Editing Metagender

'''Metagender''' is a term that has been coined multiple times with varying definitions, including multiple [[nonbinary]] [[Gender identity|gender identities]], spiritual and [[Gender-variant identities worldwide|cultural]] identities, a combined gender identity and [[Orientation|romantic and sexual orientation]], a [[Gender Modality|gender modality]], a synonym for gender modality, a description for [[Gender nonconformity|gender-nonconforming behavior]], and a super-set for all gender possibilities. Different definitions have been used for [[LGBT+]] self-identifiers, in [[Feminism|feminist]]/[[wikipedia:Queer theory|queer theory]] and [[activism]], and in academic settings.

==Usage through history==
Metagender existed as a technical term prior to its use by LGBT individuals, dating back at least to the 1980s, initially concerned with being outside or transcending binary gender, whether of imagery, perspectives, data, or people.<ref name=":5" /><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/murderdifference0000balm/page/110/mode/2up?q=%22meta+gender%22|title=Murder and difference: gender, genre, and scholarship on Sisera's death|last=Bal|first=Mieke|date=1992|publisher=Indiana University Press|year=|isbn=978-0-585-02512-4|location=Bloomington|pages=111-112|language=English|oclc=42854270|quote=Just as with disciplinary codes, notably the theological and liteary codes, the meta-gender code adopted by the interpreter in search of difference ought to be distinguished, first, from the personal gender code he or she has also adopted, most implicitly, by virtue of membership in a particular sexual group, and second, from the gender code he or she assumes the other has adopted...I will confront the possible contribution of a meta-gender code to the personal gender code, which, as we will see in the sample interpretations, remains implicit.|archive-url=False|archive-date=17 July 2023}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Costello|first=Bonnie|date=1989|title=Domestic Mysticism|url=http://archives.bu.edu/collections/partisan-review/search/detail?id=331558|journal=Partisan Review|volume=56|issue=4|pages=671|doi=|issn=0031-2525|quote=One challenge for contemporary women poets is to decide just how far they wish 'womanhood' to define the terms of their awareness. It is a good sign, I think, that 'the soul' has returned with a fresh, contemporary aura, not genderless, but metagendered. The metaphysical impulse arising in, altered and constrained by biology, runs through many of our best women-poets.|via=Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220127033225/http://archives.bu.edu/collections/partisan-review/search/detail?id=331558|archive-date=17 July 2023}}</ref> Its use as a technical term with various definitions has [[Metagender#Academic and technical usage|persisted into the 2020s]].

===LGBT definitions===

====1990s====
Metagender's early usage by queer communities was recorded in queer and feminist publications, where its definition included post-gender concepts, gender variance, gender-bending, and being neither a man nor a woman.  

In a 1994 letter to the [[wikipedia:San Francisco Bay Times|San Francisco Bay Times]], an [[intersex]] womyn used metagender as an umbrella descriptor for [[Gender variant|gender-variant]] and [[intersex]].<ref name=":12">Jones, Billie Jean. Hernandez, Holly M. (1994). ''GenderFlex''. 4(23). p 13. Retrieved at https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/files/gx41mh96x "There was an interesting letter in the S.F. Bay Times (August 25, 1994) from a person born intersexed who identified as a feminist member of the womyn's community. This person was highly critical of ' ... this newly expanded, all-inclusive "transgendered" category' and resented being lumped into said category. This person does not openly identify as a TS '...increasingly because of the new tendency to lump all metagender situations together to include men who play at drag.' Railing against the '... insulting-to-womyn draggy/tv posturing', the writer also omitted any mention of FTMs."</ref>

In a 1998 [[wikipedia:Bitch_(magazine)|BITCH magazine]] essay titled "Metagender and the Slow Decline of the Either/Or," Lisa Voldeng and Laura Kloppenberg coined "metagenderism" to "encapsulat[e] all existing, evolving, and unborn gender models: It is the unlimited superset of all possible (non)genders and gender (non)identities, of individual and cultural existence free from binaristic categorization and definition." This definition was coined in contrast with the contemporary "transgenderism" as defined by trans woman and cultural theorist [[wikipedia:Sandy_Stone_(artist)|Sandy Stone]]. Whereas transgender was a category to "include everyone not covered by our culture's narrow terms man and woman," metagenderism entailed "a comprehensive reenvisioning of gender," to serve as "container for all gender identities, encompassing the two-gender system to transgender and beyond."<ref name=":13">Kloppenberg, Laura. Voldeng, Lisa. (1998). "Metagender  & the  Slow  Decline  of  the  Either/Or." ''BITCH'',  3(1), p 33-34.</ref>

In a 1999 interview printed in the magazine ''[[wikipedia:Femme_Fatales_(magazine)|Femme Fatales]]'', musician/poet/filmmaker [[wikipedia:Phoebe Legere|Phoebe Legere]] said "I am metagender, metasexual, not a man or a woman."<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://archive.org/details/Femme_Fatales_v08n04/page/n39/mode/2up| p=40-41|journal=Femme Fatales|volume=8|number=4|date=September 10, 1999| title=Mighty Aphrodite|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220128082253/https://archive.org/details/Femme_Fatales_v08n04/page/n39/mode/2up|archive-date=17 July 2023}}</ref>

