Genderfluidity is a non-fixed
gender identity that shifts over time or depending on the situation. These fluctuations can occur at the level of
gender identity or
gender expression. A genderfluid person may fluctuate among different gender expressions over their lifetime, or express multiple aspects of various gender markers simultaneously.[1][2] Genderfluid individuals may identify as
non-binary or
transgender, or
cisgender, which means they identify with the gender(s) associated with their
sex assigned at birth.[3][4]
Genderfluidity is different from
gender-questioning, a process in which people explore their gender(s) in order to find their true gender identity and adjust their gender expression accordingly.[5] Genderfluidity continues throughout lives of genderfluid people.[6]
Transgender people (including
non-binary and
third gender people) have existed in cultures worldwide since ancient times. The modern terms and meanings of "transgender", "
gender", "
gender identity", and "
gender role" only emerged in the 1950s and 1960s.[7][8][9] As a result, opinions vary on how to categorize historical accounts of gender-variant people and identities, including genderfluid individuals.
The 1928 novel
Virginia Woolf novel Orlando: A Biography features a main character who changes gender several times, and considers gender fluidity:
In every human being, a vacillation from one sex to the other takes place, and often it is only the clothes that keep the male or female likeness, while underneath the sex is the very opposite of what it is above.[10]
The first known mention of the term gender fluidity was in
gender theoristKate Bornstein's 1994 book Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women and the Rest of Us.[11] It was later used again in the 1996 book The Second Coming: A Leatherdyke Reader.[12]
In February 2014,
Facebook included "Gender Fluid" as one of the 50 identity options available.[13]
^Whyte, Stephen; Brooks, Robert C.; Torgler, Benno (25 September 2018). "Man, Woman, "Other": Factors Associated with Nonbinary Gender Identification". Archives of Sexual Behavior. 47 (8). Heidelberg, Germany:
Springer Science+Business Media: 2397–2406.
doi:
10.1007/s10508-018-1307-3.
PMID30255409.
S2CID52823167. 2 out of 7479 (0.03 percent) of respondents to the Australian Sex Survey, a 2016 online research survey, self-identified as trigender.