, she gave a simple answer: “Meh.”

“I don’t have a gender identity,” Manisha explained. “I get that other people look at me and see a woman but, for myself, there’s a blank space where my gender ‘should’ be. My gender is ‘none.’”

Manisha’s response didn’t shock me. In my work as a sociologist, I had been interviewing asexual individuals – people who experience low to no sexual attraction – across the United States for months from 2020 to 2021. Like Manisha, more than a third of the 77 people I talked to were uncomfortable with defining themselves through the lens of gender. Gender was, as I came to describe it, detached from their sense of self.

This finding comes at a tumultuous time in the politics of gender. On the one hand, transgender and queer social movements have sought to expand people’s ability to break out of the gender binary of man or woman. On the other, the Trump administration has aggressively worked to reassert the gender binary by law.
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https://theconversation.com/my-gender-is-like-an-empty-lot-the-people-who-reject-man-woman-and-any-other-gender-label-267286

❤️pants

[hlthe2b]

1. A rough time right now to be able to speak their truth. I hope they are cautious.

But I commend their courage and tenacity.