====2000s====
The term was coined again by 1997 by Rook Thomas Hine,<ref name=":14">{{cite web|url=http://www.liminalityland.com/metagender.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040726170300/http://www.liminalityland.com/metagender.htm|archive-date=26 July 2004|title=Metagender|last=Bernhardt-House|first=Phillip|date=|access-date=|website=}}</ref><ref name=":3" /> an identity Hine characterized as being a "conscientious objector" in "the war of the sexes."<ref name=":6">Bernhardt-House, Phillip (2003). "So, which one is the opposite sex?: the sometimes spiritual journey of a metagender". ''[https://archive.org/details/findingrealmetru00trac/page/76/mode/2up Finding the Real Me: True Tales of Sex and Gender Diversity]'' (Tracie O'Keefe & Katrina Fox, Ed.)''.'' Jossey-Bass. p. 76-88.</ref> This concept of metagender was further developed by Phillip Andrew Bernhardt-House. E defined the term in a 2003 anthology as a spiritual identity that was a "'wholly other' third/fourth/eighty-seventh"<ref name=":6" /> gender category that was not derived from any combination of [[woman]], [[man]], [[feminine]], [[masculine]], [[neuter]], or [[androgyne]]. E described being "a metagender" as similar to being a [[third gender]] with a spiritual component while being in a culture that lacked this concept.<ref name=":6" /> Metagender developed into a discrete identity as a spiritual functionary inside [[Pagan|neopaganism]], combining social gender and sexuality (latter being similar to [[pansexual]]), which it has remained since 2008 as described by P. Sufenas Virius Lupus.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web|url=https://psufenasviriuslupus.wordpress.com/home/metagender/|title=Metagender|date=14 December 2016|website=P. SUFENAS VIRIUS LUPUS|language=en|access-date=24 December 2020|last=Lupus|first=P. Sufenas Virius|archive-url=|archive-date=|publisher=Wordpress}}</ref> 

In a 2004 zine, Katie Cercone listed metagender as a term for "gender-bending."<ref>Cercone, Katie. (2004). ''Ms. Direction #6''. p. 4. Retrieved at https://archive.qzap.org/index.php/Detail/Object/Show/object_id/300</ref>

In a 2006 book on transgender journeys, metagender was defined as "individuals who do not identify as either male or female."<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/crossingsexualbo00jari/page/364/mode/2up?q=phillip|title=Crossing sexual boundaries: transgender journeys, uncharted paths|last=|first=|date=2006|publisher=Prometheus Books|year=|isbn=978-1-59102-388-3|editor-last=Kane-Demaios|editor-first=J. Ari|location=Amherst, N.Y|pages=|oclc=ocm61309341|editor-last2=Bullough|editor-first2=Vern L.|archive-url=False|archive-date=17 July 2023}}</ref>

====2010s====
In 2012, metagender was defined in HaifischGeweint's Gender 101 as "a gender identity describing a person whose subjective experience of gender is not adequately described by any existing terminology (i.e., I never “met a” gender like you before)."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://haifischgeweint.wordpress.com/gender-101/|title=#Gender101|date=22 April 2012|website=HaifischGeweint|language=en|access-date=28 December 2020|last=|first=|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190408083434/https://haifischgeweint.wordpress.com/gender-101/|archive-date=8 April 2019|publisher=Wordpress|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In 2014, Metagender was proposed for four different meanings on Tumblr. 

#In February, "meta-gender" was suggested by Tumblr user unquietpirate as the label for one's relationship to one's assigned gender at birth, similar to [[Gender Modality|gender modality]], to contrast with "experiential gender." Unquietpirate listed cisgender, transgender, and genderqueer as examples of meta-gender, last also being an "experiential gender."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://queeranarchism.tumblr.com/post/76889334992/yeah-but-can-you-explain-the-cis-gender-thing|title=Yeah, but can you explain the cis gender thing?|last=queeranarchism|first=|date=16 February 2014|website=Queer Anarchism|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=28 January 2021|publisher=Tumblr}}</ref>
# In June, metagender was suggested by Tumblr user collectivetey as an alternative word for [[pangender]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Pangender Without the 'Pan'|date=23 June 2014|url=https://collectivetey.tumblr.com/post/89664280616/pangender-without-the-pan|access-date=21 December 2020|website=Collective Teleonomy|last=collectivetey|first=|archive-url=|archive-date=|publication-place=Tumblr}}</ref>
#In July, metagender was coined by Tumblr users autisticlapis-blog, agenderchrismclean, and lordmoriarty. The definition was: "to identify around or beyond a gender. Where your gender identity is almost that gender, but not quite, and also extends beyond that. Imagine that — is you, and | is the gender identity (and identifying fully with a gender is —|), then metagender is — | —". For example, meta-boy, meta-girl, meta-nonbinary, and so on.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://autisticlapis-blog.tumblr.com/post/90952685669/so-apparently-someone-truscum-joked-about|title=so apparently someone (tru/scum?) joked about metagender but it’s actually...|website=get in the fucking robot 2k15|access-date=21 March 2021|date=6 July 2014|last=autisticlapis-blog|first=|archive-url=|archive-date=|publisher=Tumblr}}</ref> The "—" is also written as "—-".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://imoga-pride.tumblr.com/post/180693311876/metagender-flag|title=Metagender Flag|last=imoga-pride|first=|date=1 December 2018|website=gendies ‘n’ more|publisher=Tumblr|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=22 March 2021}}</ref>
#In November, metagender was coined by Tumblr user arquus-malvaceae as "a tangential or tenuous connection to the concept of gender.  Existing in that sort of floaty space where there is no gender, but still connecting with another label.  Identifying with as opposed to identifying as. Can be narrowed down and specified as one sees fit.  Eg, Metawoman, Metaman, Metaqueer, etc."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://arquus-malvaceae.tumblr.com/post/103240804765/metagender-a-tangential-or-tenuous-connection-to|title=Metagender: A tangential or tenuous connection to...|last=arquus-malvaceae|first=|date=21 November 2014|website=Cupcakes|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201228210047/https://arquus-malvaceae.tumblr.com/post/103240804765/metagender-a-tangential-or-tenuous-connection-to|archive-date=28 December 2020|access-date=28 December 2020|publisher=Tumblr}}</ref>

At Pantheacon 2015, a [[Pagan|neopagan]] convention, at least two persons spoke about their metagender identity at a roundtable discussion on gender diversity<ref name=":19">{{Cite web|url=http://divinespiralingrainbowtribe.blogspot.com/2015/03/living-spectra-with-jaina-bee.html|title=Living the Spectra with Jaina Bee|website=Divine Spiraling Rainbow Tribe: Exploring and Honoring Sacred Mxgender Mysteries|language=en|access-date=22 March 2021|date=15 March 2015|last=Bee|first=Jaina|archive-url=|archive-date=|publisher=Blogspot}}</ref> as derived from the spiritual definition by P. Sufenas Virius Lupus.<ref name=":3" /> After the convention, Priestx Jaina Bee wrote:

