Overview
What epigender means.
Epigender is described on its record as a gender, or lack of one, that is above the gender spectrum. The prefix is Greek epi-, over or above. Not at one end, not in the middle, not off the edge, but over the top of the whole arrangement, looking down at it, unattached.
Two things come bundled in. First, detachment: the spectrum is something other people are on. Second, for some users, a feeling of being non-human. The record links the word to beings it calls transcendent, and lists seraphim, cherubim, incubi and succubi. This is where epigender overlaps with kin identities more than with most gender words.
Provenance, plainly. The wiki records two coinings: first by Tumblr user arco-pluris in August 2018, as an alternative to non-binary and a counterpart to exorgender; then a recoining by another Tumblr user in November 2020, who also made the flag, which has no confirmed meaning. There is no community, no writing and no history beyond that. What it is not: it is not agender, which is absence within the frame, and it is not aliagender, which is other, beside the frame. Epigender is above it.
A gender (or lack of gender) above the spectrum, detached from it, sometimes felt as non-human.
Epigender in one line
Origin
Where the word comes from
The LGBTQIA+ Wiki records two separate coining events for epigender: by the Tumblr blog arco-pluris on 21 August 2018, and again, apparently independently, by old-gender-plaza on 22 November 2020. Which of these represents the term's true first use is not resolved in available sources, and the flag's colour meanings are not confirmed by any coiner statement.
The word uses the Greek prefix epi- ("upon" or "above") attached to "-gender" to describe a gender, or an absence of gender, that sits above the entire gender spectrum rather than at any point along it — detached from the framework other people use, and for some who identify this way, bound up with a feeling of being non-human or transcendent.
Signs people describe
Common experiences
None of these is a test. Most people recognise a few and shrug at the rest.
Spectrum diagrams, man at one end, woman at the other, everything else between, do not just fail to place you. They feel like a map of somewhere you have never been.
Someone offers "neither", kindly, and it is still the wrong size — it puts you in the same room as man and woman, just in the corner.
You feel more kinship with the idea of an angel, a demon or something unnamed than with any human gender word, and you keep that to yourself.
When someone tries to include you by adding a third box, you appreciate the effort and it misses by the same distance as the first two.
Detached is the honest word.
Not hostile, not hurt, not in rebellion. Simply not attached.
You have wondered whether this is a gender at all, and concluded that whatever it is, this is the nearest word.
Pronouns
Pronouns
No set attached. It/its and neopronouns are common among people whose gender feels non-human; they/them is the usual public answer. Nothing here is implied by the word.
Consider another path
This might not be your word if…
- 1What you feel is nothing where gender should be. Agender and gendervoid are older, clearer words for that.
- 2You are non-human first and the gender part is a consequence. That is kin language, and kingender or the otherkin community will serve you better.
- 3You mean above as in better than. The word describes position, not rank, and using it the other way will end badly.
- 4You want a word that sounds mysterious. This one does. That is not a fit.
Close by
Related identities
Aliagender
Other, standing beside the usual categories and defined against them. Epigender does not stand beside; it stands above. If you feel outside, look there; if you feel over, you are here.
Read
Agender
No gender, inside the ordinary frame. An agender person still answers the question; they answer none. Epigender treats the question as being asked on a different floor.
ReadKingender
Gender tied to a non-human identity. If the non-human part is the centre and gender follows from it, kingender is the more accurate word, and its community is larger.
ReadXenogender
The umbrella most people would put this under, and the word to use where epigender would need ten minutes of explanation.
ReadGendervoid
Absence felt as an empty space with edges. That is still a location. Epigender is not a location.
ReadQuestions people ask
Frequently asked questions
Is epigender a real term?+
It exists on the community wiki with two documented coinings, in 2018 and 2020, and almost nothing else. No survey, no history, no writing to speak of. Real as a description; thin as a movement.
Is it the same as agender?+
No. Agender is absence inside the ordinary frame. Epigender claims to be above the frame altogether, and often carries a non-human feeling that agender does not.
Sources
- Epigender — LGBTQIA+ Wiki Fetched. Definition (above the gender spectrum, detached, may feel non-human), etymology (Greek epi-), two coinings (arco-pluris, 21 August 2018; old-gender-plaza, 22 November 2020) and the flag with no confirmed meaning.
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