Metagender: Difference between revisions
Major upgrade to academic section, adding the more relevant-to-nonbinary-persons history of meta-gender as an academic descriptor for third gender identities and otherwise transcendental spiritual identities in religion etc. Not even done.
imported>GutenMorganism (→1990s: clarified the dates in the 2000s and expanded the spiritual metagender history, still need to condense the quotes in an encyclopedic style) |
imported>GutenMorganism (Major upgrade to academic section, adding the more relevant-to-nonbinary-persons history of meta-gender as an academic descriptor for third gender identities and otherwise transcendental spiritual identities in religion etc. Not even done.) |
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{{Disclaimer|This page quotes outdated terminology for "transgender" and "metagender," including "transgendered" and "transgenderism," as used by transgender scholars and other gender-variant people at the time.}} | {{Disclaimer|This page quotes outdated terminology for "transgender" and "metagender," including "transgendered" and "transgenderism," as used by transgender scholars and other gender-variant people at the time.}} | ||
'''Metagender''' is a term that has been coined multiple times with varying definitions, including multiple [[nonbinary]] [[Gender identity|gender identities]], spiritual identities, a combined gender identity and [[Orientation|romantic and sexual orientation]], a [[Gender Modality|gender modality]], a description for [[Gender nonconformity|gender-nonconforming behavior]], and a super-set for all gender possibilities. Different definitions have been used for LGBTQ+ self-identifiers, in feminist/queer theory and activism, and in academic settings, including as an academic and self-identified term for multiple [[ | '''Metagender''' is a term that has been coined multiple times with varying definitions, including multiple [[nonbinary]] [[Gender identity|gender identities]], spiritual identities, a combined gender identity and [[Orientation|romantic and sexual orientation]], a [[Gender Modality|gender modality]], a description for [[Gender nonconformity|gender-nonconforming behavior]], and a super-set for all gender possibilities. Different definitions have been used for LGBTQ+ self-identifiers, in feminist/queer theory and activism, and in academic settings, including as an academic and self-identified term for multiple [[third gender]] religious and spiritual identities. | ||
==History and Usage== | ==History and Usage== | ||
Metagender existed as a technical term prior to its use by LGBTQIA2+ 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.}}</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}}</ref> | Metagender existed as a technical term prior to its use by LGBTQIA2+ 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.}}</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}}</ref> Its use as a technical term with various definitions has [[Metagender#In Academia, Anthropology, and Gender Analysis|persisted into 2020]]. | ||
===LGBTQIA2+ Definitions=== | ===LGBTQIA2+ Definitions=== | ||
====1990s==== | ====1990s==== | ||
Metagender's early usage by queer communities was | 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 [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/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>Jones, Billie Jean. Hernandez, Michael 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 1994 letter to the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/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>Jones, Billie Jean. Hernandez, Michael 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> | ||
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In a 1999 interview, musician/poet/filmmaker [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoebe_Legere Phoebe Legere] said that she was "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}}</ref> | In a 1999 interview, musician/poet/filmmaker [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoebe_Legere Phoebe Legere] said that she was "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}}</ref> | ||
==== 2000s==== | ====2000s ==== | ||
