Home › Identities › Xenogender

Xenogender

Xenogender is a TikTok umbrella for genders related to animals, objects, colors, or abstract concepts: catgender, starboy, kingender, voidgender. The functional reductio ad absurdum of an unbounded creed — and unfortunately, no joke. A strong link to autism vulnerability and NDD cohorts means that precisely these adolescents receive hormones or mastectomy based on such a label.

Definition according to proponents

A gender that identifies through non-human referents: an animal, an object, a color, a sound, a sci-fi creature. Examples: catgender, dollgender, lunagender, stargender, fraisegender. Some subvariants are called "neogenders".

Origin: Tumblr 2014, TikTok proliferation

From 2014–2017 on Tumblr and in later LGBTQIA Wikis. TikTok has spread the term explosively among very young users since 2020. Strongly associated with autism comorbidity, which is acknowledged by some — see autigender . Part of the broader proliferation since 2010 .

The Cass Review (2024) documents that a significant proportion of adolescent referrers to gender clinics fall on the autism spectrum—estimates range from 12 to 35 percent, compared to about 1 percent in the general population. Xenogender self-identifications occur frequently within this subgroup and raise the question for clinicians whether this involves gender dysphoria or an autistic self-identification strategy influenced by social contagion . Cass explicitly recommends clinically investigating this comorbidity first.

Criticism: if gender can be anything, it means nothing

When "gender" identifies via "I feel like a cat," then gender as used here is no longer a category of human experience but a free metaphor. The concept loses all connecting content. Anyone who considers xenogender legitimate on the basis of self-reporting can consider any claim legitimate — which takes unfalsifiability to the extreme. A textbook example of circular reasoning . There is no marker , only self-reporting .

Care providers struggle with this. The Cass Review describes how the medicalized treatment of adolescents with xenogender claims takes place without a solid clinical foundation. Kathleen Stock (2021) uses xenogender as a key example of "ontology by self-declaration" — a term acquires category status through statement alone. Helen Joyce (2021) points out the legal consequences: schools and NGOs incorporate such terms into policy, confronting educational staff with impossible validation questions. Anyone who points out the absurdity is silenced and dismissed as a hater.

Levine (2022) warns clinicians that without distinguishing between identity exchange, autistic self-identification, and stable clinical gender dysphoria, the informed consent procedure for irreversible interventions is undermined. Hruz (2020) places this within the broader evidence-based critique.

Damage: hormones and mastectomy for autistic adolescents

Xenogender claims occur in adolescent clinics and were partly responsible for the closure of Tavistock GIDS in 2024. Cass recommends that clinicians first investigate comorbidity (autism, ADHD, social media exposure) before self-identification is accepted as an anchor point for medical intervention. SBU (2022) and the Finnish guideline (2020) move in the same direction. Transition does not cure — see detransition research and regret research .

Related identities

• Aporagender — a form of autonomous category.

• Autigender — neighboring phenomenon, explicitly autism-linked.

• Maverique — other autonomous claim.

Frequently Asked Questions