The Overton Window

The Overton window is the range of ideas tolerated in public discourse, also known as the window of discourse. The term refers to Joseph P. Overton, who claimed that an idea's political viability depends mainly on whether it falls within the window, rather than on politicians' individual preferences.

— From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Those of you who have encountered the term are probably accustomed to "Overton window" being used in its original, specific sense, to mean the spectrum of political ideas that are considered feasible by the voting public.

Extend the notion, if you will. Think of a window of all things that the average person in society has some notion of as a possibility. Things within this window are things for which there is a concept. Things within this window are things for which there is a name. Step outside the window and you are now examining things that might also be possible, but for which the average person has no concept and no vocabulary with which to describe or express it, and this average person does not anticipate it at any point, won't be likely to recognize it upon encountering it. It does not lie within their sense of what the possibilities are. The aren't aware of it as something that could potentially happen, or that they could be confronted with.

Now think of behaviors, identities, social practices. At any given time, they either do or do not fall into this extended Overton window of the surrounding society. If they do, people may disapprove or hold prejudices against them, but they have some level of understanding that people do such things, that there are such people, that it's a "thing". But when behaviors and identities and social practices are outside the window, they're incomprehensible to most people. They can't make sense of it, and when they try, they most commonly project some other, different thing that they're at least somewhat familiar with as a concept, even though it isn't very accurate, trying to connect up this weird unfamiliar experience to some possibility that they've at least read about or heard of.




People (including my friends) often ask me what I want to accomplish. What my ideal goal is with all this.

I want to get gender invert included in society's extended Overton window. I want it to be on their mental menu of possibilities. That's really it.

I don't expect people to cease anticipating the normative. People like me are a minority. But if people in general are aware of someone like me as a possibility, they'll adjust when we don't fit their initial assumptions.


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