#epicene gender

[epiceneandroid]

what being epicene means to me

so, hi! i'm epiceneandroid: a tumblr user defined by my identity as an epicene, well, android.

epicene has a lot of meanings, both personal to me and others and dictionary definition. its dictionary definition has a plurality of meanings, including, but not limited to:

-has characteristics of both male and female but is neither gender;

-has characteristics of both masculine and feminine but is neither;

-has both and neither masculine and feminine characteristics;

-has both and neither male and female characteristics;

-genderless or sexless;

-gender indeterminate;

-androgynous;

-gender neutral or neuter;

-unisex;

or a gender like male or female, but is neither.

of course, an epicene person can relate to any, multiple, or even all of those meanings, and still be epicene, and no two epicenes, just like no two women or men, will define their gender the same way.

however, i see my epicenity, as i've grown up over the years, beyond just "has characteristics of both male and female, but is neither" and "gender indeterminate".

think of those gender spectrum charts, like say, a circle. on one end is male, on one end is female, on one end is neutrois, on one end is aporagender, etc...the very center of the circle, in the middle of + having aspects of every gender but not BEING every gender like pangender, is epicene to me, i've discovered.

so it's a gender that has aspects of male, female, androgyne, femache, neutrois, aporagender, maverique, agender, really, countless genders, without being exactly all of those genders and being sort of its own thing. it's kind of like an aporagender that is simultaneously NOT an aporagender. it's kind of a schrodinger's abinary sort of thing, as it has aspects of genders that have nothing to do with binary masculinity/maleness or femininity/femaleness, but also has aspects of genders that HAVE relation to masculinity/maleness and femininity/femaleness at the same time. but, again, it's only ASPECTS of it, not exactly the exact gender. so epicenity is sort of like an abinary/midbinary combination, or a nontrinary gender, on the surface, but moreso...to me, an anonbinary experience.

so yeah. this is how i view my own epicenity. i wonder if other epicene people view their gender the same way.

[isobug]

Transepicene Flags

A term used to describe a transgender individual who identifies fully or partially with an epicene gender. It can be considered umbrella term for individuals who transition to an epicene identity.

The first flag follows the most common format for trans- flags, and the second is the newer format

Plain/without the symbol flags here!

anon request

[gender-jargon]

[Image ID: the Trinteri pride flag by Gent of Gender-Jargon. The Trinteri flags consists of three down-pointing chevrons of the same size, with negative space above, between and to the left and right bottom corner of the flag. The top negative space is very light green. The left-botton negative space is very light pink. The right-bottom negative space is very light blue. The chevrons from top to bottom are indigo, grey and teal with very very light grey space in between. ./. End ID]

Trinteri: a gender amidst the Gender Trinary; a gender that is centered in the middle of the Male-Female-Neutrois trinary.

[PT: Trinteri: a gender admist the Gender Trinary; a gender that is centered in the middle of the Male-Female-Neutrois trinary. ./. End PT]

Etymology

[PT: Etymology ./. End ID]

From Latin, "Tri-", a prefix meaning "Three" + "Inter" meaning "Between" + "-i", an English neologistic suffix indicating genderness. Literally "between the three". Coined by Gent (Gender-Jargon) (link) in March 2024.

Elaboration

[PT: Elaboration ./. End ID]

Trinteri was created as a result of this post (link) by @your-bigender-big-brother (link). The post posed the question, "what gender quality is right in the center of the trinary?". Most replied, including myself, neutrangity, while others cited epicenity or neutrœmmity, but the more I thought about it, the more I began to feel like these suggested designations were only approximate and didn't quite get to the root of the question.

As Stormy said emself in eir essay (link) ey wrote, the Gender Trinary contains qualities aside from masculinity, femininity and androgyny. Aside from these three, some others are effeminacy, femmulinity, epicenity, neutrommity, neutremmity, neutrœmmity, gynxemity, androxulinity, gyndroxity, neutrangity, tomboyishness and janegirlishness, to name a couple. This got me thinking, which lead me to coin Trinteri as a centrigender that includes the entire Gender Trinary.

