Metagender: Difference between revisions

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=|dead-url=}}</ref><ref name=":3" /> an identity Hine characterized as being a "conscientious objector" 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 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=2016-12-14|website=P. SUFENAS VIRIUS LUPUS|language=en|access-date=2020-12-24}}</ref>  

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=2012-04-22|website=HaifischGeweint|language=en|access-date=2020-12-28}}</ref>

#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=|website=Queer Anarchism|archive-url=|archive-date=|dead-url=|access-date=2021-01-28}}</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=|website=Tumblr|last=collectivetey|first=|archive-url=|archive-date=|dead-url=}}</ref>

#In July, metagender was coined by Tumblr users autisticlapis-blog, agenderchrismclean, and lordmoriarty.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://autisticlapis-blog.tumblr.com/post/90952685669/so-apparently-someone-truscum-joked-about|title=[metagender definition]|last=autisticlapis-blog|first=|date=2014-07-06|website=Tumblr|archive-url=|archive-date=|dead-url=|access-date=2021-03-21}}</ref> 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=get in the fucking robot 2k15|website=get in the fucking robot 2k15|access-date=2021-03-21}}</ref> The "—" is also written as "—-", as in in Mogai-Archive and other reblogs.<ref name="metagender20142">http://mogai-archive.tumblr.com/post/91734862699/metagender {{dead link}}</ref><ref>http://www.mogaipedia.org/wiki:metagender#toc0</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=2014-11-21|website=Cupcakes – tumblr|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201228210047/https://arquus-malvaceae.tumblr.com/post/103240804765/metagender-a-tangential-or-tenuous-connection-to|archive-date=2020-12-28|dead-url=|access-date=2020-12-28}}</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/|title=Divine Spiraling Rainbow Tribe: Exploring and Honoring Sacred Mxgender Mysteries|website=divinespiralingrainbowtribe.blogspot.com|language=en|access-date=2021-01-01|date=2015-03-15|last=Bee|first=Jaina|archive-url=|archive-date=|dead-url=}}</ref> as derived from the spiritual definition by P. Sufenas Virius Lupus.<ref name=":3" /> After the convention, Priestx Jaina Bee wrote:

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=2019-09-27|website=reddit|language=en-US|archive-url=|archive-date=|dead-url=|access-date=2020-12-24}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Maxfield Sparrow on Twitter|url=https://twitter.com/UnstrangeMind/status/1337887769511612417|website=twitter|access-date=2020-12-24|language=en-US|date=2020-12-12|last=Sparrow|first=Maxfield|archive-url=|archive-date=|dead-url=|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=2016-08-22|website=www.facebook.com|language=en|archive-url=|archive-date=|dead-url=|access-date=2020-12-28|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=2019-02-14|website=Sasha Cagen, Quirkyalone + To-Do List Author + Coach|language=en-US|archive-url=|archive-date=|dead-url=|access-date=2020-12-28|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=2018-03-13}}</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=2017-06-17|website=Transtistic|language=en|archive-url=|archive-date=|dead-url=|access-date=2020-12-28|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=2017-07-11|website=Transtistic|language=en|archive-url=|archive-date=|dead-url=|access-date=2021-01-21|user=}}</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>