gender bending

1. adjective Causing a change in the sex assignment of a person or animal. This meaning can be considered imprecise especially in technical use due to conflating gender and sex. Often hyphenated. Scientists are developing a gender-bending chemical to induce artificial changes in the sex of mosquitoes. When that plant is subject to gender-bending triggers out in the wild, it can go from male to female. I worry about her taking those unapproved gender-bending hormones to facilitate a change in sex.

2. adjective Assuming the roles, appearance, or manner associated with another gender. Often hyphenated. This novel features a gender-bending protagonist who, at various stages in the story, moves between gender identities. You have to remember that, at that time, simply wearing pants was scandalous and gender bending for a woman. That gender bending poet of the 1700s would not have drawn as much attention if she hadn't published under a male pseudonym.

3. noun The discourse or practice of challenging, denying, or exploring the borders or limitations of gender identity by various means. Some of the leading academics in gender bending are gathering this week for a summit on transgender rights. That politician has long supported gender bending and disputed the notion that gender is a strict binary. Gender bending should certainly be a topic of discussion this week! The world doesn't solely consist of heterosexual cis men, you know.