Here is the graphic that Stormy included with eir question, which I edited to add Trinteri in the center for reference:

[Image Id: a graphical representation of the Gender Trinary. It is a down-pointing triangle with the left corner labeled "masculine", the right corner labeled "feminine" and the downward-facing point labeled "neutral". Between masculine and feminine, feminine and neutral and masculine and neutral are double-pointing arrows. In the left corner, there is a point labeled "Man". In the right corner, there is a point labeled "Woman". In the downward-facing point, there is a point labeled "Neutrois". Between "Man" and "Woman" is a point labeled "Androgyne". Between "Neutrois" and "Man" is a point labeled "Neutromme". Between "Neutrois" and "Woman" is a point labeled "Neutremme". In the very center, circled and pointed to by a large arrow is a point labeled "Trinteri", which is located at the very center of the diagram. ./. End ID]

I propose the term trinterinity to refer to the quality of gender that is located in the very center of the Gender Trinary. I would be very interested to hear about Stormy's thoughts on this post to see if ey agree, if I missed the mark or if ey have any other kind of feedback for me.

Trinteri is can be considered a midtrinary aporagender. Trinteri is:

a single, specific non-binary identity.

located in the very center of the Gender Trinary of Male-Female-Neutrois.

a centrigender of all trinary gender qualities.

[PT: a single, specific non-binary identity. located in the very center of the Gender Trinary of Male-Female-Neutrois. a centrigender of all trinary gender qualities. ./. End PT]

Trinteri is quite similar to, but distinct from Neutrangi, Neutrœmme and Epicene:

[PT: Trinteri is quite similar to, but distinct from Neutrangi, Neutroemme and Epicene: ./. End PT]

Neutrangi

[PT: Neutrangi ./. End PT]

Neutrangi and Trinteri are both in between Male, Female (rationalized as Androgyne) and Gender-Neutral, but Trinteri is also centered/in between all other trinary genders.

Neutrœmme

[PT: Neutroemme ./. End PT]

Neutrœmme and Trinteri are both in between Male, Female (rationalized as Femache) and Gender-Neutral, but is also centered/in between all other trinary genders.

Epicene

[PT: Epicene ./. End ID]

Epicene is a gender related to Male-Female indeterminance, having characteristics of both Maleness and Femaleness and/or having no characteristics indicative of Maleness or Femaleness. Epicene is a relatively complicated identity, as it can be considered masculine, feminine, androgynous, neutral and a sort of genderless all-in-one.

Both Trinteri and Epicene encompass experiences of masculinity, femininity, androgyny and neutrality, but Trinteri involves all other trinary identities as well. Trinteri is explicitly a centrigender, where as Epicene is generally considered not to be. Epicene is definitively indeterminate with regards to the Male-Female binary, but Trinteri may or may not be indeterminate in it's nature.

Pride Flag

[PT: Pride Flag ./. End PT]

The Trinteri pride flag was created by the coiner at the same time of the term (Gent, GJ, 3/24). The flag consists of three down-pointing chevrons of the same size, with negative space above, between chevrons and to the left and right bottom corner of the flag. The top negative space is very light green. The left-botton negative space is very light pink. The right-bottom negative space is very light blue. The chevrons from top to bottom are indigo, grey and teal with very light grey in between. The colors have the following meanings:

The very light-green negative space represents neutrinity.

The very light-pink negative space represents femininity.

The very light-blue negative space represents masculinity.

The purple chevron represents androgyny.

The grey chevron represents neutremmity.

The teal chevron represents neutrommity.

The very light grey negative space between the chevrons represents the center of the Gender Trinary.

[PT: The very light-green negative space represents neutrinity. The very light-pink negative space represents femininity. The very light-blue negative space represents masculinity. The purple chevron represents androgyny. The grey chevron represents neutremmity. The teal chevron represents neutrommity. The very light grey negative space between the chevrons represents the center of the Gender Trinary. ./. End PT]

[your-bigender-big-brother]

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Genderfluid_symbol.svg

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pangender_symbol.svg

Can you combine both making a pangenderfluid epicene symbol?

