gendermansqueerterly - Tumblr blog

[gendermansqueerterly]

A pagespread for a zine I’m working on. It’s going to be about identity, or something, we’ll see. I’m posting it here for now, because it’ll be a while before anything gets finished. In the meantime I want @trenderpunks to see it so hen knows hens work is getting out there. Full text under the cut!

It’s funny- I’m fairly active in a MOGAI discord, and I really like the MOGAI philosophy of gender freedom, but I don’t really have individual MOGAI labels that I identify with. I look at them and think, “That’s cool, but it’s not quite me.”

But recently I found viralgender, and... while it’s not exactly me, it does some things I really like. It’s not an exact match for my own aesthetic and attitude, but it’s gotten me thinking about who I am and what I stand for.

This is my breakdown of what parts of viralgender fit me, and what doesn’t quite. None of this is intended as a definitive value judgement- it’s just what stood out to me and what I think of it. So without further ado, here are my thoughts on viralgender, starting with one of the things that sets it apart.

Infecting and Destroying

Viralgender “has to do with infecting/destroying the gender binary/gender roles”- in other words, it’s defined by actions, rather than feelings, like so many MOGAI genders are. Feeling-based genders are cool, but I see so many of them and so few action-based genders.

Like I said, I don’t have any specific labels for my gender right now, but I think what I’m looking for would be action-based. Even in the past when I’ve had lots of feeling-based genders, I needed them to be feelings that could guide my behavior. I’ve always sensed that my gender is meant to guide me through life, even though I’m still trying to figure out how that’s supposed to work.

So it’s validating to see an action-based gender, even if it’s not the exact type of action that I identify with most. It’s good to know that I’m not alone in wanting a gender that provides a direction, a purpose, a call to action. It’s cool to see that someone else has ideas about those kinds of genders- it gives me hope that someday I will too.

Reclaiming Disease

Viralgender also “Reclaims the idea of transness as an illness/disease,” reframing illnesses as dangerous, powerful, and capable of taking down cisnormativity. By reversing common assumptions about good and bad, it questions who should be feared, and who protected.

I love these kinds of reclamations, also seen within trendercore and voidpunk. To be honest, this isn’t actually because I’ve been treated that badly due to my transness. Thankfully I’ve lived a fairly sheltered life, so it’s not as personal for me as it is for others.

But I really admire people who find empowerment and pride in things meant to hurt them. I don’t know for sure, but I imagine that it takes courage, self-acceptance, determination, and cleverness to completely reverse an idea like that, and it seems like an effective way to strip an emotional attack of its power.

And I just love playing with ideas and metaphors! I’m a language geek, and reclaiming words is one of the few situations where wordplay is a powerful force for good. “Transness Is Illness” is a metaphor, and once a metaphor gets into circulation it’s hard to get rid of. A metaphor is a story that our culture tells, and the best way to fight a story is with a better story. Reclamation, when done right, is a compelling plot twist.

Granted, not everyone is in the emotional place to reclaim a metaphor, some people don’t want to, and some situations make it harder than others. But when there’s the potential and desire to make that change, I think it’s a total power move.

What Doesn’t Quite Fit Me

Viralgender does a lot of great things, but it’s not quite who I am. Framing transness as disease, and the gender binary as something to be infected or destroyed, is a fairly adversarial way to frame the situation. Both sides are actively trying to kill each other off (I assume that the infected gender binary would be trying to fight off the transness infecting it.)

That might suit some people, especially people who’ve suffered a lot at the hand of cisnormativity, but I don’t think of things that way. I do want gender to be a lot less rigid and oppressive, but I tend to think about dissolving an object, rather than infecting a living being. The meaning isn’t that different, but the specific emotional tone is still important to me. (So maybe I need a gender that’s both action- and feeling-based.)

Viralgender might not be exactly suited to me, but I still really like it and I hope it finds its people!

[gendermansqueerterly]

Rhetor

Rhetor: a person with a gender(s) that is reminiscent somehow of a language. Rets gender may rely heavily on metaphor; it may have its own "grammar"/inner logic; it may be a tool that re uses to understand the world and express retself. But ultimately, the only requirement for someone to be a rhetor is rets gender resembles language in a way that is meaningful to ret.

"Rhetor" is a word equivalent to woman, girl, man, or boy- the equivalent of feminine, masculine, androgynous, etc. is "rhetorique".

Possible associated pronoun sets are "sig/sym/sayr/sayrs/sayrself" and "re/ret/rets/rets/retself".

