Metagender: Difference between revisions

    imported>GutenMorganism
    (→‎2010s: one more definition found in an interview in a thesis)
    imported>GutenMorganism
    m (→‎As a Label for Spiritual Identity in Theology and Anthropology: added clarity and date to saintly metagender paragraph)
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    Author Maxfield Sparrow, who has spoken about coming out as metagender in 1992,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.reddit.com/r/FTMOver30/comments/d98wwv/tell_me_about_your_nonbinary_transition/f1nlfli|title=r/FTMOver30 - Comment by u/MaxfieldSparrow on ”Tell me about your "non-binary transition"?”|last=Sparrow|first=Maxfield|date=2019-09-27|website=reddit|language=en-US|archive-url=|archive-date=|dead-url=|access-date=2020-12-24}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Maxfield Sparrow on Twitter|url=https://twitter.com/UnstrangeMind/status/1337887769511612417|website=twitter|access-date=2020-12-24|language=en-US|date=2020-12-12|last=Sparrow|first=Maxfield|archive-url=|archive-date=|dead-url=|quote=It's great that people decided there should be a word for those who aren't cis and aren't trans but I wish they had not chosen the word [metagender] I've been using since 1992 and defined me out of my own identity and then told me I don't matter because I'm old and my identity is only history}}</ref> wrote about being metagender on various channels across the 2010s.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.facebook.com/UnstrangeMind/posts/735759669859809|title=Unstrange Mind (comment)|last=Sparrow|first=Maxfield|date=2016-08-22|website=www.facebook.com|language=en|archive-url=|archive-date=|dead-url=|access-date=2020-12-28|quote=I am female but not a woman because I'm also male (and not a man). I'm an epicene. I'm metagender. I'm transmasculine.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.sashacagen.com/quirky-alone/quirkyalone-day-cards-from-readers/#comment-350978|title=Comment on 'Happy Quirkyalone Day 2019! Here are some hand-drawn cards from readers'|last=Sparrow|first=Maxfield|date=2019-02-14|website=Sasha Cagen, Quirkyalone + To-Do List Author + Coach|language=en-US|archive-url=|archive-date=|dead-url=|access-date=2020-12-28|quote=I’m performing the poem “Reclaiming Cunt” as an affirmation and validation of my gender and how I express it, as a metagender person with a masculine body presentation.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite tweet|number=973524929856573440|user=UnstrangeMind|title=Thank you. I think words are changing a lot these days. Non-binary didn’t exist when I first started identifying as metagender. And I went 26 years not realizing I was Trans until I felt the need to transition. I’m glad the Trans umbrella is opening up now & more inclusive.|author=Sparrow, Maxfield.|date=2018-03-13}}</ref><ref name=":15">{{Cite web|url=https://transtistic.wordpress.com/2017/06/17/what-is-gendervague/|title=What is Gendervague?|last=Sparrow|first=Maxfield. [unstrangemind]|date=2017-06-17|website=Transtistic|language=en|archive-url=|archive-date=|dead-url=|access-date=2020-12-28|quote=I referred to myself as metagender for many years}}</ref> In Sparrow's 2017 blog essay "What is Metagender," Sparrow described the difficulty of defining the identity, describing its similarity to [[gendervague]].<ref name=":15" /> Sparrow expanded on their metagender identity in a 2018 anthology, writing that metagender "expresses feeling outside the entire paradigm of gender."<ref>{{Cite book|title=Challenging genders: non-binary experiences of those assigned female at birth|last=Sparrow|first=Maxfield|date=2018|publisher=Boundless Endeavors, Inc|year=|isbn=978-0-9968309-6-6|editor-last=Brown|editor-first=Michael Eric|location=Miami, AZ|pages=|quote="I didn't begin identifying as metagender until my 30s. Metagender means that I don't feel like a woman and I don't feel like a man. I don't feel like a gender at all. But I don't feel 'genderless,' either. Metagender is a word that expresses feeling outside the entire paradigm of gender...I am metagender because I don't grasp gender at all."}}</ref>