This is what I had in mind. Does this look okay? I know the lines are a bit thick. - 💙💚

[sunkern-plus]

since i'm back to being the host in the system from a long time of being absent i feel like i have different gender presentation goals than francis laine. i want to present...i don't think i'd necessarily call it pangender, but like....i want to present as having traits of all known genders but not be any of them. that's like. my personal version of epicene i mean (having characteristics of all genders but not being any of them).

you. more experienced trans person who has experience in social transitioning. how would i do that as a fat person when the only transition goals i see for trans people my size are either very Woman or very Man and not "in between all possible genders like how an androgyne is in between male and female"

[janmisali]

While 4th-person pronouns as a phrase only makes sense a joke(?)reference(?) to the concept of the fourth wall, do you know of any languages that have an actual distinct pronoun for ambiguous or unknown persons (not like ambiguous/unknown gender, but people that you don't know or aren't sure who you're specifically talking about)

I reject the premise of the first sentence here. fourth person pronouns do not make sense as a joke reference to the concept of the fourth wall. the concept of the fourth wall is completely unrelated to the ways in which "chat" is used, and both things are completely unrelated to personal pronouns.

anyway the google search term you're looking for is "(grammatical) epicenity"

[talenlee]

The Origin Of The Word 'Orc'

The term for a cultural group, as a name, is its demonym. In Cobrin’Seil, demonyms are words from the culture in question. There are some political contentions there – the Eladrin consider themselves more legitimate Elves than Elves, but Elves are called Elves and Eladrin don’t call themselves Elves because they do not want to be considered the same thing as Elves. This is a long standing beef between the kind of people who own libraries older than most countries. But notably, these words are in the languages of the Elf and the Eladrin. Drow is a word from the same language group, a term that the Drow chose for themselves and use for themselves. The Kai of Shadar-Kai are named after their fortress home, which is, again, an Eladrin word, but they’re all from the same cultural group and choose the term.

The term ‘Beast’ in common comes from ‘Beastfolk,’ which is to say a generic term for a scary thing from the forest. But Beasts are named after Beastfolk, and Beastfolk, again, named themselves. The Beastfolk formed a coalition, made a common language, and then shared that language amongst themselves, developing the term bhehst which evolved over time to Beast, and when they needed a term to describe the coalition, Beastfolk was the result.

Common did not impose this name on them, it learned it from them.

Consider the word ‘Goblin’, a word from the Goblins, is notable because the way the word is used and structured, in language, it’s a possessive. Whose land is this? Goblin. Where are we? Goblin. Who are you? Goblin. What are your people? Goblin. This incredibly flexible term, with its overwhelming ubiquity, also plays into the way goblins are perceived as speaking a strange and confusing language. It’s more that they have multi-purpose words are build their language on trust and social intuition. This is why Goblins will often drop a conversation exactly when they know you’re getting frustrated, because they can tell you don’t actually care and need time to process what they said.

In Cobrin’seil, heritage names are largely entirely self-chosen demonyms. Oh sure, there are names for Orcs that Orcs don’t use, but those words are largely considered slurs, or are often inexact – Bugbears, Hobgoblins, Goblins and Orcs were all for a time treated as the same culture and named interchangeably by outsiders who did not interact with them (which means some of these ideas remain codified by the Eresh Protectorate and Dal Raeda histories). A proper cladistic chart can rejoice in how interesting it is that yes, Bugbears and Hobgoblins are extremely closely related, and yet Hobgoblins and Goblins are so distant as to be functionally alien to one another. Humans are closely related to Hobgoblins, but not to Goblins, and Orcs, while closely related to Humans, are extremely different to Hobgoblins, such that they don’t even recognise one another’s common cause.

And if you think Humans are racist against Orcs, you should hear what Hobgoblins think of them sometime.

But what is an Orc? Not culturally – linguistically, what is an Orc?

