DW Documentaries
Agender: Not a man, not a woman
2023 • E23 Jul 15, 2023 26m
"At last I feel at home in my body!" These are Robin’s first words after the mastectomy, a complex operation to remove female breasts. "A total liberation," says Robin, who is clearly over the moon.
Not that the flat chest now means Robin is a man, for Robin is "agender”. "I’ve decided I’d rather be seen as a man instead of a woman, but I don’t have a gender, there’s no neutral, no third, I simply have no gender,” says Robin. That’s why Robin is choosing not to use pronouns: "he”, "his” or "him” are all out of the question. Robin’s childhood and youth was punctuated with the realization: I’m not like the others. But for a long time, Robin didn’t know what to do. The breakthrough came at the age of 22. For the first time, Robin met young people identifying as trans or non-binary at a queer gathering. And Robin knew straightaway: I’m like them.
Not that the flat chest now means Robin is a man, for Robin is "agender”. "I’ve decided I’d rather be seen as a man instead of a woman, but I don’t have a gender, there’s no neutral, no third, I simply have no gender,” says Robin. That’s why Robin is choosing not to use pronouns: "he”, "his” or "him” are all out of the question. Robin’s childhood and youth was punctuated with the realization: I’m not like the others. But for a long time, Robin didn’t know what to do. The breakthrough came at the age of 22. For the first time, Robin met young people identifying as trans or non-binary at a queer gathering. And Robin knew straightaway: I’m like them.