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Aporagender

"Aporagender" was coined on Tumblr in 2014: a "strong sense of gender distinct from man, woman, or anything in between." In terms of content, indistinguishable from maverique. An empty label that names itself as ontology — dogma without foundation.

Definition according to proponents

A gender that is neither male, nor female, neither empty nor neutral — but rather "something solid." The claim of a positive, strong, but unnamed content. Unlike agender (absence) or demigender (partial), aporagender is presented as an independent presence, without that presence being able to be further specified.

Origin: Tumblr 2014

The term was introduced on Tumblr in June 2014, the same month as maverique. The parallel introduction shows that online culture at that time had a need for such categories — not that an independent phenomenon was being discovered. Since then, it has been incorporated into LGBTA Wiki, identity flag archives, and some educational materials. Part of the broader explosive proliferation since 2010 .

Demographic counts are lacking. In Gender Census data (approximately 30,000 self-reported respondents annually), aporagender is among the "long tail" of rare labels — mentioned by less than half a percent of respondents. Cass (2024) points out the problem that such labels are adopted in clinical records as if they were stable diagnostic categories.

Criticism: empty signification as a confession of faith

Aporagender illustrates what the philosophy of language calls "empty signification": a term is introduced with the claim that it names something, without that content being further specified. Whoever uses the term is engaging in performative language use: the self-naming is the entire content. There is no measurable marker , only self-reporting as a source.

When two people who call themselves aporagender meet, they have no shared experience to fall back on — only the shared label. A textbook example of circular reasoning and unfalsifiability . Kathleen Stock (2021) calls this "language pretending to ontology": by speaking about it as if a category exists, it is pretending. Helen Joyce (2021) points out the political consequences: such labels are incorporated into legal and educational frameworks without any scrutiny — and anyone who challenges this is dismissed as a hater.

Levine (2022) questions clinical practice: how does a physician assess a request for irreversible medical interventions from someone whose identity is by definition substantively unspecifiable? Hruz (2020) concurs with the objection that such interventions do not meet evidence-based standards.

Damage: interventions for an empty label

Aporagender appears in clinical records almost exclusively under the non-binary umbrella. Specific research into this subgroup is lacking. The Cass Review (2024) warns that grouping rare subcategories under generic umbrellas complicates outcome research and thus keeps the evidence base permanently weak. Transition does not cure — see detransition research .

Related identities

• Maverique — virtually identical claim.

• Xenogender — broader "different kind" umbrella.

• Non-binary — umbrella.

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