gender bender

[ jen-der ben-der ]

noun

1. Slang: Often Offensive. a person, as a crossdresser or transgender person, whose gender expression blurs differences between various sexual orientations and gender identities.
2. something that challenges traditional societal norms related to gender:

   Women play all the roles in this gender bender of a play.

gender-bender

noun

1. informal.
   a person who adopts an androgynous style of dress, hair, make-up, etc
2. a male-male or female-female adaptor, used esp for computer hardware

Other Word Forms

• gender-bending adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of gender bender¹

First recorded in 1980–85

Example Sentences

Now with chemo side effects, “I’m gonna end up looking like the Last Airbender. Or the fattest Air Gender Bender.”

From Los Angeles Times

Rose, who is trans, is lovingly called “the Gender Bender.”

From Los Angeles Times

Feeding pizza to fans from the stage before opening a show for Alice Bag, Kathleen Hanna and Terri Gender Bender might sound like a feminist punk fantasy, but for Fatty Cakes and the Puff Pastries it’s one slice in a long history of living the DIY dream.

From Los Angeles Times

"Gender bender, cis-tem offender," rapped Bimini Bon Boulash in the 2021 season of RuPaul's Drag Race UK.

From BBC

For two weeks in El Paso, Teri Gender Bender was having an emergency.

From Los Angeles Times