Genderfluid: Difference between revisions

The earliest extant entry for "gender fluid" in the Urban Dictionary was added in 2007.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=gender+fluid |title=http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=gender+fluid |access-date=2016-10-13 |archive-date=2016-10-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161013063943/http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=gender+fluid |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 2010, the [https://web.archive.org/web/20161013063943/http://gender-fluid.livejournal.com/ Gender-Fluid community] was created on LiveJournal.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://gender-fluid.livejournal.com/profile |title=http://gender-fluid.livejournal.com/profile |access-date=2016-10-13 |archive-date=2016-10-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161013063943/http://gender-fluid.livejournal.com/profile |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 2015, Dictionary.com added an entry for "gender-fluid,"<ref>"New words added to Dictionary.com." May 6, 2015. ''Dictionary.com.'' [https://web.archive.org/web/20161013063943/http://blog.dictionary.com/2015-new-words/ http://blog.dictionary.com/2015-new-words/]</ref> which it defined as an adjective meaning "noting or relating to a person whose gender identity or gender expression is not fixed and shifts over time or depending on the situation." It listed as synonyms genderfluid, gender fluid, and gender-flexible.<ref>"Gender-fluid." ''Dictionary.com.'' [https://web.archive.org/web/20161013063943/http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/gender-fluid http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/gender-fluid]</ref>

Usually, gender fluidity happens by itself, so that a person feels like, say, a girl at a certain time, rather than choosing to be a girl at a certain time.<ref name=":1">Kat. [https://web.archive.org/web/20161013063943/http://bigender.livejournal.com/65619.html?thread=267859#t267859 http://bigender.livejournal.com/65619.html?thread=267859#t267859]</ref> Some genderfluid people find that no outside or inside things tend to influence their gender identity to change. They find that their gender fluidity is unpredictable and happens randomly. Other genderfluid people find that their gender changes depending on the situation and is influenced by inside or outside sources. Some move from one gender to the next on a regular cycle, resembling a lunar cycle, or synchronizing with their menstrual cycle.  Other genderfluid people are sometimes able to use their willpower to guide their gender to change in a way and/or at the time that they want it to.

In 2012, Case and Ramachandran gave a report on the results of a survey of genderfluid people who call themselves [[bigender]] who experience involuntary alternation between [[female]] and [[male]] states. Case and Ramachandran gave this condition the name "Alternating gender incongruity (AGI)." Case and Ramachandran made the hypothesis that gender alternation may reflect an unusual degree (or depth) of hemispheric switching and the corresponding suppression of sex appropriate body maps in the parietal cortex. They "hypothesize[d] that tracking the nasal cycle, rate of binocular rivalry, and other markers of hemispheric switching will reveal a physiological basis for AGI individuals' subjective reports of gender switches... We base our hypotheses on ancient and modern associations between the left and right hemispheres and the male and female genders."<ref>Case, L. K.; Ramachandran, V. S. (2012). "Alternating gender incongruity: A new neuropsychiatric syndrome providing insight into the dynamic plasticity of brain-sex". ''Medical Hypotheses'' 78 (5): 626–631. doi:10.1016/j.mehy.2012.01.041. [https://web.archive.org/web/20161013063943/https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22364652 PMID 22364652]. </ref><ref>"Bigender - Boy Today, Girl Tomorrow?". ''Neuroskeptic''. April 8, 2012. [https://web.archive.org/web/20161013063943/http://neuroskeptic.blogspot.com/2012/04/bigender-boy-today-girl-tomorrow.html http://neuroskeptic.blogspot.com/2012/04/bigender-boy-today-girl-tomorrow.html]</ref><ref>Stix, Gary (2012-04-20). "'Alternating Gender Incongruity' Causes Rapid Shifts Of Gender, Scientist Claims". ''The Huffington Post''. [https://web.archive.org/web/20161013063943/http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/19/alternating-gender-incongruity_n_1438911.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/19/alternating-gender-incongruity_n_1438911.html]</ref> Case and Ramachandran believe that when bigender people feel a change between their gender identities, it may have to do with a change in how they use parts of their brains. The gender change might also have to do with a natural body cycle, specifically, a valve in the nose that changes sides every two days (the nasal cycle). However, this idea is still only a hypothesis, and more study is needed to confirm it.

[[Gender dysphoria]], or feeling painfully uncomfortable about how one's body and social role don't match one's gender, isn't a requirement in order to be genderfluid. Each person is different, experiencing gender fluidity in their own way. Some genderfluid people experience [[gender dysphoria]] at times or all the time. Some want to change their bodies and some take a physical [[transition]] to do so, which may include hormones or [[surgery]]. Others don't choose to transition because any change they make to their body would only feel right to them when they were in a certain gender and would feel wrong in others. Yet others have a difficult time planning their transition path, because their feelings change about what they want.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://genderfluidprobs.tumblr.com/post/37659220000/genderfluid-problem-28 |title=http://genderfluidprobs.tumblr.com/post/37659220000/genderfluid-problem-28 |access-date=2016-10-13 |archive-date=2016-10-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161013063943/http://genderfluidprobs.tumblr.com/post/37659220000/genderfluid-problem-28 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name=":2" />

Some genderfluid people ask to be called by a different [[Names|name]]<ref name=":2">Kat. "Hi I'm new." ''Bigender'' (blog/forum). [https://web.archive.org/web/20161013063943/http://bigender.livejournal.com/64281.html http://bigender.livejournal.com/64281.html]</ref> and [[pronouns]] depending on what gender they feel at a certain time. For people who switch between only two genders, this can mean switching between two names. These may be feminine and masculine versions of the same name<ref>Leo/Leann. [https://web.archive.org/web/20161013063943/http://bigender.livejournal.com/65263.html?thread=269551#t269551 http://bigender.livejournal.com/65263.html?thread=269551#t269551]</ref> or names that don't sound similar at all.<ref name=":3">DamianBella. [https://web.archive.org/web/20161013063943/http://bigender.livejournal.com/65619.html?thread=265811#t265811 http://bigender.livejournal.com/65619.html?thread=265811#t265811]</ref> They may also take a gender-neutral name that works for them at any time, either in addition to these names, or instead of them.