Femmegender

    From Nonbinary Wiki
    Exclamation mark white icon.svg This page is about a gender identity that is not widely used among gender-variant people. This does not mean that the identity is not valid, but that very few people are known to use this term.
    More information on uncommon identities...
    Femmegender
    Femmegender2.png
    Related identities Demigirl and Femme
    Under the umbrella term Nonbinary
    Frequency <0.1%

    Femmegender, or femgender, is a nonbinary gender identity that is feminine in nature. It comes from the queer term "femme", which means a person who subverts and/or queers femininity. The term is popular in lesbian and sapphic communities. Femmegender can denote a person whose gender identity is tied to their femmeness. For a person who does not identify as femme, but still feels like their femininity is a part of their gender, the spelling femgender can be used.

    History[edit | edit source]

    Femmegender has been coined in multiple instances by different people over time. An early coining of femmegender was posted by tumblr user queerfucker in July 2014. They defined it as "identifying with femininity, femme, and girlhood, but also not a girl; nonbinary with a core and foundation of enduring femme".[1]

    One of queernoctis' proposed femmegender flags.

    In August 2014 the Tumblr user queernoctis created flag ideas for femmegender:[2]

    « Purple is a feminine color, but doesn't have the same GIRL connotations that pink does. The fade out of shades from dark to light is meant to represent the variations in gender while still associating with the core/foundation of femme.

    The mint/green are meant to represent the sort of 'absence' of a binary gender/being a girl, as well as give a bit of variety of color for those that dont like the plain purple+white design.

    »
    Red's femmegender flag.

    An alternative meaning of femmegender was coined in 2019 by a nonbinary lesbian named Red. Red's definition of femmegender is "where you have two or more genders where they are ALL feminine genders!"[3]

    Gordon's femmegender flag. The stripes' meanings are as follows: Purple - femme identity and unique gender presentation; Yellow - relationship to gender experienced through lesbian identity; White - experiences of gender outside the binary; Orange - Solidarity and community with butches

    In 2020, a nonbinary butch lesbian named Gordon defined their own coinage of butchgender and femmegender as xenogenders "for butch and femme lesbians who feel like their gender either is, or is heavily influenced by their butch or femme identity".[4]

    Additional femmegender/femgender flags can be seen in Category:Femmegender pride flags.

    See also[edit | edit source]

    References[edit | edit source]

    1. "femmegender". 2014. Archived from the original on 23 August 2014.
    2. Tumblr post, 3 August 2014 Archived on 17 July 2023
    3. Femmegender flag! by Red, 15 August 2019 Archived on 17 July 2023
    4. @imthatgremlin (8 July 2020). "i came up with some xenogenders for lesbians [orange heart emoji] butchgender and femmegender, for butch and femme lesbians who feel like their gender either is, or is heavily influenced by their butch or femme identity / here are the flags i made, and their meanings!" – via Twitter.