The simplest answer to that is that the Orc word Orc is a pronoun used by Orcs before contact with other cultures to describe the relationship between clan groups. In technical terms, it’s a first-person – plural – accusative – judicative – epicene- imperative – widely clusive pronoun, which is to say:

It’s a term used used to self-describe (first-person)

It’s a term describing a group (plural, it’s not singular)

It indicates reciept of an object (a grammatical object, like a direct object – think of it as ‘doing’ things)

It asserts a correct identification, that the speaker is sure of the word’s truth (accusative rather than interrogative)

It presents no gender (epicene)

It expresses a command of agency (imperative, much like a sentence that starts with “you”)

It asserts as many people who can be in the group as possible (as ‘Orc’ wants to be maximally inclusive)

This set of layers is not at all atypical, because the huge iceberg of study amongst linguists in Orcs isn’t their vocabulary or writing system. Those are still potentially interesting things to study, but the nature of Orc as a language is that the vocabulary is pretty simplified… if you accept the way that the language is made up of modifiers. See, Orcish language and vocabulary is pretty simple when it comes to nouns and adjectives, and there’s an old aphorism Orcs have a hundred words for war and no word for peace. This is both not true and true, because the place where Orcish language has most of its complexity is not in these nouns but is instead in their incredibly intricate and exhaustive system of pronouns.

Orcish pronouns are varied, elaborate, detailed and tonal. In English, we have a single pronoun for ‘the object right here’ (This) and ‘the object not right here’ (That). You can add plurality to those (these and those), but that’s not a lot of refinement. In Orcish by comparison, the pronouns include sequentiality (the first object we mention, the second object we mention), clusivity (who is included in a grouping), trust (I know this because I witnessed it, because someone told me, because someone I didn’t trust told me, nobody told me), and temporality (when in time this thing I am describing has or will happened or is ongoing).

This means that diagrammatically, an Orcish sentence may be composed of the nouns and verbs ‘took axe hut put skull,’ which we in English might scaffold together as ‘I took my axe from by the hut and put it in that guy’s skull,’ but the same sentence in about the same amount of space in Orcish, communicates ‘I am telling you this because I witnessed and did it and can attest to that, of how I took my father’s hunting axe that I have used to fight with only occasionally and would not be my normal choice for violence, near the hut that I use for occasional trips for fishing and storing things, and for reasons that I think are reasonable but I recognise as regrettable, wound up in a fight with that guy which ended when I used the axe to split his skull.’ And that’s even simplifying it, because there’d be specific interlocking references in the intervening words, and it would cover the same basic space. Orcish pronouns can be synthetic, where two different pronouns may want to apply to a word so they just merge together into another, new, giga pronoun.

This is the big problem of translating Orcish language; the pronouns are so complex and carry so much information that an Orc learning Common has to struggle with trying to wedge that level of sophisticiation in the space we in our language normally use for simple words, like they’re trying to park an apple cart in a desk drawer. Since the language can value precision and specificity and provenance, which we don’t naturally do, they wind up having to give up on trying to convey any of that information with the pronouns. This is why you get the stereotypical ‘thag hit man with axe‘ because from an Orc’s perspective, the pronouns and prepositions we use are so limited, they’re more like mumbling you put between words than an actual system for conveying meaning.

Understand that if there were Orc movies, the fansubbers would have absolutely unsolvable problems ahead of them. They’d encounter a scene where two Orcs saying very blatantly different single words back and forth to one another would, to be linguistically correct, with the time allowed to parse the information, have to subtitle it with just the dialogue:

You.” “You.” “You.” “You.“ “You?” “You.” “YOU.

And it would be technically right and incredibly unhelpful. The stereotype of an Orc, inscrutably keyed up just saying ‘YOU.’ at someone is often used to suggest that they’re easily overwhelmed by emotions. That’s not entirely untrue but it’s also that Common is just not fit for purpose to express what Orcs normally can express very freely.

This also results in translation errors of concepts, that result in complicated mistakes about cultural outlook. Take for example the way that Human cultures, speaking in Common, value parenthood to the exclusion of almost all other forms of cultural behaviour. Fatherhood and Motherhood are treated as fundamentally important to even living, when you’re from a Fatherland and you live thanks to the Mother Earth. The fact that Orcs don’t seem to treat either of these ideas with much significance was, for a time, taken as a historical sign of their lack of Human empathy and inability to exist in Human society, with all Orcs coming from parent-less or underparented families, the ‘land of broken homes.’ This is a misunderstanding that comes out of Humans assuming that marriage is normal.

