Intergender: Difference between revisions

[[Intergender]] is a [[gender identity]] under the [[nonbinary]] and [[transgender]] [[umbrella terms]]. Intergender people have a gender identity that is in the middle between the [[binary gender]]s of female and male, and may be a mix of both. The word "intergender" has been independently coined by different people at different times, and the meaning has been the same, as above. At least one person claiming to be intergender and intersex independently has argued that "intergender" should only by used by people who are intersex, and that intergender is an identity only for intersex people.<ref name="Aeshling_Mogai">Aeshling. "Intergender." ''Mogai-Archive.'' 2014. http://mogai-archive.tumblr.com/post/92026280519/intergender {{dead link}}</ref> However, the identity label had already been in use for at least sixteen years as something that was open to people of any birth sex.<ref name="Matthews_Intergendered">Donna Lynn Matthews, “What is intergendered?” 1998-10. http://cydathria.com/ms_donna/intergen.html</ref><ref name="Matthews_Genderqueer">Donna Lynn Matthews, “Being genderqueer – What it means for me.” 2006-10. http://cydathria.com/ms_donna/genderqueer.html</ref>

During the 1990s, usenet newsgroups were informal public discussion groups on the Internet that were oriented around topics of interest, such as hobbies, fandoms, and LGBT issues. Starting sometime before 1998, people who identified as intergender created a discussion group in the alt.support.intergendered newsgroup, which was created by an intergender and non-intersex person named Donna Lynn Matthews.<ref name="Matthews_Genderqueer">Donna Lynn Matthews, “Being genderqueer – What it means for me.” 2006-10. http://cydathria.com/ms_donna/genderqueer.html</ref> The [http://cydathria.com/ms_donna/asig_charter.html charter (last updated in 1998) for that newsgroup] explains its purpose, and what intergendered means:   

"The intent of this newsgroup is to provide a supportive, informative and friendly environment for intergendered individuals. Intergendered individuals do not gender themselves as 'men' or 'women', but somewhere inbetween, as a mix of both masculine and feminine qualities. Others gender themselves as neither 'men' nor 'women' ([[agender|agendered or non-gendered]]), thus placing themselves 'outside' of the gender 'spectrum' completely. Given this, intergendered individuals tend to present (to varing degrees) in a non-descript or ambiguous manner by means of androgyny, partial crossderssing [sic], genderbending, and part-time cross-gender living, to name a few. Intergendered should not be confused with intersexed, as the two are quite different. It is not the intent of this to be an intersexed support forum. This newsgroup is open to anyone (intersexed individuals included), provided that posted articles are on topic and of relevance to intergendered individuals."<ref name="newsgroup_charter">{{cite web |title=CHARTER: alt.support.intergendered |url=http://cydathria.com/ms_donna/asig_charter.html}}</ref>  

Some participants of that newsgroup used gender-neutral [[pronouns]].<ref>"GNP FAQ." [https://web.archive.org/web/20120229202924/http:/aetherlumina.com/gnp/listing.html]</ref> There were enough people who identified as intergender that there was an intergender webring. A webring was something that any site with something in common with its theme could choose to join, so users could browse a list of sites on the same subject matter. Webrings were important for finding sites about any particular kind of content before the advent of large search engines like Google. This means that on the intergender webring, there was a list of personal websites by many different intergender people, similar to blogs.<ref>"Welcome to the Intergendered Webring." ''Donna's Hideout.'' c. 1998. http://donnas-hideout.org/igring.html</ref>

In 2000, a non-intersex and intergender person named [http://cydathria.com/ms_donna//interdressing.html Deird Duncan coined the word "interdressing,"] meaning intergender [[gender expression]] in clothing, possibly without any intention to be seen as any particular gender.<ref>Deird Duncan, “Interdressing.” 2000-04-10. http://cydathria.com/ms_donna/interdressing.html </ref>

Some non-intersex people interested in calling themselves "intergender" may choose to defer to intersex people by using a different label with a similar meaning instead, such as [[bigender]] or [[androgyne]], which are open to people of any birth sex. On the other hand, non-intersex people may be no less entitled to calling themselves intergender, because the label "intergender" was open to people of any birth sex for many years longer. There is also the matter that some nonbinary people who were born non-intersex describe their [[transition]] as the intention to make their body more intersex, and call themselves female-to-intersex or male-to-intersex [[transsexual]]s, which goes back to at least 1996.<ref name="Carter_Angels">{{cite web|first=Raphael |last=Carter|title=The Angel's Dictionary|date=14 July 1996 |url=http://www.chaparraltree.com/raq/angels.shtml|archive-date=8 May 2005|archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20050308185631/http:/www.chaparraltree.com/raq/angels.shtml }}</ref> Some intersex people have argued that it is appropriative for non-intersex people to say that they want to become intersex or intersex-like, given that intersex people face unique types of social oppression.

<ref>{{cite web |url= https://www.asexuality.org/en/topic/139720-transitioning-to-intersex/ |title= Transitioning to... intersex? |website= AVEN Forum Archive |access-date= 19 May 2021}}</ref> Either way, the old definition and Aeshling's definition agree that "intergender" means a gender identity between female and male, one which may be a mix of both.