What is agender identity and understand its multiple experiences

Agender is one of several non-binary identities in which people do not identify with any gender. To talk about it, researcher, social science student and non-binary person Ursula Boreal Lopes Brevilheri, who uses the feminine pronouns (ela) or neuter (ila) and the agender person Nat Devergenes, who uses neuter pronouns (elu) , extensively explore the specifics that involve this identity. Check out!

What is agender?

According to Ursula, “To understand what agender is, as well as other non-binary identities, it is necessary to assume that there is a polysemy behind this term. This means that what unites people who identify as agender is not a singular and unique character, but a series of affinities around certain conceptualizations that are established”.

In this way, a person identifying as agender “can mean an identification with a gender absence, with an absence of gender identification/identity or even with a gender neutral perspective”.

Ursula explains that “in the first case, the person identifies their identity based on an absence, denial and/or non-existence of gender; while in the second, these same attributes refer, for example, to the denial of an identity or a non-existence of gender identity”.

Finally, “the third case is more linked to a specific position within the spectrum of identities, which is equivalent to point 0 of a Cartesian graph (x=0 and y=0). That is, a position that establishes a kind of balance between different identifications, but still within the range of gender identities”.

In this sense, Ursula highlights that “the first and second definitions would be uncertain points or even non-insertion in the graph/spectrum, which is mathematically represented by the Ø. That is, the empty set.

the agender flag

The flag that represents the best-known agender identity is formed by 7 horizontal stripes. The stripes have the same height and are used in black, to represent the total absence of gender; gray, to symbolize the partial absence of gender; white, once again symbolizing the complete absence of gender; and green, representing the non-binary identity.

How does one identify as an agender

The process of understanding how an agender person is different for each subject, as it all depends on their subjectivity and experience. In addition, society also does not usually disclose and teach about these terms. This means that many people even feel uncomfortable with the genres, but they don’t know that there are groups and terms that define this feeling.

For Nat Devergenes, this discovery process was closely tied to therapy. Elu recalls that she realized “that it didn’t make sense to want to please others, it wouldn’t make sense to have control over things that we have no control over, you know?”.

Elu says she used to talk a lot about other people in therapy, “so the therapist would ask what I felt or what I wanted. And I remember a time at home where I thought I repress my thoughts a lot. So I decided to stop repressing them, now I’m going to think what I want. Like, just for myself, you know? Without even externalizing”.

It was then that “when I imagined myself, I did not imagine a woman and, sometimes, when I spoke to myself, I treated myself with the masculine pronoun, but not the masculine pronoun as a man, you know? It was like a person, just a person.”

Elu recalls the familiarity caused by this feeling, “it was a very familiar feeling, that since I was a child, since when I was younger, I don’t just imagine myself as a woman talking, I am talking, you know?”. From this self-listening, “I paid attention to this and started to think that maybe my identity and my existence are not necessarily those of a woman”.

Among the main signs of an agender person that Devergenes recognized in himself are some dysphorias: “I started to realize that I can’t have long hair and that I don’t like my breasts. So it’s a good thing they’re small, you know? If they were bigger, I would feel bad,” he says.

In addition, elu comments that she prefers clothes considered masculine and that she started going to the gym “not to help lose weight, but to gain weight and because I want to have a big body, you know? So these are things that end up putting me in a gender expression that is said to be more masculine.”

Devergenes explains that “this conflicts, because I don’t understand the issue of gender limitation, but I think it’s precisely because I’m an agender person that I can do whatever I want, whenever I want. I have to feel more comfortable in my body without performing any gender.”

agender x asexual

The proximity of the words agender and asexual is given by the prefix A which indicates that “Both things are denying something”, as highlighted by Devergenes. The first relates to gender identity, while the second relates to sexuality.

Devergenes points out that “in our society there is this custom of relating sexuality to gender and in fact it is not a joint thing, it is a completely separate, independent thing”.

Thus, the two identities are completely separate things, but due to the proximity of the nomenclature, they may seem close.