Typically though, Orcs don’t have children. A bit under half the population have children and a bit more than half of the population don’t. It’s not because of a problem or anything. There’s no strong incentive to do so, no implication that you won’t. Orcs typically remain able bodied up to their end of life, and the narrative in a capitalist society of producing children to care for you and keep you company as you get older is already met by the way that Orcish communities are already built on a steady platform of community connection.

Orc society isn’t a typical patriarchal or matriarchal setup but more avuncular. Most Orcs care, a little, for the kids in their community; parents are often considered exhausted by having the kids, and therefore, the community members around them take care of the kid and help raise them. The myth that Orcs ‘mature faster’ is just that any given 14 year old Orc has already been trained, by their community, to do a lot of utilitarian things like making their own food and lodgings and travelling, because that’s just more of what’s in the culture. It’s not that there’s no room for things like birdwatching and painting and creating art objects, it’s just that the foundations aren’t reliant on things like reading and writing and focus more on practical skills.

The other thing is that Orc populations often have very lopsided and punctuated population growths; if a band raids an area and brings back with everything the other area had that they now have to care for, the situation can be where the Orcs now have a generation worth of new kids, so there’s no specific reason for them to have more kids of their own through the untidy process of reproduction. There’s no obvious problem here, because again: there’s no assumption of partnership or children as a natural result, so these kids are usually adopted and raised by the Orcs themselves, and again, this is seen as pretty reasonable, even forming out of parenting units that don’t necessarily think of one another as friends or seem compatible the way that Humans would present them. No fixed opposite gender pairings or even fixed sizes of groups, because again: Marriage is not normal.

Humans understand marriage to be a legal codification of a culturally acceptable monogamous structure where two people choose to cohabitate, pool resources, and that this is a perpetual state. It’s usually of opposite genders but not always and it’s usually inclusive of having children, but not always. Depending on where in the world you do it, Humans kids being from married families is seen as a sign the kid has more stability and is less likely to be antisocial or criminal.

Orcs on the other hand, have no such common social arrangement, with the closest they have being a thing that some researchers refer to as a ‘child loan.’ Some Orcs decide they want some kids, so they ask their own support network if they can be, for a period — usually seven years — excluded from typical community obligations for providing. It’s a commitment to create a space for the kid to grow up in, and usually only asked for a first child or an adoption of a few. After the duration of time, the deal is over – the ‘parents’ in the child loan don’t even necessarily assume they’ll be together at that point and the community obligations return. There’s no interest on this, per se, but it’s often framed as a ‘loan’ in language because a lot of Orc language is debt-biased.

Basically, there’s a period where any time you’re given the choice between staying out to gather more resources than you need or chop more wood than you can to benefit communal stockpiles, Orcs believe, if you’re under this deal, you should absolutely the hell not be chopping wood or fishing, you should be back home, enriching the life of your child and supporting your partners in the situation.

This is how Orcs get that common base of knowledge. It’s true that Orcs aren’t fantastically literate, but the lack of written language doesn’t relate to their sophisticated language system. Right now, the Orcish language gets written in a form of Urd script, a little stamp of colonisation from Ogres in the past that the Orcs largely escaped. The lack of infrastructural information is secondary because the culture tends towards being built out of people with direct experience in a lot of different hands-on skills. You don’t need to read manuals if you can rely on finding someone in your society who can help teach you things. This means there’s a lot of focus on less the importance of blood or descent and a lot more about continued maintenance of cultural identities. Basically, nobody likes seeing someone in the community die without an apprentice or a follower to carry on what they knew.

This is also where the stereotypes of Orcs coming from ‘broken homes’ because a lot of Orcs’ parents, after the kid is roughly at a point where they can start contributing to the home, discuss if they want the current arrangement to be ongoing, and decide to change it, meaning less time with one parent or the other. The kid then usually spends their time hanging around an ‘uncle’ in the community with the specialisation they’re interested in.

