Hello, all! I’m positively delighted to wish everyone a happy 2nd annual xenogender day of visibility. Xenogenders and those who identify with them are very commonly misunderstood due to misinformation about what xenogenders are, how they work or why someone may want to use them. In this post, I am going to attempt to explain the concept of xenogenders for the uninitiated, particularly those who have concerns of it’s legitimacy as a feasible category of non-binary identity.
What is a Xenogender?
The term “Xenogender” was coined by tumblr user Baaphomett in 2014 via MOGAI-Archive. Ze defined the term xenogender as, “a gender that cannot be contained by human understandings of gender; more concerned with crafting other methods of gender categorization and hierarchy such as those relating to animals, plants, or other creatures/things”. As a result, “Xenogender” is a very large umbrella term with many sub-identities.
“Xeno” is from Greek, “xenos”, meaning “strange”, “foreign” or “alien”. This is referring to the the fact that xenogenders are approached in a way that anthrogenders are not, being outside the bounds of how human society tends to describe and categorize gender, thus the description of “alien”.
Xenogenders hold an anontrinary quality that is not masculine, feminine, androgynous, epicene, gender-neutral, outherine or any other “human” quality without being genderless or beyond gender. This xenine quality is described with the aid of xenic description, which utilizes “non-human” concepts that are not traditionally used to describe genders, such as emotions, sensations, aesthetics, ideas, archetypes, media, living things, inanimate objects, situations, locations, actions, and language. Most xenogenders describe how one experiences their gender as opposed to what one experiences their gender as.
Xenogenders, as an umbrella term, have a gender glyph, which is the Iris 7 astronomical sign. This symbol, a star beneath a rainbow, represents Iris, Greek goddess of rainbows. The stripes of the flag are the various colors that irises grow. Other attempts were made toward a more traditional gender glyph while invoking the imagery of the iris flower, resulting in this glyph made from tumblr user system-lgbt in 2018.
The xenogender flag, specifically the one used in this post, was created by user pastelmemer in 2017. There is also an alternate flag that was created in 2017 by Mod Hermy of Pride-Flags.
Who Can Use Xenogenders?
Anyone can identify as any xenogender, given the particular gender identity in question is within the individual’s experience; if the identity is exclusive to a particular group you are not part of, the gender identity is unavailable to you. If a xenogender is specific to a particular group, it will either be stated as part of or along side the definition. When you are in doubt, if it is possible, it is best to contact the coiner to inquire about the exclusivity of the term.
A very common misconception is that xenogenders, as a whole, can only be used by neurodivergent (ND) individuals. The only xenogenders that are exclusive to ND individuals are neurogenders. Neurogenders describe how one’s neurotype, mental illness and/or neurological condition can effect how one experiences their gender identity. Since one’s neurodivergence can effect one’s perceptions of self, others and society, and thus their gender, they are classified as xenogenders. Most xenogenders are not neurogenders, but all neurogenders are a type of xenogender. Neurogenders do not serve to equate one’s neurodivergence with their gender; one’s gender identity is effected by, not defined as, one’s neurodivergence. Neurogenders are often used in conjunction with other, frequently unrelated, affinitive terms.
Why do People Identify with Xenogenders?
There are many reasons that one may identify with or as a xenogender. Some of these reasons include, but are in no way limited to:
Accessibility
Xenogenders and xenic description can be very accessible for some individuals, particularly children who are exploring and verbalizing their gender, but don’t fully understand the intricacies of gender identity and individuals who better relate to and/or better understand xenc description, as opposed to anthroine description, both neurotypical and neurodivergent.
Versatility
Anything can be used as a basis or inspiration for a xenogender or xenic-alignment, which is one of the most unique and interesting aspects of xenogenders, xenic-alignment and xenic description. This versatility allows for xenogenders and xenic-alignments to be anything, ranging from vague and simplistic to hyperspecific and intricate in essence. With xenogenders, the possibilities are limitless, allowing “non-human”, nontraditional concepts to be incorporated into gender, it’s roles and the expression of one’s identity in creative, largely unprecedented ways that have not been widely established outside of the Microlabel/Neogender tumblr community.
Metaphor/Simile
Xenogenders are far more often than not metaphorical than they are literal. Xeninic description allows for one to be poetic or figurative when outlining their gender. This feature of xenogenders allows people to partially or fully self-describe using a figure of speech, as opposed to categorizing and conveying themselves solely using the qualities used in one’s cultural system of gender.