{{Quote|Metagender opens up uninhibited freedom to be myself; a one-size-fits-me label that is no particular gender but neither is it [[agender]]. It is a slippery, slithery gender that evades every attempt to define it; a trickster gender. (Every person in this conformist culture who does not identify with their assigned gender is forced in some way to become a trickster, even if they would not be otherwise. Metagender is trickster to the core.) Ask nine metagender people what metagender means and you'll get twelve answers.<ref name=":19" />|Jaina Bee|March 15, 2015}}

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=27 September 2019|website=reddit|language=en-US|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=24 December 2020}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Maxfield Sparrow on Twitter|url=https://twitter.com/UnstrangeMind/status/1337887769511612417|website=Twitter|access-date=24 December 2020|language=en-US|date=12 December 2020|last=Sparrow|first=Maxfield|archive-url=|archive-date=|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=22 August 2016|website=Facebook|language=en|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=28 December 2020|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=14 February 2019|website=Sasha Cagen, Quirkyalone + To-Do List Author + Coach|language=en-US|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=28 December 2020|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=13 March 2018}}</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=17 July 2017|website=Transtistic|language=en|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=28 December 2020|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=":20">{{Cite web|url=https://transtistic.wordpress.com/2017/07/11/what-is-metagender/|title=What is Metagender?|last=Sparrow|first=Maxfield. [unstrangemind]|date=11 July 2017|website=Transtistic|language=en|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=21 January 2021|publisher=Wordpress}}</ref> 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]'' (M.A. thesis, PDF). Saint Paul University. p. 21, 93. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230703210931/https://ruor.uottawa.ca/bitstream/10393/38056/1/Jacobson_Ariele_2018_thesis.pdf Archived] on 17 July 2023</ref>

====2020-present====
[[File:Metagender (black green yellow white 7 stripe).jpg |thumb|A pride flag for the "neither cis nor trans" definition of metagender. The flag consists of seven horizontal stripes which are black, green, yellow, white, yellow, green, and black.]]
In July 2020, metagender was coined again by Every Winters, Tenacity and others as a [[Gender Modality|gender modality]] for persons who are not [[cisgender]] and do not identify as [[transgender]],<ref name=":16">{{Cite web|url=https://soundsliketransedu.com/metagender/|title=Metagender - Sounds Like Trans Edu|last=|first=|date=2020-10-31|website=web.archive.org|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201031235631/https://soundsliketransedu.com/metagender/|archive-date=2020-10-30|access-date=2021-01-09}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite web|url=https://www.facebook.com/groups/281615473111127/|title=Facebook Groups: Metagender and Questioning 🖤💚💛🤍💛💚🖤|last=|first=|date=|website=Facebook|language=en|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201228200140/https://www.facebook.com/groups/281615473111127/|archive-date=2020-12-28|access-date=2020-12-28}}</ref> similar to [[List of uncommon nonbinary identities#Isogender|isogender]] and absgender.<ref>{{cite web|title=Absgender: A genderedness that is between, beyond or removed from the Cisgender/Transgender dichotomy; a gender that is neither Cisgender nor Transgender.|date=29 July 2020|url=https://gender-resource.tumblr.com/post/624951702581362688/absgender-a-genderedness-that-is-between-beyond|access-date=16 January 2022|website=Gender Resource|last=gender-resource|first=|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201231191637/https://gender-resource.tumblr.com/post/624951702581362688/absgender-a-genderedness-that-is-between-beyond|archive-date=31 December 2020|publication-place=Tumblr}}</ref> Of the new term, one nonbinary person said: 

{{Quote|Not all nonbinary people identify as trans, for various reasons. Because of this, a new term has also been coined to cover nonbinary people: metagender. I do acknowledge that I am technically transgender, but I also feel like the label doesn’t quite fit me. There’s still a lot of binary expectations with being transgender and I don’t see that experience as my own. At the same time, I wholly believe that nonbinary people should be accepted by the transgender community.|B.Alvinia|"Somewhere In Between"<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://bamuses.wordpress.com/2020/12/12/somewhere-in-between/|title=Somewhere In Between|last=B.Alvinia|date=2020-12-12|website=b.AM Muses|language=en|access-date=2021-01-01|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211201210520/https://bamuses.wordpress.com/2020/12/12/somewhere-in-between/|archive-date=17 July 2023}}</ref>}}
{{clear}}

====Gender Census and other data====
In the 2019 Worldwide Gender Census, one respondent called themselves metagender.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://gendercensus.com/results/2019-worldwide-summary/|title=Gender Census 2019: Worldwide Summary|date=2020-11-11|website=Gender Census|language=en-GB|access-date=2020-12-24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220810134730/https://www.gendercensus.com/results/2019-worldwide-summary/|archive-date=17 July 2023}}</ref> In the 2020 Worldwide Gender Census, four respondents called themselves metagender.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://gendercensus.com/results/2020-worldwide-summary/|title=Gender Census 2020: Worldwide Summary|date=2020-11-11|website=Gender Census|language=en-GB|access-date=2020-12-24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220810134743/https://www.gendercensus.com/results/2020-worldwide-summary/|archive-date=17 July 2023}} "metagender: 2; metagender!: 1; meta-girl: 1"</ref> As of December 28, 2020, the "Metagender and Questioning" facebook group, founded after the gender modality coining, had 506 members, with an unknown number of members being metagender themselves.<ref name=":2" />