Now understand that from an Orc’s perspective, this is a pretty reasonable thing. Orcs are very used to the idea of impermanent things, life and property and so on. The Human sees a horrifying constant attempt to emulate Human marriage which always ends in failure and raises a child who is, well, an Orc, and is seen as fulfilling a cycle of violence. The Orc sees Human marriage and asks ‘why do you send a letter to the government to tell them who you’re having sex with? that’s bloody weird.’

Ironically, though, Orcs are also associated with letters for another reason. See, a lot of city folk’s stereotype, to the point where in plays and theatre, it’s one of the most common roles available to Orcs, is the idea of an Orc courier. The idea kicked off from a historical position where, out in the battlefield, Eresh nobles would pay Orcs from nearby to deliver messages, because they were wholly independent, incredibly reliable, and unlikely to break promises. This was such standard practice that Orcish communities would often check out battlefields and wars like it was a corner for work.

But this became enough of a thing at battlefields, that there were established relationships, that when knights and commanders headed back to the cities, Orcs would commonly come along, and do long-distance courier work from city to city. If Orcs were travelling the highways with messages on their own, like a mail service, often nobles would give the general some other notes, and thus began the pattern of a small number of Orcs having this job. That led to more coming along to do it, because it’s work they find easy (long distance travel under no pressure in return for convenient rewards at both ends of the travel).

This was long running enough that nobles started to hire them specifically, Orcs formed loose unions, recruited non-Orcs that could do the job, and language about the stereotype kicked in. It’s a really persistent rumour that Orcs are couriers because they can’t read, so the message is secure. This is a really stupid stereotype, because the messages inevitably have their destination written on them and the Orcs have to be able to read that.

The upshot is that ‘Orc messenger’ is just a weird stereotype that the people of the Eresh Protectorate particularly hold to, because it’s one of the ways that Orcs show up in the cities most commonly… even if that archetype is so old that the Orc couriers founded Orc Courier companies, that are now just Courier companies and the city-living Orcs of the Eresh Protectorate do whole hosts of jobs. It’s also even stranger that some people maintain the stereotype of an Orc as what we’d recognise as a Pony Express style courier, a lone wanderer on a horse with no roots and no friends, romanticised as an image under the starry sky, and as a terrifying highway plunderer.

These two things seemingly exist completely independently in the head of idiots.

This originally started as a series of unstructured chosts over on Cohost, where I talked – without much formal structure – about the Orcs of Cobrin’Seil. This post is here because it’s more searchable and more readable for things like oh, my D&D players. But if you want to see this kind of thing in its draft form, you should check out Cohost. It’s a cool website that lets me draft larger things like this without the same churn as you see on sites like Tumblr.

I like Cohost! I like writing about things like this! I like being able to hand you nearing on three thousand words of Orc lore, derived in pieces from drip-fed ideas about linguistic demonym structure and make a whole ding dang piece about it! And over on Cohost, you can comment on it and encourage me! I like that too! Some of the ideas here were definitely filtered throug people commenting on my Orc cultures!

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

[theoutherlings]

Understanding outherinity

When we talk about outherinity we aren't talking about one strict quality, but rather about a set of different qualities, each with its unique characteristics, that are all distinct from the pre-existent sociegender qualities without being xenogender or xenogender-adjacent nor beyond the concept of gender. This means that all outherinities are:

Comgender

Sociegender

Not neutral, feminine, masculine, androgynous, epicene, etc.

The term was coined around 2019 here.

Outherine genders and qualities can be categorised in different groups depending on how they can be described. This categories were originally named, but last I've decided to give a name to each of these original outherine subtypes + adding a new one.

Categories mentioned by the coiner and later named by me:

Dipherine: It describes any outherine quality born of the uncommon combination of two pre-existing sociegender qualities. That be, any combination between masculinity, femininity, neutrality, androgyny, etc except androgyny itself and femmulinity.

