gender bender

noun

variants or less commonly gender-bender

1

informal, sometimes disparaging + offensive : a person who dresses and behaves in a way that is considered typical of the opposite sex or that is androgynous

2

informal : something (such as a movie or a clothing style) that involves a reversal of or departure from typical gendered dress or behavior

Julie Andrews stars as a cabaret singer playing a man playing a woman playing a man. It's a gender bender of a comedy …

—Lewis Beale

—often used before another noun

—usually hyphenated in such use

gender-bender fashions

a gender-bender novel

gender-bending

ˈjen-dər-ˈben-diŋ 

adjective or noun

Examples of gender bender in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Drawing inspiration from Kabuki theater, Børns, a notorious gender bender, has become even more experimental with the birth of Blue Madonna. —Lauren Valenti, Vogue, 12 Jan. 2018

Word History

First Known Use

1975, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for gender bender

• recommender
• bartender
• contender
• defender
• engender
• extender
• offender
• pretender
• provender
• surrender
• suspender
• transgender