    Author Maxfield Sparrow, who has spoken about coming out as metagender in 1992,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.reddit.com/r/FTMOver30/comments/d98wwv/tell_me_about_your_nonbinary_transition/f1nlfli|title=r/FTMOver30 - Comment by u/MaxfieldSparrow on ”Tell me about your "non-binary transition"?”|last=Sparrow|first=Maxfield|date=2019-09-27|website=reddit|language=en-US|archive-url=|archive-date=|dead-url=|access-date=2020-12-24}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Maxfield Sparrow on Twitter|url=https://twitter.com/UnstrangeMind/status/1337887769511612417|website=twitter|access-date=2020-12-24|language=en-US|date=2020-12-12|last=Sparrow|first=Maxfield|archive-url=|archive-date=|dead-url=|quote=It's great that people decided there should be a word for those who aren't cis and aren't trans but I wish they had not chosen the word [metagender] I've been using since 1992 and defined me out of my own identity and then told me I don't matter because I'm old and my identity is only history}}</ref> wrote about being metagender on various channels across the 2010s.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.facebook.com/UnstrangeMind/posts/735759669859809|title=Unstrange Mind (comment)|last=Sparrow|first=Maxfield|date=2016-08-22|website=www.facebook.com|language=en|archive-url=|archive-date=|dead-url=|access-date=2020-12-28|quote=I am female but not a woman because I'm also male (and not a man). I'm an epicene. I'm metagender. I'm transmasculine.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.sashacagen.com/quirky-alone/quirkyalone-day-cards-from-readers/#comment-350978|title=Comment on 'Happy Quirkyalone Day 2019! Here are some hand-drawn cards from readers'|last=Sparrow|first=Maxfield|date=2019-02-14|website=Sasha Cagen, Quirkyalone + To-Do List Author + Coach|language=en-US|archive-url=|archive-date=|dead-url=|access-date=2020-12-28|quote=I’m performing the poem “Reclaiming Cunt” as an affirmation and validation of my gender and how I express it, as a metagender person with a masculine body presentation.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite tweet|number=973524929856573440|user=UnstrangeMind|title=Thank you. I think words are changing a lot these days. Non-binary didn’t exist when I first started identifying as metagender. And I went 26 years not realizing I was Trans until I felt the need to transition. I’m glad the Trans umbrella is opening up now & more inclusive.|author=Sparrow, Maxfield.|date=2018-03-13}}</ref><ref name=":15">{{Cite web|url=https://transtistic.wordpress.com/2017/06/17/what-is-gendervague/|title=What is Gendervague?|last=Sparrow|first=Maxfield. [unstrangemind]|date=2017-06-17|website=Transtistic|language=en|archive-url=|archive-date=|dead-url=|access-date=2020-12-28|quote=I referred to myself as metagender for many years}}</ref> In Sparrow's 2017 blog essay "What is Metagender," Sparrow described the difficulty of defining the identity, describing its similarity to [[gendervague]].<ref name=":15" /> Sparrow expanded on their metagender identity in a 2018 anthology, writing that metagender "expresses feeling outside the entire paradigm of gender."<ref>{{Cite book|title=Challenging genders: non-binary experiences of those assigned female at birth|last=Sparrow|first=Maxfield|date=2018|publisher=Boundless Endeavors, Inc|year=|isbn=978-0-9968309-6-6|editor-last=Brown|editor-first=Michael Eric|location=Miami, AZ|pages=|quote="I didn't begin identifying as metagender until my 30s. Metagender means that I don't feel like a woman and I don't feel like a man. I don't feel like a gender at all. But I don't feel 'genderless,' either. Metagender is a word that expresses feeling outside the entire paradigm of gender...I am metagender because I don't grasp gender at all."}}</ref>


    In interviews for a 2018 thesis, an anonymous interviewee described metagender as an identity "beyond gender."<ref>Jacobson, Ariele (2018). ''[https://ruor.uottawa.ca/bitstream/10393/38056/1/Jacobson_Ariele_2018_thesis.pdf To Lessen Repression and Depression: The Relationship Between Sexual Repression and Mental Health Among Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Individuals]'' (Thesis, PDF). Saint Paul University. p. 21, 93.</ref>  