Agener x non-binary

The agender identity is non-binary. This is because “non-binary encompasses all identification that does not describe itself as unique, integrally and/or cisgender. In this way, agenerity is present precisely in not belonging to any of these categories”, explains Ursula.

The researcher also explained that “in the non-binary flag, the color black contemplates agender identity”. She also highlights that many people are gender-fluid and “this does not prevent, at some point, identifying with some cis characteristic”.

“The point is that the cisnorm parameter has a binary framework and the non-identification or absence of gender constitutes a break from the aspect that some identification is necessary”, he concluded.

What is the law for agender people?

Regarding the laws, “there is no legislation or public policies that contemplate, protect and affirm agenerity as a valid identification in the Brazilian context”. This happens because “the constitution of the legal system in our country is guided by an extremely binary logic”.

Thus, “different aspects of the Constitution are based on the binary division to establish criteria for retirement, the realization of rights and many other mechanisms. It can be seen that the Constitution leaves agender and non-binary people in a legal limbo and a non-guarantee of rights that, in theory, would be guaranteed to all people”.

Despite this, some advances have been made in recent years, “so that agender people have been able to identify their non-binary status in the Civil Registry, through the actions of Public Defenders in conjunction with organized movements of non-binary people”.

Ursula cites the case of the Public Defender’s Office of Rio Grande do Sul, “which, in dialogue with the state’s Court of Justice, managed to ensure the creation of guidelines for the rectification of non-binaries through administrative means, that is, directly in the registry office and without the need for court proceedings.”

She also highlights the importance of the work of ABRANB (Articulação Brasileira Não-Binarie), “an organization that addresses non-binary and its demands in a broad way, and which has been present in the different achievements of non-binaries in contemporary Brazil” .

Even so, it is not possible to identify specifically as a gender in their documents. Therefore, in order to change this situation “it is necessary that people of gender who are interested in the insertion of this category are willing to raise their flags of existence and need for recognition, opening dialogue with Public Defenders and other competent bodies”.

In addition to these difficulties in “recognition of identifications, there are still a series of obstacles and obstacles in the guarantee of fundamental rights, such as health and human dignity for agender and non-binary people”.

In this regard, the researcher recalls that “Brazil is still the country that kills the most trans people and transvestites in the world. Thus, many non-binary people are also trans and experience implicit and explicit, everyday violence, arising from cisnormativity”.

“A lot is said about the right of expression these days, but people tend to forget that the right to gender expression, which is contained in this concept as fundamental as any other aspect of expression, also needs to be respected and guaranteed”, he reinforces.

Thus, “it is up to the State, in its different possibilities and means of action, to contemplate the plurality and multiplicity of experiences gathered both from non-binary and agenerity”, he reinforces. Thus, it is essential that the demands of non-binary people are included in public agendas based on their experiences and discussions. However, the state, political and civil society groups can only understand these real needs through dialogue with these groups.

In this sense, Ursula concludes that “it is not enough to recognize the non-binary or agenerity, assuming that this would encompass all the agendas of the people identified from such perspectives. It is necessary to build public dialogues and debates, in order to contemplate the multiplicity of existence and, by extension, of demands and needs”.

How to refer to an agender person

At this point, you must be wondering which pronoun to use to refer to agender people, since the Portuguese language seems to be extremely binary. Ursula explains that “there is no correct pronoun for anyone, because whoever will define the correct pronoun is the person himself”.

That is, the pronouns that each person prefers to be called depend only on how the person feels about it, and an agender person can be comfortable using feminine, masculine, both or neuter pronouns.

Ursula also points out that “it’s very important to ask each person what their pronoun is, because it’s something that varies from person to person, so it’s more about how you feel when people refer to you when you identify yourself”.

Videos and stories about agender people

To further understand the subject, it is very important to exercise empathy and listen to agender people. So, see the selection of videos below:

It takes time to understand yourself as an agender

In this video, Cup tells in a few minutes how he never felt identification with any gender and how it was the trigger to understand his identity. See how was the first contact with the concept of agender and how Cup found a way to interpret it.

Agender within the non-binary umbrella

This video from the Transdiário channel features two non-binary people, one agender and the other…