🥚 so... what exactly is an ‘egg’? 🥚

QUEER WORD
EGG

What It Means:

a light-hearted slang term used within trans and gender non-conforming communities to describe someone who is trans but doesn’t realise it yet, or is in denial about it. 

Let’s Use It In A Sentence:

In hindsight, Spencer realised that spending his teenage years saying things like ‘I just think boys have the better deal’ may have been a bit egg-ish.

A Little Bit of History

Like a lot of the slang that we cover on Queer Word, this is one of those terms that just seems to have magically appeared out of nowhere one day. No one can trace it neatly back to a single person or group, but it seems to have emerged in the mid-2010s, after which it seamlessly slipped into many people’s vocabulary.

And that’s probably because the metaphor is so damn intuitive. Let’s take a look:

• someone is considered an egg when they’re showing signs that they might be trans (questioning, experimenting with gender, feeling dysphoria, or otherwise circling the idea) but haven’t accepted it yet.

• they ‘crack’ or ‘hatch’ when they finally realise or accept who they are

• in some transfemme spaces especially, hatching turns the egg into a baby ‘chick’

So many opportunities for egg-based wordplay! It’s truly egg-cellent (sorry, I couldn’t help myself)!

So, How Is It Used?

The term is mostly used within trans and gender non-conforming communities, and it can cover a few slightly different things.

Sometimes, it’s used in trans headcanons. That is, when people interpret a popular character as trans, or start spotting little signs and hidden meaning in a piece of media. For example, the fact that Pinocchio keeps insisting that he ‘wants to be a real boy’ has, perhaps unsurprisingly, led many to read his story as a trans allegory.

It can also be used by people who aren’t quite ready to come out yet, or for whom coming out wouldn’t be safe. In those cases, calling yourself an egg is a way of feeling connected to the trans community without actually having to say the thing.

But my favourite use is the retrospective one. People looking back on their former selves and realising, with perhaps a smidge of embarrassment, that the signs were there all along.

Questions Questions Questions…

Now, onto the questions you’ve probably been dying to ask.

Q: Is it okay for me to call someone an egg?

The answer to this one really depends on the context. But if you’re unsure, then... maybe not?

As with any form of coming out, people often need the extra time to marinate, think things through, and be absolutely sure they’re ready. But, on the other hand, sometimes a kind word or gentle prodding from a loved one can speed up those epiphanies and make them feel safe enough to say it out loud.

But, as a general rule, it’s probably best to stay away from calling someone an egg unless they’ve called themselves that, even if it is done in a jokey way.

Q: So is ‘egg’ basically just a nicer way of saying someone’s in denial?

Not exactly, no. It’s usually a bit softer, and often used with far more affection or self-recognition. It’s less of a ‘you are lying to yourself,’ and more of an ‘aww, I remember when I was where you are!’.

Q: What are some of the reasons people don’t like the term?

Some people find it a bit presumptuous, especially if it’s used to describe someone who hasn’t used it about themselves. It can feel a bit icky and invasive when someone decides your identity for you, and insists you are a thing that you yourself haven’t landed on.

Others worry that it can make transness sound too inevitable. There are a whole raft of reasons that someone might be questioning, experimenting, or playing around with gender, and it’s not always because they’re on a path to coming out as trans. Using egg to describe all of these people can be reductive and can flatten out some of the nuance and complexity of gender.

So, there you have it. A whistlestop tour of egg.

I hope it’s been egg-ucational (I know, I know. I shouldn’t quit my day job).