    In interviews for a 2018 thesis, an anonymous interviewee described metagender as an identity "beyond gender."<ref>Jacobson, Ariele (2018). ''[https://ruor.uottawa.ca/bitstream/10393/38056/1/Jacobson_Ariele_2018_thesis.pdf To Lessen Repression and Depression: The Relationship Between Sexual Repression and Mental Health Among Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Individuals]'' (M.A. thesis, PDF). Saint Paul University. p. 21, 93.</ref>  


    ====2020-present====
    ====2020-present====
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    Metagender as a third gender also applies in pre-history. In Aegean scholarship of the genderless aspects of Minoan culture, applying meta-gender as a third gender concept "better conveys something above and beyond binary categories" than "genderless."<ref name=":4" />
    Metagender as a third gender also applies in pre-history. In Aegean scholarship of the genderless aspects of Minoan culture, applying meta-gender as a third gender concept "better conveys something above and beyond binary categories" than "genderless."<ref name=":4" />


    Rhonda L. McDaniel uses the word metagender to describe the transcendent gender available to virgin saints. Theorized by the Latin Doctors in the fourth and fifth centuries, the metagendered ''virum perfectum'', belonging to the Body of Christ, encompassed and transcended masculine and feminine genders to become an angelic, otherworldly metagender.<ref name=":9" /> Through virginity and devotion to scripture, any sex could transcend earthly pleasures to become the heavenly metagender.<ref name=":9" /> Some Christians in the present day also use metagender to describe this state of transcending human gender to achieve a Godlike gender.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://lainaorlando.com/a-course-in-love/|title=A Course in Love|last=Orl|first=Laina|last2=o|date=2018-03-16|website=Laina Orlando|language=en-US|access-date=2021-01-01}}</ref>
    Metagender was used to describe the transcendent gender of virgin saints in scholarly reconstructions by 2003.<ref>McDaniel, Rhonda L. (2003). ''[https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/dissertations/1252 Male and Female He Created Them: Ælfric’s Lives of Saints and Patristic Theories of Gender]'' (Ph.D). Western Michigan University. 1252.  </ref> Theorized in the writings of the Latin Doctors in the fourth and fifth centuries, the metagendered ''virum perfectum'', belonging to the Body of Christ, encompassed and transcended masculine and feminine genders to become an angelic, otherworldly metagender.<ref name=":9" /> Through virginity and devotion to scripture, any sex could transcend earthly pleasures to become the heavenly metagender.<ref name=":9" /> Some Christians in the present day also use metagender to describe this state of transcending human gender to achieve a Godlike gender.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://lainaorlando.com/a-course-in-love/|title=A Course in Love|last=Orl|first=Laina|last2=o|date=2018-03-16|website=Laina Orlando|language=en-US|access-date=2021-01-01}}</ref>


    In addition to human spiritual idenities, divine beings have been called meta-gendered–in the sense of transcending human gender categories–in religious scholarship and education of multiple religions. Examples include angels in Islam,<ref name=":10" /> the Christian God,<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.de/books?id=KUdgBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA55&dq=%22meta-gender%22+OR+%22meta-gendered%22+OR+%22metagenderism%22+OR+%22metagender%22+OR+%22metagendered%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwii4fLGj_TtAhXCuaQKHailDPkQ6AEwBnoECAUQAg#v=onepage&q=%22meta-gender%22%20OR%20%22meta-gendered%22%20OR%20%22metagenderism%22%20OR%20%22metagender%22%20OR%20%22metagendered%22&f=false|title=Reforming worship: English reformed principles and practice|last=|first=|date=2012|publisher=Wipf & Stock Publishers|year=|isbn=978-1-61097-320-5|location=Eugene, Or.