The flag is meant to look like a shelf of books, and the colors are meant to look like old cloth or leather book covers.

[gendermansqueerterly]

Hypnospace Outlaw- thoughts on the Freelands

So I’ve been playing a lot of Hypnospace Outlaw, and my favorite zone is the Freelands, because come on, it’s the geeky artsy zone. I’ve read everyone’s page about a million times, and at some point I had the revelation that “whoa man, the ultimate meaning of a page isn’t what its author has to say, it’s how they want to be treated.” And then I realized that was probably pretty obvious to everyone who’s not me, because of course every social media page is angling for attention of some sort. But I still went and typed up how everyone wants to be treated:

Gill wants you to take him seriously

Roddy wants to be a valued part of your team Linda wants you to share her excitement

Sarah wants you to see her as an individual

Casper wants you to buy his art

Jack wants to mess with your head

Oscar wants you to take his opinions as fact

Gary wants you to support his choices

Phaedrala wants you to love her

Kevvinn just wants your attention, period.

and

re3koning_inc wants you to fuck off

[gendermansqueerterly]

"Dylan rereads the About Me part of his Hypnospace page occasionally. It’s not because he’s self-obsessed or anything. It’s just good to refresh himself on the image he’s trying to present."

aka, five lies on Dylan's Hypnospace page that he wants to believe about himself, and one truth that he doesn't.

[gendermansqueerterly]

I wrote a Hypnospace Outlaw fic! It’s a gen 5 + 1 fic about five possible explanations for why Dylan Merchant couldn't finish his bad car game. (And one possible explanation for why he actually did.)

[gendermansqueerterly]

For anyone who has ever been insulted, shamed, or invalidated for using “weird pronouns”:

Let me tell you about Leslie Feinberg.

Feinberg was one of the most influential trans activists of all time. Sie was a writer- among other things, sie wrote a groundbreaking book called Stone Butch Blues about the life of a gender-nonconforming butch lesbian. Sie faced all kinds of discrimination throughout hir lifetime, including discrimination from the medical establishment that lead to hir early death. Throughout hir life, sie never stopped fighting for equality for all people- genders, sexualities, races, classes.

And this is what sie had to say about hir pronouns:

“I am female-bodied, I am a butch lesbian, a transgender lesbian — referring to me as ‘she/her’ is appropriate, particularly in a non-trans setting in which referring to me as ‘he’ would appear to resolve the social contradiction between my birth sex and gender expression and render my transgender expression invisible... I like the gender neutral pronoun ‘ze/hir,’ because it makes it impossible to hold on to gender/sex/sexuality assumptions about a person you’re about to meet or you’ve just met. And in an all trans setting, referring to me as ‘he/him’ honors my gender expression in the same way that referring to my sister drag queens as ‘she/her’ does.” (Emphasis added. Also, I’ve used ‘sie/hir’ pronouns here because that’s what’s used on hir personal website, and I feel like they’re the best way to express hir complex identity.)

Leslie Feinberg used multiple pronouns, sie used neopronouns, and sie was a lesbian who also went by ‘he/him’. One of the biggest trans heroes in history, sie did all these things that truscum and transmeds claim are only for ‘trenders’ and ‘snowflakes’.

If you use pronouns that are meaningful to you, despite how anyone else judges you: you are valid, you are brave, and you are following in the footsteps of a transgender icon. Like Feinberg, you’re using language for yourself that helps you feel seen, and that should be celebrated, not shamed.

For more information about Leslie Feinberg, try hir website or this obituary of hir. And consider reading Stone Butch Blues- it’s a very intense read and may be triggering, but it’s also a powerful story and an important piece of history.

[gendermansqueerterly]

Try exemgender! @nebularomantic

hello! my special interest is pokemon and i was wondering if there was an identity for when one's gender is best described by a pokemon type. if not, may i coin one? thanks a bunch! 💗💗💗

I don’t think a gender like that exists, but you’re always welcome to coin one !

