Overview
What third gender means.
Third gender is not a gender. It is a filing category. Anthropology and sociology use it for genders that particular cultures recognise beyond man and woman — the record on the LGBTQIA+ Wiki names māhū, hijra, fa'afafine, muxe, fakaleitī and Two-Spirit as the usual examples — and when a culture has more than one, the count goes to fourth and fifth. Every one of those cultures has its own word. Third gender is the one the outsider brought.
The record says the term is applied to these genders by colonialists, and that it is sometimes reclaimed — as an English explanation for a culture-specific gender, or to show how someone's non-binary identity meets their cultural one. As a self-label it belongs to people from cultures that have such a gender. It is not a spare word for anyone outside the binary who would like something older-sounding than non-binary; the record points to the aporagender umbrella as the non-appropriative alternative.
It also lives on government forms. The record's example is Germany's third legal category, divers. This site's hijra page notes that India, Pakistan and Bangladesh group hijras, trans women, intersex people and others under third-gender law — people who may share almost nothing. The state made the box; nobody grew up inside it. And the history is uncomfortable: the record notes the phrase was used before the 1960s for non-heterosexual people, when sexuality and gender were not yet separated, that Western scholars have often reinterpreted these genders as sexual orientations, and that Indigenous scholars have questioned whether the concept applies to their cultures at all.
An outsider's category for culture-specific genders beyond man and woman; sometimes reclaimed, mostly applied.
Third gender in one line
Origin
Where the word comes from
There is no single coiner of "third gender": it is an analytic label built up inside Western anthropology and sexology from the nineteenth century onward, as European and American observers tried to fit genders they met in colonised societies — hijra in South Asia, māhū in Hawai'i and Tahiti, and others — into their own frameworks, which had no place for a person who was neither man nor woman. Early sexology also used the phrase, before the 1960s, for non-heterosexual people generally, at a time when writers had not yet separated sexual orientation from gender identity, which is part of why the term still gets applied loosely today.
The category hardened through colonial administration, which often criminalised or dissolved these roles even as it classified them, and through twentieth-century anthropology, which popularised "third gender" and later "third sex" as comparative terms across cultures. Only later, and only partially, has the term been taken up by some people from the cultures concerned as an English-language shorthand for their own gender — a reclamation the LGBTQIA+ Wiki's record treats as distinct from, and much smaller than, its long history as an outsider's classification.
Signs people describe
Common experiences
None of these is a test. Most people recognise a few and shrug at the rest.
You have your own word — hijra, fa'afafine, muxe — and you have watched an English article swap it for third gender as if that were a translation.
You have ticked a third-gender box on a government form and been sent back for a document nobody could name.
You use third gender in English because the room needs one word, and drop it the second you are home.
Someone told you your culture has a third gender as if they had discovered it.
Your non-binary identity and your cultural one meet somewhere, and third gender is the nearest English for the meeting point. Imperfect, but you chose it.
Pronouns
Pronouns
Third gender says nothing about pronouns, because it is not one person's word. Hijras mostly use feminine forms; māhū use she, he or they; each community has its own habits in its own language. Ask the person, and use their word for themselves rather than the category.
Consider another path
This might not be your word if…
- 1You are outside the binary and from a culture with no such gender. Non-binary is yours, and the record names the aporagender umbrella as the alternative that borrows nothing.
- 2You want a word that sounds older than non-binary. It is older as a category, not as a self-label, and it came from the people doing the classifying.
- 3You are describing a legal box you were put in, not who you are. Then it is a status, and your identity is whichever word you would use at home.
- 4Your interest is a documentary or a course. Read the people's own words and use theirs.
Close by
Related identities
Hijra
The most-cited example, and the clearest case of the gap: a community with houses, gurus and rites, flattened to a box on a form. The site's hijra page calls third gender a legal category the state made and nobody grew up inside.
ReadMāhū
Hawaiian and Tahitian, in the middle, with a role attached. Third gender keeps the middle and throws away the people, the place and the work.
ReadTwo-Spirit
Pan-Indigenous North American, standing in for hundreds of nation-specific roles. Often filed under third gender by outsiders; the record notes Indigenous scholars disputing whether the concept fits at all.
Read
Non-Binary
The self-label for a gender outside man and woman with no culture attached. If you have no culture-specific gender to explain, this is your word, not third gender.
ReadAporagender
A distinct gender apart from male and female. The record names the aporagender umbrella as the non-appropriative alternative for people outside the binary who are not from a culture with a third gender.
ReadQuestions people ask
Frequently asked questions
Is third gender the same as non-binary?+
No. Non-binary is a self-label for a gender that is not man or woman, with no culture required. Third gender is a category applied to culture-specific genders — hijra, māhū, fa'afafine and others — mostly by anthropologists, colonial administrators and, later, governments. Some people from those cultures reclaim it in English. The record says only they can say what it means for them: for some it is between the binary genders, for others outside it.
Can I identify as third gender?+
If you are from a culture that has a gender described as third gender, the record says the label is yours to reclaim, and some people use it to explain their culture-specific gender in English or to mark where their non-binary identity meets their cultural one. If you are not, it is not: the record is explicit that the term should only be used by people from those cultures, and points to aporagender labels as alternatives that appropriate nothing.
Which countries recognise a third gender in law?+
More than this page lists. The wiki record's example is Germany, whose third legal category is divers. This site's hijra page notes legal recognition in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan. What the box covers differs by country, and in each it groups people who may share nothing beyond the box.
The flag
Attribution hedged ('may have been created' by beyond-mogai-pride-flags, 2018-08-09); no hex values on record.
Sources
- Third Gender — LGBTQIA+ Wiki Definition as an anthropological and sociological category, the colonial history, who may reclaim it, the aporagender alternative, examples, and the German legal use.
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