===Bugis society of Indonesia===
For 600 years into the present day, Bugis Society recognizes four genders, plus a fifth gender, [[Gender-variant identities worldwide#Bissu|bissu]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-02-27/indonesia-fifth-gender-might-soon-disappear/10846570|title=This Indonesian community has five genders — one of them is under threat of dying out|last=Ibrahim|first=Farid|date=2019-02-26|website=www.abc.net.au|language=en-AU|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2020-12-29}}</ref> Bissu, seen as a gender which combines and transcends other genders, has been labeled a "meta-gender" identity by anthropologists since 2001.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.insideindonesia.org/sulawesis-fifth-gender?highlight=WyJzaGFyeW4iLCJncmFoYW0iLCJncmFoYW0ncyIsInNoYXJ5biBncmFoYW0iXQ%3D%3D|title=Sulawesi's fifth gender|last=Graham|first=Sharyn|date=2001|website=Inside Indonesia|language=en-gb|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211128121628/https://www.insideindonesia.org/sulawesis-fifth-gender?highlight=WyJzaGFyeW4iLCJncmFoYW0iLCJncmFoYW0ncyIsInNoYXJ5biBncmFoYW0iXQ%3D%3D|archive-date=2021-11-28|access-date=|url-status=dead}} 66: Apr-Jun. Retrieved January 08, 2021.</ref><ref name=":11">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.de/books?id=Qoq5DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA102&dq=%22meta-gender%22+OR+%22meta-gendered%22+OR+%22metagenderism%22+OR+%22metagender%22+OR+%22metagendered%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj7lpfamPTtAhWG7KQKHRfYAXEQ6AEwAHoECAAQAg|title=The spectrum of sex: the science of male, female, and intersex|last=Viloria|first=Hida|last2=Law|first2=Alex|last3=Nieto|first3=María|last4=ProQuest (Firme)|date=2020|publisher=|year=|isbn=978-1-78775-265-8|location=London and Philadelphia|pages=102|language=English|oclc=1149536934|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230720072450/https://books.google.de/books?id=Qoq5DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA102&dq=%22meta-gender%22+OR+%22meta-gendered%22+OR+%22metagenderism%22+OR+%22metagender%22+OR+%22metagendered%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj7lpfamPTtAhWG7KQKHRfYAXEQ6AEwAHoECAAQAg#v=onepage&q=%22meta-gender%22%20OR%20%22meta-gendered%22%20OR%20%22metagenderism%22%20OR%20%22metagender%22%20OR%20%20%22metagendered%22&f=false|archive-date=20 July 2023|access-date=29 December 2020|url-status=bot: unknown}}</ref> "''Bissu'' embody elements of all genders within them, and thereby occupy a space outside or above any single gender identity. They are essentially beyond gender — ‘meta-gender’ or ‘gender-transcendent’ as they are sometimes described."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://learn.akkadium.com/beyond-binary-five-genders-of-the-bugis/|title=Beyond Binary: Five genders of the Bugis|last=Mark Anderson|date=2016-08-15|website=Akkadium College|language=en-US|access-date=2020-12-28|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230419055419/https://learn.akkadium.com/beyond-binary-five-genders-of-the-bugis/|archive-date=17 July 2023}}</ref> This usage of meta-gender was later adopted in [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_Indonesia Bahasa Indonesia] (the official language of Indonesia) as a loanword for describing the bissu, serving as a category for genders that transcend gender roles and a description of transcending gendered power relations to reach higher powers.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://slashqueer.com/the-bugis-of-indonesia-english-dubbed-transcript|title=The Bugis of Indonesia ENGLISH DUBBED- Transcript|website=/Queer|language=en-US|access-date=2020-12-30|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230419055417/https://slashqueer.com/the-bugis-of-indonesia-english-dubbed-transcript|archive-date=17 July 2023}}</ref><ref>Williams, Georgie. "[https://castbox.fm/app/castbox/player/id2443104/id311755818?v=8.22.11 /Queer – The Bugis of Indonesia (No Dub)]" ''/queer'' (Podcast). Retrieved 30 December 2020. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220127045715/https://castbox.fm/app/castbox/player/id2443104/id311755818?v=8.22.11 Archived] on 17 July 2023</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.blamakassar.kemenag.go.id/berita/pertunjukan-terakhir-kisah-para-bissu-dalam-impitan-kapitalisme-dari-atas-dan-bawah|title=Pertunjukan Terakhir: Kisah para Bissu dalam Impitan Kapitalisme dari Atas dan Bawah|last=|first=|date=2020-10-21|website=www.blamakassar.kemenag.go.id|language=id|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201130150717/https://blamakassar.kemenag.go.id/berita/pertunjukan-terakhir-kisah-para-bissu-dalam-impitan-kapitalisme-dari-atas-dan-bawah|archive-date=2020-11-30|access-date=2020-12-31|url-status=dead}}</ref>
===Theology, anthropology, and spirituality ===
Metagender is used to describe [[gender variance in spirituality]], anthropology, and religion. Multiple religious or spiritual concepts and identities have been called metagender. In anthropology, spiritual [[third gender]] identities have been labeled metagender. In theology of multiple religions, spiritual identities—some divine and others obtainable by religious adherents—have been labeled meta-gender.   

Meta-gender as a transcendent ideal appears in scholarship of Daoism,<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Komjathy|first=Louis|date=2015-03-24|title=Gendering Chinese Religion: Subject, Identity, and Body, edited by Jinhua Jia, Xiaofei Kang, and Ping Yao, 2014|url=https://brill.com/view/journals/nanu/17/2/article-p360_17.xml|journal=Nan Nü|volume=17|issue=2|pages=360–364|doi=10.1163/15685268-00172p17|issn=1387-6805|quote=Raz  be-lieves that androgyny or meta-gender is the ideal in his materials.|via=|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230115235039/https://brill.com/view/journals/nanu/17/2/article-p360_17.xml|archive-date=17 July 2023}}</ref> Buddhism,<ref name=":7" /> Christianity,<ref name=":8" /><ref name=":9" /> and other religious and spiritual traditions.  

