Aliagender: Difference between revisions

'''Aliagender''' (from Latin ''alius'' "other"<ref>{{cite web|url=https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/alius#Latin|title=alius|website=Wiktionary|access-date=26 March 2023}}</ref>) is a specific [[nonbinary]] identity.<ref name="ask a nonbinary glossary 2018">{{cite web |url=http://askanonbinary.tumblr.com/post/71388258891/glossary-prod-at-me-through-the-inbox-if-you|title=Glossary (prod at me through the inbox if you think this list needs to be added to/ altered) |website=Ask a Non-Binary (Tumblr)|date=28 December 2013 |access-date=23 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181223072932/http://askanonbinary.tumblr.com/post/71388258891/glossary-prod-at-me-through-the-inbox-if-you|archive-date=23 December 2018}}</ref> As described by the person who coined it, Beck, aliagender is “A gender experience which is 'other', or stands apart from existing gender constructs.”<ref name="ask a nonbinary glossary 2018" /> As Zoë or Leo later described it, "we defined it then as a gender experience other from the traditional spectrum. I always meant for this to be a term for a specific positive gender that was not associated with the man/woman spectrum, but was a gender that existed and NOT genderless."<ref name="throws up hands" />  

Beck, a moderator on the "askanonbinary" Tumblr blog, created the word "aliagender" in response to questions from Zoë or Leo (Tumblr user ZoboTheHob0, formerly ZoboTheHobo), in 2013 or before late January 2014.<ref name="throws up hands">{{cite web |author=Zoë or Leo |website=ZoboTheHob0 (Tumblr) |title=Untitled post |url=https://zobothehob0.tumblr.com/post/91716663005/epochryphal-throws-up-hands-im-getting-really |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200720212651/https://zobothehob0.tumblr.com/post/91716663005/epochryphal-throws-up-hands-im-getting-really |archive-date=20 July 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |author=Mod Kellex |title=Aporagender vs Aliagender |url=https://aporagender.tumblr.com/post/103598129904/aporagender-vs-aliagender |website=Apora (Tumblr) |date=25 November 2014 |access-date=21 May 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150521035454/https://aporagender.tumblr.com/post/103598129904/aporagender-vs-aliagender |archive-date=21 May 2015}}</ref> Zoë or Leo later described this event: "i was there when aliagender was coined. actually, i was the reason it was coined. I sent messages to askanonbinary and beck came up with the word. we defined it then as a gender experience other from the traditional spectrum. I always meant for this to be a term for a specific positive gender that was not associated with the man/woman spectrum, but was a gender that existed and NOT genderless."<ref name="throws up hands" />

Soon after, some Tumblr users began to argue "that aliagender is racist in that it is basically just a whitewashed version of [[third gender]]," for no other reason than it was a nonbinary gender.<ref>{{cite web|title=Anonymous said: isn't aporagender just basically aliagender tho?|url=http://aporagender.tumblr.com/post/88333981434/isnt-aporagender-just-basically-aliagender-tho|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160511233418/http://aporagender.tumblr.com:80/post/88333981434/isnt-aporagender-just-basically-aliagender-tho|archive-date=11 May 2016|date=10 June 2014}}</ref> In response, another person coined "aporagender" as an alternative to aliagender, due to concerns that aliagender might be "racist or appropriative."<ref name="aporagender vs aliagender">{{cite web | author = Zoë or Leo | title = Aporagender vs. Aliagender | website = ZoboTheHob0 (personal blog) | url = https://zobothehob0.tumblr.com/post/103601097145/aporagender-vs-aliagender | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200720212831/https://zobothehob0.tumblr.com/post/103601097145/aporagender-vs-aliagender | archive-date = 20 July 2020 }}</ref> Aliagender was never meant to be a whitewashed version of third gender, and there is no reason to interpret that way. Zoë or Leo clarified that "they did not intend for aliagender to be harmful in any way, and was created to describe an 'othering' concept of gender."<ref name="aporagender vs aliagender" />

Vesper H., the blogger and vlogger behind Queer as Cat, has written against claims that terms such as aliagender, [[aporagender]], and [[maverique]] (which they coined) are racist. According to Vesper, themself black, where third gender is "a prescriptive term forced onto others without their consent"<ref name=":0">{{cite web|author=Vesper|url=https://queerascat.tumblr.com/post/137554950446/re-maverique-aporagender-aliagender-and-third|title=re: maverique, aporagender, aliagender and third gender|website=Queer As Cat (Tumblr)|date=18 January 2016|access-date=26 March 2023}}</ref> used to other cultural identities, terms such as aliagender were specific gender identities that were not used to contain and erase cultural identities.<ref name=":0" />

In the Nonbinary/Genderqueer Survey 2016, one respondent called themself aliagender.{{Gender Census|2016}} In the 2019 Worldwide Gender Census, four respondents called themselves aliagender.{{Gender Census|2019}}