Scarleteen

This is something I have wondered for a while. I consider myself to be feminine, but I have never felt like either gender in particular. However, I don't actually know what the non-binary terms mean. Agender is straightforward enough, but genderqueer? Genderfluid? Do they mean the same thing, or are there differences? I feel silly not understanding the terminology when it is part of the gender spectrum that I am on, but I have no idea! Can anyone clear it up?

I don't think that there Is any one authority on what the terms mean. That can definitely sometimes make things a bit confusing or challenging, but it can also be a really good thing, as people can decide for themselves. It's also a natural thing about language: these terms are still fairly new (at least in semi-popular usage), and people as a whole are deciding and demonstrating what they mean by using them. That's how all words work anyway, but with new-ish words, there's no previous standard framework to draw on.

What the terms mean will be precisely unique to each person who uses it. I'd also point out that the lack of clarity isn't just about non-binary terms, it's about the whole notion of gender: when we really get to it, it's basically impossible to adequately define "woman" or "man"

I'm not non-binary, so my input here has an obligatory pinch of salt, but: trying for a broad desciption, it's my impression that "genderqueer" may describe anyone who feels their gender is not adequately expressed by the usual binary or other known concepts and terms (including sometimes in combination, like "genderqueer woman", or in combo with other potentially non-binary terms like "genderqueer femme/butch"); "genderfluid" expresses some aspect of fluidity in the person's sense or expression of gender, eg if a person's gender is different or expressed differently at different times or in different situations.

Ah, thank you! I wasn't too far off in my assumptions, although that clears up the whole "genderqueer woman" thing, which I never quite understood. That helps a lot, thank you!

Nyako, a web resource I particularly like is http://genderqueerid.com/ which has a lot of good content and links to other genderqueer/nonbinary/etc sites. That may help! Language in the gq/nb community, as in the trans community in general, is evolving pretty quickly as these identities become better-known

As Redskies mentioned above, there is a decent amount of flexibility in what these terms mean; ask a dozen people who identify as genderqueer just what that means to them and you'll get a bunch of different answers. If you were to ask a bunch of women what it means to be a woman, though...you'd probably get just as much variation there! Identity-words are great for giving people a general idea, but I think the specifics are always going to vary a bit.