Genderfuckery
Another common reason that people use xenogenders is the desire to subvert anthroininity or even the concept of gender as a whole. Describing one’s gender using xeninic description for the sake “fucking with” gender is quite easy, making a prime choice for those who desire to “fuck with” gender, especially in a way that isn’t connected to traditionally “human” concepts of gender.
Reclamation
Some people use xenogenders as a method of reclaming dehumanization they experience by taking on xenogenders that they find empowering. This dehumanization can be related to one’s a-spec orientation, being transgender and/or non-binary, being intersex, neurodivergent, disabled or any other type of dehumanization that can be directed at someone not listed here. After all, xenogenders are used to describe nontraditional, “non-human” concept of gender, making them excellent for this purpose.
Alterhumanity
While the alterhuman subculture is entirely distinct from the topic of xenogenders, many alterhuman individuals use xenogenders because they relate to concepts that are not traditionally kept among humans and feel better represented by them due specifically to their alterhumanity. Because of this, there is a lot of overlap between these two communities. For many alterhumans, xenogenders aren’t as metaphorical, but tend to instead be more literal, because they are being used to describe what gender they hold as an alterhuman, not necessarily how it is experienced. Not all alterhumans identity with xenogenders and not all individuals with affinitive xenogenders are alterhumans.
Enjoyment & Gender Euphoria
For some, identifying with xenogenders is done simply because they enjoy the concept illustrated by the xenogender, or similarly, because identifying with provides them with provides gender euphoria. For example, if an individual has a deep, overarching enjoyment for something that would be considered xenine concept and that effects their gender identity for some reason, that can be the basis for a xenogender in itself. For some, it surpasses personal pleasure and because a function of gender euphoria. Gender euphoria is very personal. While most individuals can find join in anthrogenders and their qualities, others are delighted by the freedom, specificity and diversity of description provided by xenogenders.
Freedom
For those that do not experience a sense of freedom from anthrogenders due the relation to traditional, “human” subjects, xenogenders can be extremely freeing. Gender identity is a social construct. Social constructs are ideas that are physically intangible, or as many say, “fake”. This is both true and false; social constructs are real in the sense that they effect people’s lives and shape how society functions, but they are fake in the sense that they are not something that someone can touch with their skin or generate from the constituents of the universe in some way. Given that social construction are not immutable, many people feel the rightful freedom to experiment, which often leads to expressing their gender, and often their disconnection from antrhogenders, as a xenogender. What freedom means for an individual for one’s gender is highly unique. Some people go further by embracing genderlessness, autonomous genders, yonderine “gender” and even non-participation in the construct itself.
Est Quid Est
Sometimes, people are simply the gender that they are because they can be or just are; a person doesn’t necessarily have to justify identifying with a particular gender identity in order to be of that gender identity. Gender identity is a sense of self, and for some, that sense of self is best described as xeninoic. Certain people’s experiences fall in what in the lexical gap we currently have when it comes to language, so, sometimes, it simply is what it is.
Conclusion
Xenogenders are very much real and valid. They are a creative, subversive end-product of gender as a social construct. Regardless of being situated very, very far away from the gender binary in the gender spectrum, which may make them rather difficult to initially understand, xenogenders are indeed authentic and operable in their own right and are fully deserving of respect along side other transgender identities.
With today being XDoV, I would like to challenge you to take a moment to read about xenogenders from people who identify with them or, if not available, those educated in such gender theory. To those with xenogenders; happy day of visibility. Thank-you for being revolutionary.
Hey- uh- Please don’t hate me but- I’m coining a gender term- yeah-
Sextagirl A gender that feels/is roughly/about/precisely one sixth girl, while being mostly something else. I’ll be making flags for other terms like sextaboy soon, just bear with me. @beyond-mogai-pride-flags
atrigender:a genderness that is both agender and trigender and/or somewhere between them; an identity mostly trigender, but has a connection to genderlessness and/or agendered feelings. could also be called trxgender, triagender, orlibratrigender.
aquadgender:a genderness that is both agender and quadgender and/or somewhere between them; an identity mostly quadgender, but has a connection to genderlessness and/or agendered feelings. could also be called quxdgender, quadagender, orlibraquadgender.
apentagender:a genderness that is both agender and pentagender and/or somewhere between them; an identity mostly pentagender, but has a connection to genderlessness and/or agendered feelings. could also be called pxntagender, penta-agender, orlibrapentagender.pentagender is synonymous with quintgender, so one could also use aquintgender, quxntgender, quintagender, orlibraquintgender.
ahexagender:a genderness that is both agender and hexagender and/or somewhere between them; an identity mostly hexagender, but has a connection to genderlessness and/or agendered feelings. could also be called hxxagender, hexa-agender, orlibrahexagender.