In anthropology, metagender has been applied to modern societies such as the Bugis as well as 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" />

====Christianity====
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.    [https://web.archive.org/web/20230603113229/https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/dissertations/1252/ Archived] on 17 July 2023</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|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230605024507/https://lainaorlando.com/a-course-in-love/|archive-date=17 July 2023}}</ref>

====Gender-variant figures in spirituality and religion====
In addition to human spiritual identities, 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|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|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230720072446/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|archive-date=20 July 2023|access-date=29 December 2020|url-status=bot: unknown}}</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|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230323152543/https://www.gender-curricula.com/en/curriculum/theologie-katholisch|archive-date=17 July 2023}}</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|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=|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230720072446/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|archive-date=20 July 2023|access-date=29 December 2020|url-status=bot: unknown}}</ref> One [[Pagan|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|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230720072456/https://www.worldcat.org/title/mediawiki/oclc/946958644|archive-date=20 July 2023|access-date=29 December 2020|url-status=bot: unknown}}</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|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230720072949/https://psufenasviriuslupus.wordpress.com/pantheons/the-antinoan-pantheon/paneros-of-the-tetrad/|archive-date=2023-07-20|url-status=bot: unknown}}</ref>

===Academic and technical usage===
Metagender(ed) (sometimes meta-gender(ed) or metagenderism) has been used to describe "the academic engagement with or the theorizing of gender,"<ref>{{Cite book|title=Africa after gender?|publisher=Indiana University Press|date=2007|location=Bloomington, IN|isbn=978-0-253-34816-6|editor-first=Catherine M.|editor-last=Cole|editor-first2=Takyiwaa|editor-last2=Manuh|editor-first3=Stephan|editor-last3=Miescher|last=|first=|year=|pages=287, 289}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/title/mediawiki/oclc/1137077647|title=Queering knowledge: analytics, devices and investments after Marilyn Strathern|last=Boyce|first=Paul|last2=Gonzalez-Polledo|first2=E. J|last3=Posocco|first3=Silvia|date=2020|publisher=|year=|isbn=978-1-138-23098-9|location=|pages=Note 20|language=English|oclc=1137077647|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230721212139/https://www.worldcat.org/title/mediawiki/oclc/1137077647|archive-date=21 July 2023|access-date=26 December 2020|url-status=bot: unknown}} Note 20.</ref> religious identities and spiritual states that transcend gender,<ref name=":7">Scherer, Burkhard. (2006). ‘Gender Transformed and Meta-gendered Enlightenment: Reading Buddhist Narratives as Paradigms of Inclusiveness’ ''Revista de Estudos da Religião'' – REVER 6(3), pp. 65-76.</ref><ref name=":8">{{Cite book|url=https://doi.org/10.3138/9781442664579|title=Writing Women Saints in Anglo-Saxon England|last=Szarmach|first=Paul|date=2019|isbn=978-1-4426-6457-9|oclc=1091659301|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230720072953/https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.3138/9781442664579/html|archive-date=20 July 2023|access-date=26 December 2020|url-status=bot: unknown}}</ref><ref name=":9">{{Cite book|title=The third gender and Ælfric's Lives of saints|last=McDaniel|first=Rhonda L.|date=2018|publisher=Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University|isbn=978-1-58044-309-8|series=Richard Rawlinson Center series|location=Kalamazoo}}</ref><ref name=":10">{{Cite journal|last=al-Khawaldeh|first=Samira|date=2015-05-06|title=“The One Raised in Ornament?” Gendering Issues in the Qurʾan|url=https://brill.com/view/journals/haww/13/1/article-p1_1.xml|journal=Hawwa|volume=13|issue=1|pages=1–24|doi=10.1163/15692086-12341271|issn=1569-2078|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230115235042/https://brill.com/view/journals/haww/13/1/article-p1_1.xml|archive-date=17 July 2023}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=http://public.ebookcentral.proquest.com/choice/publicfullrecord.aspx?p=5213031|title=Gender, sex, and sexualities: psychological perspectives|last=Dess|first=Nancy Kimberly|last2=Marecek|first2=Jeanne|last3=Bell|first3=Leslie C|date=2018|isbn=978-0-19-065855-7|language=English|oclc=1018308022|archive-url=False|archive-date=17 July 2023}}</ref> systems of gender,<ref name=":18">{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/title/mediawiki/oclc/953860344|title=Negotiating Boundaries? Identities, Sexualities, Diversities|last=Beckett|first=Clare|last2=Heathcote|first2=Owen|last3=Macey|first3=Marie|date=2009|isbn=978-1-4438-1092-0|language=English|oclc=953860344|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230721212139/https://www.worldcat.org/title/mediawiki/oclc/953860344|archive-date=21 July 2023|access-date=26 December 2020|url-status=bot: unknown}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.3726/978-3-0353-0144-1/2|title=Queering Paradigms II|publisher=Peter Lang|isbn=978-3-0343-0295-1|year=2011|editor-last=Scherer|editor-first=Bee|editor-first2=Matthew|editor-last2=Ball|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230720074053/https://www.peterlang.com/document/1052082|archive-date=20 July 2023|access-date=26 December 2020|url-status=bot: unknown}}</ref> sets of gender,<ref name=":21">{{Cite journal|last=Chen|first=Boyu|last2=Jin|first2=Hao|last3=Yang|first3=Zhiwen|last4=Qu|first4=Yingying|last5=Weng|first5=Heng|last6=Hao|first6=Tianyong|date=2019-04-09|title=An approach for transgender population information extraction and summarization from clinical trial text|url=https://doi.org/10.1186/s12911-019-0768-1|journal=BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making|volume=19|issue=2|pages=62|doi=10.1186/s12911-019-0768-1|issn=1472-6947|pmc=PMC6454593|pmid=30961595|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230521084657/https://doi.org/10.1186/s12911-019-0768-1|archive-date=17 July 2023}}</ref> being beyond or outside binary gender categories,<ref name=":5">{{Cite journal|last=|first=|date=1987|title=Annales D'archéologie Égéenne de L'Université de Liège|url=https://books.google.de/books?id=f1fFPmPBAYcC|journal=Aegaeum|volume=30|pages=231|quote=We can see...what does help us to approach the door that opens onto Minoan realities is to study the meta-gender of the aniconic. We discern a cluster of symbols that were definitely greater than just female or male.|via=|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230518115259/https://books.google.de/books?id=f1fFPmPBAYcC|archive-date=17 July 2023}}</ref><ref name=":4">{{Cite book|url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/9781118294291.ch24|title=A Companion to Gender Prehistory|last=Hitchcock|first=Louise|last2=Nikolaidou|first2=Marianna|date=2012|publisher=John Wiley & Sons, Ltd|isbn=978-1-118-29429-1|pages=502–525|language=en|doi=10.1002/9781118294291.ch24|year=|location=|quote=Applying the concept of a third gender is rare in Aegean scholarship... Cadogan observes that the genderless aspects of Minoan culture... are understudied. He believes that the term 'meta-gender' better conveys something above and beyond binary categories.