Postgender is a word that has yet to make its way into into mainstream dictionaries, but in online spaces its use is regular and definitions are widely accepted and not hard to find:
- Having moved beyond gender stereotypes
- In a serious relationship, the equal division of household labour and parenting, or the same in a manner other than according to traditional gender roles
- A person who is postgender no longer identifies as gendered; or expresses their personality in a non-gendered or non-stereotypically gendered way
What we’re referring to is the conscious and voluntary rejection of stereotypical gender roles, as they are defined by culture, politics or religion. A postgender world is one where we don’t feel the need to dress babies in blue and pink; where boys can be dancers, girls can be footballers, and nonbinary children can go to the toilet of their choice at school without someone trying to pass a law to stop them and prosecute their parents for child abuse.
This is not to say that in the future everyone must be androgynous bisexual clones, just that society will be better when societal disadvantages ascribed to gender roles are permanently eradicated. And if people do want to dress like peak era David Bowie, they shouldn’t suffer harassment or prejudice just because they want to wear make-up, dresses and high heels.
Postgenderists argue that gender is an arbitrary and unnecessary limitation on human potential… Postgenderists do not call for the end of all gender traits, or universal androgyny, but rather that those traits become a matter of choice. Bodies and personalities in our postgender future will no longer be constrained and circumscribed by gendered traits, but enriched by their use in the palette of diverse self-expression.
~ George Dvorsky, 2008
Why ‘Postgenderific’? No particular reason. Just liked the sound of it and I didn’t want anything too serious!
Postgenderific is for you if one or more of these statements sounds relatable:
- You’re interested in items that are marketed as gender-free, unisex, or similar
- You’ve noticed that things historically marketed as for women are coming out in versions ‘for men’
- You wonder why things that are marketed to women can’t just be used by all genders anyway
Postgenderific is described as for Hims and Thems. Obviously anyone who is interested can read, and I hope you do, but as a nonbinary person who was assigned male at birth, that’s the angle that I’m taking. It’s mainly going to be of use to cis men, or people have been identified as male in the past.
And it’s done for practical reasons; when you search online for phrases like “androgynous fashion”, a lot of what you get back is aimed toward people assigned female at birth who want to adopt a loosely masc, tomboyish style:
If you’re not convinced of the need for more resources for AMAB people who wish to adopt a more androgynous or femme gender expression, try googling “Men’s dresses” and see what happens.
Postgenderific is not for you if you can relate to this screenshot from Reddit, and you don’t wipe your bum because touching your own anus feels gay. If that is you, give your head a wobble and think about what you’re doing next time you masturbate.
Postgenderific 