aoctagender:a genderness that is both agender and octagender and/or somewhere between them; an identity mostly octagender, but has a connection to genderlessness and/or agendered feelings. could also be called xctagender, octa-agender, orlibraoctagender.
after making my abigender flags, i started thinking about the other numbered polygenders that don’t have flags, so i decided to make some! all flags are formatted like the pxngender flag with colors that correspond to their respective flags, adjusted for visibility and flow. septagender (having seven genders) has no flag, so i had to leave that one out, and nothing above octagender has a flag to my knowledge. also, some of the alt terms may look odd (i’m personally fond of ‘xctagender’), but i wanted to lay out all the options anyways!
I think you might be relating these terms to libra- in the opposite way. Libragenders are mostly agender with a connections to other genders/gendered feelings. Libratrigender, more specifically, is a connection to trigenderness (or a gender encompassing three libragenders), rather than being mostly trigender with a connection to ageninity/genderlessness.
libragender doesn’t fit the second definitions of these, no, but it can fit the first! ‘a genderness that is both agender and [other gender] and/or somewhere between them’ does include libragender, as it doesn’t specify which genderness is felt more strongly and therefore can apply to someone who is mostly agender and partially tri/quad/etcgender. also, i included it as an alternate term because the pxngender coining post used it as a potential term.
I corrected the postafterpanlibragender popped up and get our accounts back after being terminated. Intrapersonally for me it’s hard to distinguish all that since I’m pandemiagender/panademigender/apandemigender/ademipangender/demiapangender/demipanagender (demipxngender/pxndemigender), I’m likely genderflux between magiagender and nanoagender/nanagender/nan0agender/nan4gender/nanxgender/ananogender/anan0gender/pixelagender/apixelgender. - Ap
BTN(B)/B2N(B)/B2X/BTX: a transneutral or otherwise non-binary individual who considers emself as transitioning from binary to non-binary. Encompassing M2N(B)/M2X, F2X/F2N(B) and BtA(b)/B2A(b) (FtA(b)/MtA(b)/M2A(b)/F2A(b)) experiences.
Altsex: A person with either dysphoria about not looking DMAB/DFAB, or simply wants to look AMAB/AFAB due to the idea being euphoric. This can be both (alt)pect and (alt)guina, one and then the rest of your body, or any mixture of testi(cled)-Wolffian/ovari(ated)-Müllerian sex characteristics. Regardless of DSAB/ASAB.
Cismasculine: someone who has the gender masculinity associated with their cisgender-ness; a term for masc folks who were assigned as masculine at birth, but identify with masculine gendered or sexed feelings to a greater extent than femininity.
Non-binary an umbrella/standalone term for those who are not integrally/fully/completely nor exclusively/asynchronously/solely male or female; being abinary and/or midbinary.
It’s not about essentially idpol (identity politics) or biopolitics, it’s about self-determination. Not always about gender socialization, could be sexuation/sex traits.
I couldn’t find a Cisfeminine Non-binary flag, so I went ahead and created one for the sake of filling the lexical gap:
Cisfeminine Non-binary: A non-binary individual who has the gender femininity associated with their cisgenderness; a term for fem non-binary folks who were assigned as female at birth, but identify with feminine gendered or sexed feelings to a greater extent than masculinity or another gender quality.
Genderdae: An experience of gender-fluidity that never encompasses feeling masculine (n)or feminine; a fluid gender never encompassing masculinity (n)or femininity; the gender neutral of genderfae and genderfaun.
Different from genderflor, which never encompass male or female genders, combining concepts of antifeminine/unfeminine/nonfeminine and antimasculine/unmasculine/nonmasculine genders (nofingender/nomingender, m/f-antigenders/ungenders/nongenders), instead of nofiaspec/nomiaspec (nofiagender/nomiagender, no/viagender spectrum).
Moze (a neolingual noun parallel with mozaandmozo): a monolexical neolabel parallel with man and woman; the epicene/gender neutral of boy and girl; an abinary genderedness apart from male and female.
Cognate of moce/moçe (deriving moça/moço) and moscie (from moscio/moscia). Mocidade (mozeness/moceness) means youth. Since cedilla (ç) is often translated as zed/zee (z), as in Moçambique/Mozambique, because of its Visigothic origin (ꝣ).
In West Iberian the suffixes -o/-a do binarized gender inflection, so any other vowel/letter makes a neutralized declension. Just as in Latinx/Latine.
