ABSTRACT

In recent years, the fight of the LGBTQIA+ community for societal and institutional acceptance has taken the front and center of public discourse. While sub-groups of this community are now widely recognized (though not always accepted), one group seems to have escaped public acknowledgment. Agender individuals are those who define their gender identity as one that is not affiliated with any of the common definitions of gender. They are gender neutral. In other words, they define who they are in terms of who they are not. This definition poses great challenges to the enactment and expression of their identity. In this chapter, we explore how the digital world provides a platform for agender individuals to form and express their gender identity freely beyond the constraints of societal expectations in the physical world. We do so using data from personal interviews with people who identify as agender individuals.