Metagender: Difference between revisions

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=|dead-url=|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 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#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|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}}</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}}</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 word for genders that transcend gender roles and 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}}</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.</ref>  

===Miscellaneous===

==Relationship with Transgender==

Metagender's relationship with [[transgender]] has changed over the decades as both terms became more refined in LGBT usage. Both terms have developed less expansive forms since their inception and different connotations. Both terms have served as umbrellas for the other and in different contrasts to one another depending on definition.

 

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}}</ref> with metagender being alternatively a set containing 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 arose about transgender's inclusiveness while retaining metagender's expansiveness 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, meant to show the limitations of a dichotomy to contain all gender experiences.<ref name=":13" />

 

Metagender developed several niche definitions that some metagender people put under the expansive "transgressively-gendered" transgender umbrella<ref name=":14" /> as well as a more restricted trans-umbrella. As a gender identity, some metagender people described themselves as technically transgender without identifying as transgender themselves–even if they received medical transition–because they were not changing their gender.<ref name=":15" /> 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 than other definitions, 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" />