|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220127062727/https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/9781118294291.ch24|archive-date=17 July 2023}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/jamesjoyceproble0000vale/page/136/mode/2up?q=metagender|title=James Joyce and the problem of justice: negotiating sexual and colonial difference|last=Valente|first=Joseph|date=1995|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=|isbn=978-0-521-47369-9|location=Cambridge [England] ; New York|pages=|archive-url=False|archive-date=17 July 2023}} "Since to be human is to be sexed, there can be no metagender position in discourse, no superintending perspective on the question of gender and its associated baggage."</ref><ref>Kazanjian, David (2011). "[https://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/discourse/vol33/iss3/4/ Re-flexion: Genocide in Ruins]," ''Discourse: Journal for Theoretical Studies in Media and Culture'': 33(3), Article 4. "She is doubly excluded by Creon, then: a resident alien who must reside amongst the dead, a meta-gendered subject denied both the male polis and the female oikos." [https://web.archive.org/web/20220420013652/https://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/discourse/vol33/iss3/4/ Archived] on 17 July 2023</ref><ref>Goodman, Z. J. (1997). [https://open.uct.ac.za/bitstream/handle/11427/20041/thesis_hum_1997_goodman_zilla_jane.pdf?sequence=1 Representations of the other in modern Hebrew literature](PhD). University of Cape Town. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230703210939/https://open.uct.ac.za/bitstream/handle/11427/20041/thesis_hum_1997_goodman_zilla_jane.pdf?sequence=1 Archived] on 17 July 2023</ref> applying regardless of gender or to all genders equally,<ref>{{Cite book|url=http://www.vlebooks.com/vleweb/product/openreader?id=none&isbn=9781351984041|title=Shakespeare and Feminist Criticism (1991): an Annotated Bibliography and Commentary|last=Kolin|first=Philip C|date=2017|isbn=978-1-351-98403-4|language=English|oclc=1052448663|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230720074055/https://www.vlebooks.com/Account/Logon/none?returnurl=https%3a%2f%2fwww.vlebooks.com%2fproduct%2fopenreader%3fid%3dnone%26isbn%3d9781351984041|archive-date=20 July 2023|access-date=26 December 2020|url-status=bot: unknown}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=http://www.vlebooks.com/vleweb/product/openreader?id=Edinburgh&isbn=9781137054425|title=Doing feminist research in political and social science|last=Ackerly|first=Brooke A|last2=True|first2=Jacqui|date=2010|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|isbn=978-1-137-05442-5|location=Basingstoke; New York|language=English|oclc=1203336058|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230720074016/https://www.ease.ed.ac.uk/cosign.cgi?cosign-eucsCosign-idp.ed.ac.uk&https://idp.ed.ac.uk/idp/profile/SAML2/Redirect/SSO?SAMLRequest=fVLLbtswEPwVgXeR1AOWRFgO3BhFDaSNYTk99EZSq5iIRKokZTd%2FX9qqgPSSI8HdmdmZWT%2F8GfroAtYpo2uUYIoi0NK0Sr%2FW6OX0NS7Rw2bt%2BNCPbDv5sz7C7wmcj8Keduz%2BUaPJama4U45pPoBjXrJm%2B%2F2JpZiy0RpvpOlRtHUOrA9Ej0a7aQDbgL0oCS%2FHpxqdvR8dI0QarUF6bEbQ3J9BO6zBk1duWx1kYmkG0mZtueJpHidUJHFe8iTmpejirFwlRbFquzIvCQ9qiZUXctOYktE4j6JdkK4C7v3ahVK1I4YWc4mnt9uDBMmd6oHcbkjJEVplgyTSNM8o2u9qBDwTokoCXQX5qhJVlUKRdIK2bcZFJ8KUcxPstfNc%2BxqlNM1iWsQpPdGC5ZQlFBcJ%2FYWiwz9zvig9W%2F6Zk2Iecuzb6XSID8%2FNCUU%2Fl%2BjCAJqDYndy%2ByGhz2H5EgvaLI5cr1d86UEY8zY7bjgB7ZV%2FX5MPFEsxfgTM%2Fe5geiXfo23fm%2BujBe4hFAqRzbzyf302fwE%3D&RelayState=https%3A%2F%2Fconnect.openathens.net%2Foidc%2Fauth%3Fclient_id%3Dgardners.com.oidc-app-v1.d998531e-01fc-4b98-83f1-07872f7801c0%26redirect_uri%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fauth.vlebooks.com%252Fredirect%26response_type%3Dcode%2520id_token%26scope%3Dopenid%26response_mode%3Dform_post%26nonce%3D638254356100750051.NDdkZjVkYmItMWYxYi00ZTRiLTk0NDgtYzc2NjlkNGMwYmQyMWJkZTE3ODUtNWU2Yy00ZWIwLWFkZTAtMjkzYzg4YWJhMDM4%26state%3DCfDJ8PrZ0Mm7DlVBoy_KlBtLPT565q0osSKlUWJmdwlV_sR9RDIxZrBNhYqUHEt6SdbreU0jQPmEhBTMinfdGlViKg2iWK-xj5Q8fSHAv-NJ-RuaRA7frC7zFL_Xf63OVH_e6jIDF6PWDNG9Bw4WEG6BIc-UTY1BKFxrco_dchdoAg4T8Drtgcj_8RzpnnZAlIgiOodt9EMJxUxuxd0OWycI1rMeYxwvjqOjkflcrFaa6xcOAfwdxOijx5uiLS5qxX-lXq8D3YU1NPU8y7f07kVlae4wdVo4Om0wmRbakOczavx8uF4OuxflYfkctNrg1oqX9QfzDcLDVGyHDSsRaoH0tB6KEVdLkJqNtpyuHVpcf_fc%26x-client-SKU%3DID_NETSTANDARD2_0%26x-client-ver%3D6.10.0.0|archive-date=20 July 2023|access-date=26 December 2020|url-status=bot: unknown}}</ref><ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Hussein Ali|first=Zahra A.|date=2018-09-01|title=George Meredith,           John S. Mill, and           Liberalized Womanhood|url=https://www.utexaspressjournals.org/doi/10.7560/TSLL60303|journal=Texas Studies in Literature and Language|volume=60|issue=3|pages=316–345|doi=10.7560/TSLL60303|issn=0040-4691|quote=...a triadic logos that interrelates "[b]lood and brain and spirit, three," which if "parted," "[s]ome one sailing will be wrecked!" ("Woods" 352, 355, 356). (8) This logos is meta-gender, and it can accommodate a broad spectrum of socioeconomic positions, from the liberal to the conservative.|via=|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230720074557/https://www.utexaspressjournals.org/doi/10.7560/TSLL60303|archive-date=2023-07-20|access-date=2021-01-02|url-status=bot: unknown}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Morozova|first=Iryna I.|date=2016|title=A woman in the victorian female discourse.|url=https://lingvj.oa.edu.ua/articles/2016/n61/84.pdf|journal=Наукові записки Національного університету Острозька академія. Серія: Філологічна|volume=61|issue=|pages=218-220.|doi=|issn=|quote=The Victorian woman’s discourse is dominated by the situational and contextual factors; on the other hand, the factor of gender is of relative importance. This testifies preeminence of the metagender (common to the society / mankind on the whole) in the stereotypic communication of the Victorian woman.|via=|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230115235051/https://lingvj.oa.edu.ua/articles/2016/n61/84.pdf|archive-date=17 July 2023}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Ilina|first=Ekaterina V.|last2=Polyakova|first2=Tatyana A.|date=31 May 2021|title=Language Androcentrism in British Textbooks in the 80s of the XXth century|url=https://ap.pensoft.net/article/22752/|journal=ARPHA Proceedings|volume=4|pages=424-431|quote=This point of classification of signs of androcentrism is achieved due to the fact that the pronoun he is used as a metagender, so it can replace the representatives of any gender, although, from the context, it follows that this neutral pronoun refers to a man only.|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230401003852/https://ap.pensoft.net/article/22752/|archive-date=17 July 2023}}</ref> gender studies about gender studies,<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Sun|first=Yinying|last2=Lou|first2=Wen|last3=Zhang|first3=Lin|date=13 October 2021|title=Meta-gender-study: A Gender Study of Global Distribution on Gender Studies|url=https://doi.org/10.1002/pra2.581|journal=Annual Meeting of the Association for Information Science & Technology|volume=84th|pages=839-841|doi=|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230720074508/https://asistdl.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/pra2.581|archive-date=20 July 2023|access-date=5 November 2021|url-status=bot: unknown}}</ref> and otherwise being about gender.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Devlin-Glass|first=Frances|date=1998|title='Teasing the audience with the play': feminism and Shakespeare at the Melbourne Theatre Company, 1984-93|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2870817|journal=Australasian Drama Studies|volume=|issue=33|pages=21-39|doi=|issn=0810-4123|via=https://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=200000904;res=IELAPA|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230720074509/https://academic.oup.com/crawlprevention/governor?content=%2fsq%2farticle%2f40%2f2%2f165-174%2f5084521|archive-date=20 July 2023|access-date=26 December 2020|url-status=bot: unknown}}</ref><ref name=":0" />   

