Xenogender

Xenogender

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Prefix:	Xeno-
Main Umbrella:	Gender
GxG Format:	X

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Xenogender is an umbrella term for non-binary gender identities that cannot be fully described through their relation to concepts typically used to describe genders such as male, female, woman, man, neutral, agender, etc. Instead, xenogenders can best be described through how they relate to things or beings that most individuals don't think of as having to do with gender, such as animals, plants, things, or concepts. The prefix in xenogender refers to the Greek word xeno- meaning 'strangeness', 'foreign', and 'extraterrestrial'.

The gender quality associated with xenogenders is xeninity/xenity, these genders often defined as having a xenine gender quality. An individual who is xeno-aligned may define their gender as xenic.

Xenogender individuals often have a strong understanding of how their gender feels to them, however they often find that there aren't any words for their experiences, described as a lexical gap. In order to fill that gap xenogender individuals often describe their gender through metaphors, by saying their gender is like, is influenced by, or shares qualities with something else.

Xenogenders are often misunderstood and taken literally, which can exacerbate the challenges marginalized gender alignments face when interacting with normative communities. One way to explain a xenogender is to compare it with existing normative genders. For example, where femininity may represent a gentle nature, soft, smooth, and fragile, the same can be seen in flowergender as flowers match the same stated characteristics from femininity. In some cases, one might prefer flowergender over femininity as it highlights and accentuates those specific qualities while excluding other feminine traits that do not accurately describe the individual.

Xenogenders often fall into one of three categories:

• Nouns and Archetypes: instead of saying how one's gender relates to masculinity and femininity, one says one's gender is, or is like, a kind of animal, an imaginary being, a part of nature, an abstract concept, or a symbol. These are called noungenders.

• Aesthetic and/or Synaesthetic Perceptions: when a gender is described using things like texture, size, shape, time, light, sound, or other sensory characteristics. These can often overlap with noungenders. These are called aesthetigenders.

• Neurotypes: when a neurodivergent individual's neurotype(s) is/are an inseparable part of their gender identity. These genders are exclusive to individuals of the neurotype(s) associated with them. These are called neurogenders.

Other categories of xenogenders include:

• Situations: when one's gender changes based on the situation. These are called mutogenders.

• Nonhuman Identity/kintypes: when an alterhuman's identification, nonhuman plural system member, or other nonhuman identifying individual's identification is an inseparable part of their gender identity or heavily affects or correlates to ones gender. These genders are exclusive to beings of the kintype(s) or similar associated with them. These are called alterhumangenders, kingenders or genderNH.

• Oneself: when one's gender is so much just them that no one else can even experience it. These are called nominalgenders.

Someone who is a binary gender, and relates/connects to xenogenders (without identifying as xenic) may call themselves meliusgender.

History

The term xenogender was coined by Tumblr user Baaphomett in 2014, initially defined 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".

Related Terms

Label	Relationship	Description	Difference
Anthrogender	Opposite	Typical or normative gender constructs in modern society.	Xenogender is non-normative and/or atypical.
Meliusgender	Similar	Identifying as both xenine or anthrine genders.	Meliusgender includes non-xeno genders.
Xiaspec	Counterpart	Xiaspec is an umbrella term for anyone on the xenogender spectrum.	Xiaspec encompasses a collection of xenogender identities, whereas xenogender is commonly seen as a single gender identity.
Xingender	Counterpart	Xingender is an umbrella term for all genders which are xenine in nature (XIN).	Xingender is for genders that are in some way xenine (even if they are not xenogender or xenic in any way).

Subgenders

Label	Suffix	Flag	Description	Creator(s)
Xenby / Xenbie	-Enby / -Enbie		Identifying as a xenic non-binary individual.	imoga-pride
Xenoboy	-Boy		Identifying as a xenic boy/man.	variant-archive
Xenogirl	-Girl		Identifying as a xenic girl/woman.	variant-archive
Xenoqueer / Xenqueer	-Queer		Identifying as a xenic queer individual.	imoga-pride

Prefixes and Suffixes

Label	Prefix / Suffix	Flag	Description	Creator(s)
Panxenogender / Panxenic	Pan-		Identifying as all xenogenders.	the-gender-collector-emself
Paraxenogender	Para-		Identifying mostly as xenogender.	Nxhilation
Xenofluid	-Fluid		Identifying between multiple xenogenders.	logchamp
Xenoflux	-Flux		Identifying as xenogender that fluctuates in intensity.	A long way down to the bottom of the river[sic]
Xenosoft	-Soft		Identifying as a soft xenogender or xenity.	the-gender-collector-emself

Flag and Symbols

The most well-known xenogender flag was designed by Pastelmemer and shared by Pride-Flags on DeviantArt, in 2017. It features 7 bands of colors, with most bands correlating with the hues present in iris flowers. The yellow was chosen to represent non-binary individuals, and the purple to represent androgynous genders. The symbol of Iris was chosen to coincide with the rainbow on the most well-known xenogender flag, as Iris is the Greek goddess of rainbows. Many xenogender flag variants often include the same symbol.

The simplified xenogender symbol was created by system-lgbt, representing a stylised form of the iris flower.

Another xenogender flag was created by Zer0Rebel4 which features the Iris xenogender symbol, as well as red, orange, and green shades.

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  Xenogender Symbol

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  Xenogender (Zer0Rebel4)