Galactian system: Difference between revisions

The '''galactian system''' is an alternative classification system for [[nonbinary]] people based on their alignment in relation to the binary genders. It was created in 2016, in response to the trend that started in that year for nonbinary people to say whether they were "male-aligned" or "female-aligned," which meant that they were almost but not quite those genders. The downside of such "gender alignment language" (as pointed out by the creator of the galactian system, Tumblr user vergess) was that it amounts to saying that nonbinary people are really male or female, and to invalidate their gender. The galactian system tries to solve this instead using celestial imagery, in order to avoid concepts that are related to the [[gender binary]] system. These words were not coined to describe genders, but a relation towards a binary gender, an alignment. For instance, a [[genderless]] person may identify as female-aligned or lunarian because they have experiences in common with women, despite not considering [[singular they|themself]] a woman.<ref>vergess. "Describing alignment." ''kinda-girls'' (blog). November 16, 2016. Retrieved July 20, 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20200720224831/https://kinda-girls.tumblr.com/post/153284340413/describing-alignment</ref> In the 2019 Gender Census, around 0.2% of respondents identified with a galactian alignment.<ref>[https://gendercensus.com/post/183843963445/gender-census-2019-the-worldwide-tldr Gender Census 2019 - the worldwide TL;DR]</ref> Galactian alignments are often used together with other gender identities, such as "solarian bigender" or "lunarian demigender".

The solarian identity expresses a similarity with masculine genders, alignments, or experiences. It's a replacement for "masculine-aligned," "masc-aligned," or "male-aligned." The name of this identity comes from the fact that in many cultures, the sun is associated with masculinity and male energy.<ref name="stellunarian">bashana-haba-ah. "Anonymous asked: What's lunarian, stellarian and solarian?" ''Stellunarian'' (blog). A reblog made March 6, 2017 of a lost, deleted post. Retrieved September 2, 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20180902205854/https://stellunarian.tumblr.com/post/158086623900/whats-lunarian-stellarian-and-solarian</ref>

The lunarian identity expresses a similarity with feminine genders, alignments, or experiences. It's a replacement for "feminine-aligned", "fem-aligned," or "female-aligned." The reason is that, in many cultures, the moon is associated with femininity.<ref name="stellunarian"/>

The stellarian identity expresses that a person does not feel similarity with with the gender binary. It expresses a nonbinary alignment, in contrast to feminine and masculine alignments. The reason for choosing the stars for this term is that there is a large number of different nonbinary identities and presentations, in the same way that there are many stars.<ref name="stellunarian"/>

There is another galactian identity, called ''singularian'', which rejects any kind of relation with the gender binary, and therefore the alignment system itself. This is in contrast to stellarian, which aligns with neither male nor female within the system. Perhaps the greatest difference between the terms is that a singularian person rejects alignment entirely, and so will never identify as lunarian or solarian, while a stellarian person may identify as lunarian or solarian at different times or in different ways.<ref>Stellunarian. "Anonymous asked: Since this (very good) system is comparing alignment to celestial bodies, would voidian/voidarian/voidic be a black hole?" ''Stellunarian'' (blog). March 6, 2017. Retrieved April 20, 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20200420171029/https://stellunarian.tumblr.com/post/158086230565/since-this-very-good-system-is-comparing</ref>