Pangender is a gender identity which means that the person experiences many different genders.
Sometimes, a pangender person will experience all the genders. A pangender person may not know how many different genders they experience, or the number may change. It simply means that you experience or have multiple genders.
Pangender can also be known as multigender. There is no limit to the number of genders that this person may experience and these genders may either be experienced simultaneously or one at a time.
What Is Pangender?
In order to understand the term pangender, we should first dive into the meaning of gender.
At birth, most people are assigned a gender based on their sexual organs. They are assigned to male or female genders.
This classification is known as gender binary. A lot of people find that they don’t fit into, or conform to one of these genders. These people will often identify as non-binary.
Under the umbrella term non-binary, there are many different identities. This is where things like bigender, agender, and gender fluid fit in. Pangender people identify as all genders.
What Is Gender Identity?
Gender identity is different from sex. Genetic factors are usually used to define someone’s biological sex, whereas people usually work out and define their own gender identity.
Gender identity refers to the way that someone identifies and expresses themselves. Many people use their clothing and appearance to express the gender that they identify with.
Sex is based on biological factors including genes, hormones, and reproductive organs. However, sex is not binary.
Someone can have some genes that are associated with males and females but their genitals or reproductive organs may look different to this. This is referred to as intersex.
How Many Genders Can A Pangender Person Have?
There is no limit to the number of genders that a pangender person can have. The number can even go beyond the ones that have currently been defined, to include hypothetical genders.
Pangender falls under the umbrella terms of transgender, multigender and non-binary.
Symbol And Flag
The pangender symbol was created on the 30th of September 2014. There is a pangender pride day which is on the 19th of June every year.
The pangender flag is yellow, pink, light pink, and white striped. It was created by Cari Rez Lobo.
The colors chosen are light and bright which represents the fact that the term is very inclusive. The different colors represent the different genders.
The yellow stripe represents all genders that are not related to the binary genders of male and female.
The white stripe represents the multiple genders which are reflected in the fact that the color white contains all the colors.
History Of Pangender Term
The term pangender dates back to 1992. It is mentioned in a book called The Flock. This novel is about living with an identity disorder.
Since then, though, the term pangender hasn’t often been used. It only started appearing on sites such as Gender Wiki in 2015. For this reason, the pangender community is still quite small.
Pansexual Vs Pangender
While pansexual and pangender sound similar because they both use the prefix ‘pan’, they are actually completely different from one another.
Pansexual is a word used to categorize someone’s sexual orientation, while pangender is related to gender identity.
Pansexual is defined as someone whose sexual orientation is not limited to any gender, biological sex, or gender identity.
Polygender
Polygender and pangender are very similar terms on the multigender spectrum, however, they are not the same. Pan refers to all genders whereas poly only refers to many.
Skepticism Surrounding The Term Pangender
Many people feel skeptical over the classification of pangender. This is because some people question how one person could experience all genders.
Some people feel that it goes against certain cultures or societies. Some genders feel that claiming to experience genders is appropriating them.
Some people prefer to use the term maxigender as this acknowledges that certain genders are related to societies and cultures.
This skepticism is often unfair and unwarranted as it questions someone’s identity because the label of pangender was not created and is not intended to misappropriate certain cultures or societies.
What Pronouns Are Related To Pangender People?
There is not one single set of pronouns that pangender people use. A pangender person may use pronouns such as she/her, he/him, or a combination of both.
They may also use they/them pronouns. There are also lots of other pronouns that are non-binary pronouns that come under umbrella terms. Pangender people may use these.
It is a good idea that when you introduce yourself to new people, you include your pronouns and ask them their pronouns. This way, you will never address someone using incorrect pronouns.
Pangender Characters
There are lots of examples of non-binary characters in fiction. These are people who identify outside of the binary of male and female. There are not so many characters who are represented as pangender in fiction.
There is one sci-fi thriller called Zero-G in which the character of Adsila Waters is described as pan-gender. The book uses he and she pronouns interchangeably throughout the book.
The character also has the ability to shapeshift her sexual organs when she switches gender.
Other Examples Of Gender Identity
Agender: This is someone who doesn’t have an identity at all or doesn’t identify with one gender in particular.
Bigender: This refers to someone who has two genders or identifies as bigender. They usually display feminine and masculine roles culturally.
Androgne: This is someone whose gender is in between feminine and masculine or both feminine and masculine.
Final Thoughts
So, now that you have all the information you need on what is pangender, you can start to explain this to your friends!
It is very important to be sensitive and understanding of people’s gender identities because the last thing you want is to use the wrong pronouns and make people feel misunderstood!
If you liked this article, then you might enjoy our post on ‘What Does AFAB Mean?’.
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