Examples:

{{Quote|These dynamics are meta-gendered, in that they impact men and women and those who don’t identify in the binary, without particular discrimination, putting all of us at risk for weirdly pervasive and unexamined suffering.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|title=How not to be a hot mess: a semi-Buddhist guide for surviving modern life|url=https://www.overdrive.com/search?q=BFBB0679-884D-4AB3-9A4B-8E9F89EA5615|date=2020|isbn=978-0-8348-4269-4|oclc=1151626639|language=English|first=Craig|last=Hase|first2=Devon|last2=Hase|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230720074508/https://www.overdrive.com/media/5043171/how-not-to-be-a-hot-mess|archive-date=20 July 2023|access-date=25 December 2020|url-status=bot: unknown}} Retrieved at https://archive.org/details/how-not-to-be-a-hot-mess/page/n51/mode/2up?q=%22meta-gendered%22</ref>|Craig & Devon Hase|2020||||lang1=|col2=}}{{Quote|All the mapped gender types with valid annotations are split into a list of meta gender types, i.e., ‘Biological Male’, ‘Biological Female’, ‘Transgender Male’ and ‘Transgender Female.’<ref name=":21" />|An approach for transgender population information extraction and summarization from clinical trial text|2019}}


{{Quote|I use the term metagender to indicate that all of the above work together. In order to conform successfully to the patriarchal requirements of the metagender binary the four genders must be congruent…all their gender building blocks incontestably in one metagender box…Some people do, however, reject the patriarchal binary and experiment with alternative metagenders.”<ref name=":18" />|Negotiating Boundaries? Identities, Sexualities, Diversities|2009}}

=== Miscellaneous===
In 2010, "MetaGender" was used as an informal community-specific term to refer to the metafilter website's open text field for gender.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://metatalk.metafilter.com/20050/Gender-Go-nuts-Somebody-did|title=Gender (Go nuts). Somebody did.|last=oneswellfoop|first=|date=|website=metatalk.metafilter.com|language=en|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2020-12-29}}</ref> In 2017, pronouns were added as an open field, and in 2020 the gender field was deleted, citing the jokey nature of old answers that had aged badly.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://faq.metafilter.com/332/profile-page-gender-pronouns-field|title=about the gender and pronouns field on the profile page {{!}} MetaFilter FAQ|website=faq.metafilter.com|access-date=2020-12-29|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230615180628/http://faq.metafilter.com/332/profile-page-gender-pronouns-field|archive-date=17 July 2023}}</ref>