|pages=|language=English|oclc=801440436}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.gender-curricula.com/en/curriculum/theologie-katholisch|title=Gender Curricula für Bachelor- und Masterstudiengänge: Curriculum Catholic Theology|website=www.gender-curricula.com|access-date=2020-12-29}}</ref><ref name=":9" /> and other spiritualities.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.de/books?id=JS1xDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT115&dq=%22meta-gender%22+OR+%22meta-gendered%22+OR+%22metagenderism%22+OR+%22metagender%22+OR+%22metagendered%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjWzPWWj_TtAhWICOwKHZh8AWEQ6AEwA3oECAYQAg#v=onepage&q=%22meta-gender%22%20OR%20%20%22meta-gendered%22%20OR%20%22metagenderism%22%20OR%20%22metagender%22%20OR%20%22metagendered%22&f=false|title=Spirit speak: knowing and understanding spirit guides, ancestors, ghosts, angels, and the divine|last=Domínguez|first=Ivo|date=2008|publisher=New Page Books|year=|isbn=978-1-60163-002-5|location=Franklin Lakes, NJ|pages=}}</ref> One neopagan deity, Paneros of the Tetrad++, was "birthed" specifically as a metagendered deity.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/title/mediawiki/oclc/946958644|title=All-soul, all-body, all-love, all-power a transmythology|last=Lupus|first=P. Sufenas Virius|date=2016|isbn=978-1-4750-2528-6|language=English|oclc=946958644}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://psufenasviriuslupus.wordpress.com/pantheons/the-antinoan-pantheon/paneros-of-the-tetrad/|title=Paneros of the Tetrad++|date=2019-01-28|website=P. SUFENAS VIRIUS LUPUS|language=en|access-date=2020-12-29}}</ref>
    In addition to human spiritual idenities, divine beings have been called meta-gendered–in the sense of transcending human gender categories–in religious scholarship and education of multiple religions. Examples include angels in Islam,<ref name=":10" /> the Christian God,<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.de/books?id=KUdgBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA55&dq=%22meta-gender%22+OR+%22meta-gendered%22+OR+%22metagenderism%22+OR+%22metagender%22+OR+%22metagendered%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwii4fLGj_TtAhXCuaQKHailDPkQ6AEwBnoECAUQAg#v=onepage&q=%22meta-gender%22%20OR%20%22meta-gendered%22%20OR%20%22metagenderism%22%20OR%20%22metagender%22%20OR%20%22metagendered%22&f=false|title=Reforming worship: English reformed principles and practice|last=|first=|date=2012|publisher=Wipf & Stock Publishers|year=|isbn=978-1-61097-320-5|location=Eugene, Or.|pages=|language=English|oclc=801440436}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.gender-curricula.com/en/curriculum/theologie-katholisch|title=Gender Curricula für Bachelor- und Masterstudiengänge: Curriculum Catholic Theology|website=www.gender-curricula.com|access-date=2020-12-29}}</ref><ref name=":9" /> and other spiritualities.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.de/books?id=JS1xDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT115&dq=%22meta-gender%22+OR+%22meta-gendered%22+OR+%22metagenderism%22+OR+%22metagender%22+OR+%22metagendered%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjWzPWWj_TtAhWICOwKHZh8AWEQ6AEwA3oECAYQAg#v=onepage&q=%22meta-gender%22%20OR%20%20%22meta-gendered%22%20OR%20%22metagenderism%22%20OR%20%22metagender%22%20OR%20%22metagendered%22&f=false|title=Spirit speak: knowing and understanding spirit guides, ancestors, ghosts, angels, and the divine|last=Domínguez|first=Ivo|date=2008|publisher=New Page Books|year=|isbn=978-1-60163-002-5|location=Franklin Lakes, NJ|pages=}}</ref> One neopagan deity, Paneros of the Tetrad++, was "birthed" specifically as a metagendered deity.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/title/mediawiki/oclc/946958644|title=All-soul, all-body, all-love, all-power a transmythology|last=Lupus|first=P. Sufenas Virius|date=2016|isbn=978-1-4750-2528-6|language=English|oclc=946958644}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://psufenasviriuslupus.wordpress.com/pantheons/the-antinoan-pantheon/paneros-of-the-tetrad/|title=Paneros of the Tetrad++|date=2019-01-28|website=P. SUFENAS VIRIUS LUPUS|language=en|access-date=2020-12-29}}</ref>