Gender Friction is a genderfluid term to describe the level of friction experienced when switching between genders. This gender quality primarily occurs for people who are unigenderfluid (experiencing just one gender at a time) but can also occur in multigenderfluid or unigenderfluidflux individuals.
A gender with a high level of gender friction is called gender-frictive. A gender with a low level of gender friction is called gender-receptive.
A high level of gender friction has been described as:
- the feeling when an aircraft lands and/or takes off.
- two things that are stuck together being pulled apart (the individual from the original gender) with strands of glue still connecting it.
- the gender is reluctant to "let go" and "holds on tightly" for a moment before "releasing" (in this experience of gender friction, one might see this as a gender-spike).
- the gender resists changing, and this is felt in the form of friction/ragged edges.
- the new and old gender struggling for control.
- the unseating of a gender the individual has grown used to, by the new gender.
- a very fast, very raw, intense switching of genders.
A low level of gender friction indicates a smooth transition between genders, and can involve the following experiences/feelings:
- the old gender willingly relinquishing control for the new gender.
- not noticing a gender switch until it has already occurred.
- the melding of two genders, feeling indistinct from one another during the change, instead of at odds.
- genders being parallel as they move past each other.
- a quiet/soft/slow gender switch.
History
The term was coined by FANDOM wiki user Nemosexual on August 16, 2021, after a discussion in a non-binary Discord group the previous day. It was coined through this page and has no outside sources.