Dipherine (archived)

Itherine: It describes any otherine quality that can be categorized as brand-new with no connection to previous existing qualities, yet not exactly xenine or anything similar.

Itherine (archived)

Some itherine qualities are:

Autonomous/Autonomine(?): Caracterised by gender independence, freedom, self-determination, etc. The main autonomous gender is Autonomique. It's also an umbrella term that includes other itherine qualities like maverine and autonine.

Aliusine: Describes genders that can be characterised as simply "other", as standing apart from pre-existing social gender constructs. The main Aliusine genders are aliagender and troique.

Maverine: Similar to Autonomine, but with a strong inner sense of gender. Originally it also mentioned gender unorthodoxy and unconventionality. The main maverine gender is maverique.

Ilyagine: An "other" quality with no connection whatsoever to pre-existing qualities. A feeling that there's a gender that's distinct from fem, masc, neu, andro and anything derived, similar or related to them. See post on Ilyaginity.

Autonine: Describes gender qualities that are unique to a person or system. Characterised by individuality and a strong sense of personhood/systemhood. Egogenders are considered outherine and itherine because they're unique to a person or system and have no connection to pre-existing gender categories.

Périne or péraine: Describes genders completely disconnected from the masc/fem/neu trinary. The main perine gender is Péra(gender). See post on Pérainity.

Preterine and Umbine: Both refer to brand-new qualities that are still comparable, while distinct, to pre-existent gender qualities. The different between Preterine and Umbine is that, while the former is for outherine qualities adjacent/comparable to abinary qualities, the later is for outherine qualities adjacent/comparable to midbinary qualities. (I decided to coin two different terms for what was originally a same "descriptor" because I think these are two different experiences, or at least I experience them in a different way)

Some preterine and umbine qualities are:

Aineminine : Gender quality comparable to femininity

Ainuline: Gender quality comparable to masculinity

Altraenine: Gender quality that can be described as a "pure " androgyny that exist in opposition to both femininity and masculinity rather than in between them. See post on altraeninity.

Preterine (archived); Umbine (archived)

Categories added by me:

Anderine: Not originally considered by the coiner. It describes any outherine quality born of the combination or that exist in between two or more outherine qualities.

Anderine (archived)

Peraverinity (combination of perinity and maverinity) is an example of an anderine quality.

Technically the combination of outherine qualities with pre-existent qualities could be considered outherine as they would form brand new qualities too, but no term for them has been coined as of yet. Normally people refer to these genders as simply aporine, but all outherine genders are aporine as aporinity as an umbrella term refers to any comgender quality distinct from femininity, masculinity, androgyny, epicenity, effeminacy/effeminity and femmulinity. I'm thinking on coining something, and when I do this part will be edited, but for now they are just "aporine".

(I'll repost the longer explanation about each outherine quality and link it here in the future)

Differences between outherinity and xenogenders: Why are outherine gender not xenine?

[PT: differences between outherinity and xenogenders: why are outherine genders not xenine?]

The main difference between outherine and xenine is that outherine is a sociegender quality/group of qualities. That is outherinities are defined by themselves and no component on their definition can exist outside the concept of gender.

This is because outherinities, being sociegender qualities, have circular definitions. That it's, all the part of their definition define each other. For example: Maverique. The main quality of maverique is maverinity; maverinity is defined around the quality of being maverine. We could go a bit further and define maverinity around an strong sense of gender autonomy, but we cannot go further than "gender autonomy", which basically means "gender distinct/separated from pre-existed concept".

Maverinity cannot exist or be defined without the existence of things and individuals/systems that are maverique or some other maverine gender; but, simultaneously, these genders wouldn't exist if maverinity didn't exist as a possible gender experience.

I like to refer to sociegender qualities, including outherinities, as "abstract", comparing them to "abstract nouns" as the thing they are defined around cannot exist without genders that are that thing. Femininity, masculinity, neutrality, androgyny, outherinities, etc can only be measure through genders and people who are fem/masc/neu/angi/outher/etc, just like happiness can only be meassure and contained by people and other beings who are happy.