MÉTA GENDER is the name of a French Butoh-Queer performance deconstructing gender, body, music, and performance, first performed in the 2010s.<ref>2000 [http://iconoklastes.com/index.php?/danse/meta-gender-par-dolores-k/ MÉTA GENDER]. ''Iconoklastes'' [https://web.archive.org/web/20220817111232/http://iconoklastes.com/index.php?/danse/meta-gender-par-dolores-k/ Archived] on 17 July 2023</ref>

==Metagender's relationship with Transgender==
Metagender's relationship with [[transgender]] has taken multiple forms over the decades. Both terms have gained less expansive definitions and more specific connotations, with some definitions overlapping and some contrasting to the point of mutual exclusion. Metagender's use in academia and as a technical term has diverged from [[LGBT]] uses, sometimes concerned with abstractions of gender independent of [[gender identity]] and thus [[Gender Modality|gender modalities]], including transgender.

Metagender has:

*Contained transgender
*Been contained by transgender
* Overlapped with transgender
*Been mutually exclusive with transgender
*Been tangentially related to transgender
*Been unrelated to transgender

Transgender once included gender non-conforming people who would now be considered [[cisgender]],<ref name=":12" /><ref name=":17">{{Cite web|url=https://www.lavenderhat.org/2019/03/17/gender-isnt-ternary-either/|title=Gender Isn’t Ternary Either|last=lavenderhat|date=2019-03-17|website=Lavender Hat|language=en-US|access-date=2020-12-30|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230422233945/https://www.lavenderhat.org/2019/03/17/gender-isnt-ternary-either/|archive-date=17 July 2023}}</ref> with metagender being alternatively a description for gender behavior and sexes outside [[binarism]] and [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heteronormativity heteronormativity]<ref name=":12" /> or a super-set containing all means of conceptualizing gender or lack thereof, including transgender definitions.<ref name=":13" /> Complaints about transgender's inclusiveness that specifically contrasted with an expansive definition of metagender emerged as early as 1994.<ref name=":12" /> Metagender was described as a more expansive approach to gender outside strict cis binaries than transgender without being mutually exclusive, used to highlight the limitations of a dichotomy to contain all gender experiences.<ref name=":13" />

Metagender developed several niche definitions that some metagender people put under an expansive ''transgressively-gendered'' transgender umbrella<ref name=":14" /> that included [[gender non-conforming]] people.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.them.us/story/inqueery-genderqueer|title=Do You Know What It Means to Be Genderqueer?|last=them|website=them.|language=en-us|access-date=2021-01-01|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230213094016/https://www.them.us/story/inqueery-genderqueer|archive-date=17 July 2023}}</ref> Despite the work of [[Leslie Feinberg]] in the 1990s to coin transgender as a wide and inclusive umbrella term covering all forms of ''transgressive gender'', transgender became more associated with [[Transsexual|transsexualism]], [[gender dysphoria]], and [[Binary genders|binary gender]], while cisgender gender non-conforming people were no longer defined as transgender. [[Transmedicalism|Transmedicalists]] resisted the inclusion of nonbinary people as transgender or under a broader trans umbrella. Some terms were coined by people outside the gender binary out of frustration with the [[transgender]] umbrella. (See "[[Genderqueer#Is Genderqueer Transgender?|Is Genderqueer Transgender?]]") As with others of genderqueer or nonbinary gender, some people of metagender gender identity described themselves as technically transgender without identifying as transgender themselves or vice versa.<ref name=":20" /> Others saw their gender identity as complementary to transgender definitions.<ref name=":3" /> 

Metagender's re-coining as a gender modality that by definition is for people who are neither cis nor trans (or are not cisgender but do not consider themselves trans) is a stricter contrast to other definitions of transgender and metagender, but as with early definitions of metagender highlights the weakness of a dichotomy to contain all experiences of (non)gender.<ref name=":16" /><ref name=":13" /> 

Some metagender people consider themselves to fall under the transgender umbrella and some do not. While the trans umbrella is broadly seen to include all non-cisgender individuals, the advice of public health, gender diverse advocates, and gender diverse people themselves is to always use the descriptive term(s) preferred by the individual.<ref name=":17" /><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://genderminorities.com/database/glossary-transgender/|title=Trans 101: glossary of trans words and how to use them.|date=2016-06-24|website=Gender Minorities Aotearoa|language=en-US|access-date=2021-01-01|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230525011240/https://genderminorities.com/database/glossary-transgender/|archive-date=17 July 2023}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.transgenderpartners.com/glossary-of-terms|title=Glossary of Terms for Transgender People|website=TransGenderPartners.com|language=en-US|access-date=2021-01-01|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230705181808/https://www.transgenderpartners.com/glossary-of-terms|archive-date=17 July 2023}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.hrc.org/resources/reporting-about-transgender-people-read-this|title=HRC’s Brief Guide to Getting Transgender Coverage Right|website=HRC|language=en-US|access-date=2021-01-01|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230711045527/https://www.hrc.org/resources/reporting-about-transgender-people-read-this|archive-date=17 July 2023}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.plannedparenthood.org/learn/gender-identity/transgender/transgender-identity-terms-and-labels|title=What Are Appropriate Labels & Terms For Transgender People?|website=www.plannedparenthood.org|language=en|access-date=2021-01-08|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221212215451/https://www.plannedparenthood.org/learn/gender-identity/transgender/transgender-identity-terms-and-labels|archive-date=17 July 2023}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.healthline.com/health/transgender/nonbinary|title=Nonbinary: What Does It Mean?|date=2017-10-20|website=Healthline|language=en|access-date=2021-01-08|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230514235733/https://www.healthline.com/health/transgender/nonbinary|archive-date=17 July 2023}}</ref> 
==References==
{{reflist}}

[[Category: Nonbinary identities]]
[[Category: Spirituality]]