Note this isn’t the same as enby, as enby is an abbreviation of nonbinary. Mozes could refer to generic people, such as in pals, however just as in folx, folks might use moze to be a specific non-binary identity. This identity is asynchronously and conceptually epin/nin/oin/abin/uin.
See also: menine,garote/gurie, xicx/xique, niñx/niñe, biche/bixe/beche. - Ap
Demigyny or demigyne(s): being demifemale, demiwoman, demifem(me), demigirl, demigal &/or demifeminine. Either a standalone or umbrella term. You can be all these possibilities or multiple or one of them
-gyne/-gyny is often miscorrectly written as geny/genous/gen(ic) (as in pandrogeny), so some can call this demigeny/demigenous/demigenic for mistake.
I’m using my semigender flag template here with two colors picked from flags of demigender and androgyne/androgynous, but it’s to avoid demigirl flag iterations. Both angi terms are used interchangeably so the flags and -gyne.
Based on hemigynous. Alt words (not mentioned yet): semigynous/semigyne/semigyny/semigynic (semifemale, semigirl/semigal, semiwoman/semiwomen, semifem(me), semifeminine/semifemininity), hemigyny/hemigyne/hemigynic (hemigirl/hemigal, hemifemale, hemifeminine/hemifemininity, hemifem(me), hemiwomen/hemiwoman), demigynic (demifemininity/demiwomen).
Flaggender:A gender that feels like a flag. It’s wavy, free, colorful, and somewhat floaty. Different colors of the “flag” can be connections to different genders.
Wermanhood is the back-formation of werewolf and Middle English for manhood. Useful for those who use/socialize “man” intrapersonally as gender-neutral/epicene. Derives Latin vir.
Alt words: wereman/weremen/wermen/waírman/waírmen, wer/were/waír/verr, virmen/virman/verrmen/verrman. Some may try using -mxn/-myn/-mæn as offered neologisms to mean something else interpersonally or impersonally. - Ap
Femal (a play with male/female terminology): experiencing both m/f viagenders (fiagender/fiaspec and miaspec/miagender); similar to/interchangeable with femache, but now it’s anglophone/anglospherical/anglo-saxonic.
Could be a centrigender, monogender, multigender/polygender, plurigender, gender-fluid, gendervast/vastgender, etc. As long as it feels/needs both f/m components. May be a lingender, in the sense of both feminility/femaleness (fem(inile)/femeal(ity)) and masculinity/maleness (masc(uline)/virility) being/been associated with fin/min in your culture, but femality/femal-ness is explicitly liagender/liaspec.
Aporogender: A gender experience that is nonspecific and/or imprecise.
Etymology
From Ancient Greek, “A” meaning “without” + “Poros” modified to “Poro” meaning “Passage” + “-gender”, an English neologistic suffix indicating genderedness. Coined by Callista Se Vens on Facebook, 2020. Callista did not originally state the meaning of Aporogender. However, user Arco-Pluris was kind enough to inquire about it’s meaning and pass the information onto me.
Flag
Prior to this post, there was no flag for this term. So, I went ahead and created one. This flag consists of five, solid-colored, horizontal stripes of the same size. From top to bottom, they are pastel green, light grey, orange, medium grey and eggplant purple. The secondary colors green, orange and purple represent imprecision and inexactness. The two grey stripes represent nonspecificity/generality. Flag by Gent (Gender-Resource), 2020.
Porogender: A gender experience that is specific and/or particular.
Etymology
From Ancient Greek, “Poros” modified to “Poro” meaning “Passage” + “-gender”, an English neologistic suffix indicating genderedness. Coined by Callista Se Vens on Facebook, 2020. Callista did not originally state the meaning of Porogender. However, user Arco-Pluris was kind enough to inquire about it’s meaning and pass the information onto me.
Flag
Prior to this post, there was no flag for this term. So, I went ahead and created one. This flag consists of five, solid-colored, horizontal stripes of the same size. From top to bottom, they are white, light yellow, red, dark blue and black. The primary colors, yellow, red and blue were used to represent precision and exactness. Black and white were used to represents specificity; positive or negative, yes or no, true or false, etc. Flag by Gent (Gender-Resource), 2020.
I really hope this flag isn’t similar to anything!
So this is the flag for being multinominal like me, so having more than one name!
The blue represents masc names, pink represents fem names, purple represents unisex names, and the yellow represents completely neutral names! It’s all pastel because i just like pastels -u-
And here’s the less pastel-ey one for those who dislike pastel colours! Colours represent the same things, this one just has a different design that kind of looks like the old bi flag but with circles!