[gendermansqueerterly]

have some fucking tips for androgynous presentation that mixes femme and masc styles and isn’t just ‘be afab and wear trousers from the men’s section’

recently I wore some of those trousers with the wide non form fitting legs   and added small heeled boots. 10/10 would recommend I felt very high fashion. looked masc but was making the femme click clack heel sound.

basic loungy outfits can be made 100% more queer by adding colour. srsly jeans with a nice tshirt is queer as fuck if the jeans are orange.

wearing the femmest outfit possible, long skirt, cute blouse, etc. becomes a power move when you do so without a single shred of makeup. bonus if your hair is short. bonus if it’s not a pixie. bonus if your shoes are stompy

find all your Statement Pieces. wear them together. voila.

we all know about suspenders. now put them where they don’t belong. attach them to skirts. attach them to your trousers but leave them hanging

literally just wear stuff you think looks rad because if you enjoy both masculine and feminine clothing styles it naturally follows the stuff you think looks rad together will end up being genderfuck

embrace alternative fashion/weird charity shop finds/vintage/stuff that breaks fashion rules even if its ‘technically’ femme/masc. part of fitting into gender roles is wearing mainstream and current femme/masc clothes because gender roles and their associated accepted dress are always shifting so anything that differs from that is automatically subversive.

billowy shirts. undo them as much as you’re comfortable with. somewhat obvious but the howl’s moving castle vibes are v strong. am I a femme arts student or a dashing masc pirate type? who knows. 

floral patterns feel a billion times more masc if the colours are bold. 

personally after I stopped wearing makeup I felt I lot more able to just be like huh. that’s my face. and feel kinda triumphant  in the ugly parts of it and just be unabashedly weird. and if that’s not genderfuck idk what is. same w not shaving my legs tbh. I enjoy just existing.

that said if you do like makeup, using just (just. no foundation or shit) eyeshadow or just lipstick? also a power move. 

If you go for the classic dapper style of androgynous presentation but want something closer to androgynous than just weird masc, try adding a soft girly jumper to your manly trousers and etc.

adding an emphasis to your natural waist to a masc outfit (with a belt or something) is a good way to feminise it and vice versa with emphasising a dropped waist in a femme outfit to bring attention away from your smaller natural one (again with a belt or maybe low waisted trousers)

long coats are very good I feel my most formless and inexplicable when my outer layer goes straight past my knees.

obviously all this is gonna be slightly biased to my agab/personal style/body type/etc. but yeah. there’s my tips and hopefully none of them are weirdly unachievable or equate androgyny with masculinity 

[gendermansqueerterly]

Dunno if this makes any sense.  Just some complicated feelings.

[gendermansqueerterly]

oof heres another hot take

btw this is raine and i fuckin love him

[gendermansqueerterly]

Honeycoric name association for Bryon with nature and bee themes!

[gendermansqueerterly]

OP is almost definitely a troll, but this is also a hella good gender so I’m going to hang onto it. Maybe I’ll even give it a proper name!

new halloween themed wanderlust gender for anon 🌽🎃

a labyrinthine, eerie gender that’s impossible to navigate or map, but which causes no anxiety. this gender is fun to explore even if it’s easy to get lost in.

coined by feenie 🔥 and sonic 🦔

[gendermansqueerterly]

This is a glorious way of playing with vexillogical conventions.

Writtic Pride Flag

[Image: an 11-striped horizontal flag: large white stripe, thin light blue stripe, large white stripe, thin light blue stripe, large white stripe, thin light blue stripe, large white stripe, thin light blue stripe, large white stripe, thin light blue stripe, large white stripe. There is a thin light red stripe down the entire flag on the left hand side.]

Writtic: a xenogender related to writing aesthetics, including paper.

-Fy

[gendermansqueerterly]

I helped come up with this word! (Not the flag or definition, just the word itself)

-< New Term >-

- -

.* Occulian *.

Occulian:

A gender influenced by eye horror, and being seen in a frightening/disturbing way. It can be broaded to general face horror if needed. Not a strictly masculine or feminine term.

- -

[gendermansqueerterly]

beach juparian moodboard - request for anonymous

(click on image for full quality)

[gendermansqueerterly]

GENDERBLANKET: a gender that covers you like a blanket! feels warm, comfortable, and secure!

COINED BY: me, transmedictaako!

DISCLAIMER: though this flag is free to use with credit, (NO)MAPS/SUPPORTERS, TRU/MEDS, TERFS, and ANTI MOGAI do not have permission to use or “reclaim” it. if i find this flag on any such reclamation or banned blog i will report you for art theft, as it is, in fact, art theft. thank you!

[gendermansqueerterly]

Fasciflux/Fascifluid: a gender that fluctuates or is fluid based on an autistic person’s special interest

Obiectumgender: a gender relating to or influenced by an autistic person’s special object(s). (Based on the latin word for “object”)