Cassgender
Having a gender and considering it irrelevant.
Cassgender describes regarding one's own gender as unimportant, not as absent. It comes from the Latin cassus, meaning empty or void, and the distinction it draws is between having no gender and having one that does not matter to you.
That separates it from agender, which is the absence of a gender, and from gender apathetic, which is indifference to the question. Cassgender is a positive claim that gender itself is irrelevant to one's identity.
The three sit close together and people move between them, which is ordinary. Many use two of them interchangeably and would struggle to defend a hard line.
It is one of the narrower words in this glossary, used by a small number of people who found that the neighbouring terms did not say quite the right thing.
Cassgender is not the absence of gender
It gets folded into agender, which loses the distinction it was coined to make: having no gender and having one that is irrelevant are different positions.
It is also distinct from gender apathy, which is about not caring. Cassgender is the stronger claim that gender is not a meaningful category at all.
Saying it well
Say this
- I am cassgender.
- I have one, and it does not matter.
- Cassgender rather than agender: it is there, it is just irrelevant.
- Gender is not a meaningful category for me.
Not this
- So you are agender
- Then why have a word
- That is the same as not caring
- Everyone would say that
Questions people actually ask
What does cassgender mean?
Having a gender and considering it irrelevant to one's identity.
Is cassgender the same as agender?
No. Agender is the absence of gender; cassgender is having one that does not matter.
How is it different from gender apathy?
Gender apathy is not caring. Cassgender is the claim that gender is not a meaningful category.
Where does the word come from?
From the Latin cassus, meaning empty or void.