The term was coined again before 2002 by Rook Thomas Hine,<ref>{{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=|dead-url=}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.liminalityland.com/personalstatement.htm|title=Quod Est Hoc Doctor?|last=|first=|date=2004-09-06|website=web.archive.org|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040906043331/http://www.liminalityland.com/personalstatement.htm|archive-date=|dead-url=|access-date=2020-12-29|quote=Meeting Kate... in August of 2001 was amazing. This was the near-endpoint of the crystallization of my concept of “metagender.”}}</ref> an identity Hine characterized as being a "conscientious objector" in "in the war of the sexes."<ref name=":6">{{cite book|last=Bernhardt-House|first=Phillip|chapter=So, which one is the opposite sex?: the sometimes spiritual journey of a metagender|editors=O'Keefe, Tracie & Fox, Katrina |publisher=Jossey-Bass|title=Finding the Real Me: True Tales of Sex and Gender Diversity|year=2003|page=76|url=https://archive.org/details/findingrealmetru00trac/page/76/mode/2up}}</ref> This concept of metagender was further developed by Phillip Andrew Bernhardt-House. E defined the term in a 2003 anthology as "someone who identifies as neither male nor female, neither woman nor man, neither [[neuter]] nor [[feminine]] nor [[masculine]]. [...] A metagender is less of a 'both/and' combination, 'all of the above' or [[androgyne]], and more of a 'wholly other' third/fourth/eighty-seventh category, or 'none of the above'."<ref name=":6" /> E also described "a spiritual dimension to being metagender," comparing the identity to other culturally-specific spiritual identities with specific cultural functions. The metagender identity was further developed into "a social gender that comes into play in a spiritual and religious context" inside neopaganism,<ref name=":3">{{Cite web|url=https://psufenasviriuslupus.wordpress.com/home/metagender/|title=Metagender|date=2016-12-14|website=P. SUFENAS VIRIUS LUPUS|language=en|access-date=2020-12-24}}</ref> with at least two persons known to use name a spiritual metagender as their identity by 2015.<ref name=":3" /><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151122015818/http://paradoxmysteryandawe.blogspot.com/2015/05/what-is-metagender.html|title=Blessed Bee: What is Metagender?|last=Bee|first=Jaina|date=2015-05-10|website=Blessed Bee|access-date=2020-12-29}}</ref> | The term was coined again before 2002 by Rook Thomas Hine,<ref>{{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=|dead-url=}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.liminalityland.com/personalstatement.htm|title=Quod Est Hoc Doctor?|last=|first=|date=2004-09-06|website=web.archive.org|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040906043331/http://www.liminalityland.com/personalstatement.htm|archive-date=|dead-url=|access-date=2020-12-29|quote=Meeting Kate... in August of 2001 was amazing. This was the near-endpoint of the crystallization of my concept of “metagender.”}}</ref> an identity Hine characterized as being a "conscientious objector" in "in the war of the sexes."<ref name=":6">{{cite book|last=Bernhardt-House|first=Phillip|chapter=So, which one is the opposite sex?: the sometimes spiritual journey of a metagender|editors=O'Keefe, Tracie & Fox, Katrina |publisher=Jossey-Bass|title=Finding the Real Me: True Tales of Sex and Gender Diversity|year=2003|page=76|url=https://archive.org/details/findingrealmetru00trac/page/76/mode/2up}}</ref> This concept of metagender was further developed by Phillip Andrew Bernhardt-House. E defined the term in a 2003 anthology as "someone who identifies as neither male nor female, neither woman nor man, neither [[neuter]] nor [[feminine]] nor [[masculine]]. [...] A metagender is less of a 'both/and' combination, 'all of the above' or [[androgyne]], and more of a 'wholly other' third/fourth/eighty-seventh category, or 'none of the above'."<ref name=":6" /> E also described "a spiritual dimension to being metagender," comparing the identity to other culturally-specific spiritual identities with specific cultural functions. The metagender identity was further developed into "a social gender that comes into play in a spiritual and religious context" inside neopaganism,<ref name=":3">{{Cite web|url=https://psufenasviriuslupus.wordpress.com/home/metagender/|title=Metagender|date=2016-12-14|website=P. SUFENAS VIRIUS LUPUS|language=en|access-date=2020-12-24}}</ref> with at least two persons known to use name a spiritual metagender as their identity by 2015.<ref name=":3" /><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151122015818/http://paradoxmysteryandawe.blogspot.com/2015/05/what-is-metagender.html|title=Blessed Bee: What is Metagender?|last=Bee|first=Jaina|date=2015-05-10|website=Blessed Bee|access-date=2020-12-29}}</ref> | ||
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#In June, "metagender" was suggested 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}}</ref> | #In June, "metagender" was suggested 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}}</ref> | ||
# In August, "metagender" was coined by Tumblr users keyblademastercecilpalmer, agenderchrismclean, and lordmoriarty by submission to the MOGAI-Archive blog. 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 name="metagender2014">http://mogai-archive.tumblr.com/post/91734862699/metagender {{dead link}}</ref><ref>h | |||