On the other hand, xenogenders, some kenous genders, and other similar qualities are defined by and around things, beings, and concept that have an existence independent from the concept of gender, but are being applied to gender concepts. they have a linnear definition, meaning that the ultimate concept they are defined around does not depend on the others to exists.

If we take soporinity as an example, soporine genders are related to the concept of sleep. Its definition is linnear because while soporinity and soporinity need each other and the concept of sleep to exist and be defined, the latter doesn't need either; it has an independent existence outside the concept of gender.

That's why I like to refer to these type of qualities as "concrete",

because I like to compare them to concrete nouns in that the thing they're defined around exist outside gender as a concept (This does not mean, of course, that xenogenders and adjacent gender categories, are only ever defined around concrete concepts. It's xenine qualities themselves that are concrete qualities, but they can be defined around abstract nouns like emotions).

Derived terminology

[PT: derived terminology]

Just like with any other qualities, outherinities can be used to refer to the nature of gender, the core aspect of gender, presentation, expression, alignment, and more.

A person can have an outherine gender without necessarily having an outherine alignment or presentation/expression or have an outherine alignment or presentation/expression without necessarily having an outherine gender.

Likewise, "contradictory" or "paradoxical" genders that are OUIN but not OUIA/ OUIA but not OUIN exist too. For example: Cettreur (OIUN + MIA) and Faunverique (MIN + MVIA [OUIA])

Genders that are outher-alignment, regardless if they are otherwise outherine, are called "outheric". To refer to both outherine and outheric genders we can use the term "outherly".

----

That's all for now, I'll keep editing this post to add more information or share link to my other post and/or useful resources on outherinity.

[couldtransitionhavesavedthem]

COULD TRANSITION HAVE SAVED THEM?

Have you ever thought about your blorbo that the creator insists is a cis, binary male or female character that you believe would benefit from a nontraditional, nonbinary transition? Have you ever thought your blorbo had an understanding of gender that was nonconventional, otherly, or beyond what most binary genders can be conceived as? Have you scoured the internet for obscure genders that would possibly fit your blorbo?

If so, I've got the headcanon blog for you! Welcome to "Could Transition Have Saved Them", a trans headcanon blog for you to headcanon all the nonbinary characters to your desires!

Just submit your headcanon in the form here, and have fun!

Note: I have the right to refuse any headcanons or series that I deem offensive or uncomfortable for me.

The blog mascot is Colonel.EXE, who I headcanon as epicene and knightgender, and the header is the nonbinary flag.

UPDATED NOTE: NO REAL PEOPLE.

[epiceneandroid]

how i, one of the frequent fronters on this blog, see my gender epicenity

i know, i know. one of the main facets + alters of our most likely osdd system fronted a while back for a LONG time and made a WHOLE long essay on what epicenity means to them. but xe's gone right now; realizing xe's always had health issues that constitute a disability and having other stressors drove it out of front.

so i'm gonna explain to you what epicenity is like to ME, the second most common fronter, a median subsystem apparently normal part facet (though i'm the most emotionally unstable according to most of the anps) of an osdd1b (likely) system who has a LOT of epicene facets and alters.

okay. so epicenity to ME is like a multigender, a monogender, and an agender all at once. it's a multigender of all "both" genders (as in both masculine and feminine AND both male and female), all "neither" genders (as in neither masculine nor feminine AND neither male nor female), all "neuter" genders (like neutrois, neuter, neutre, neugender, neutragender, and gender neutral as examples), all "other" genders (such as other, eligender, not applicable, stuff like that) and all "none" genders (such as agender, gendernull, nullgender, gendervoid, voidgender, none of the above) in existence, while being a monogender at the same time of those things. that means you experience all those genders at the same time, yet feel all those things as simultaneously multiple genders, a singular gender with multiple parts, and something like genderlight where you have so many genders that you are technically NO gender.

that's basically how epicenity works to me. does that make sense to any of my followers on here

[isobug]

could i get some plain versions of your Transepicene flags? thx

Here you are anon!

Link to the original post/flags with symbol here

[gender-jargon]

Gender-Jargon GIN Terms Masterlist

[pt: Gender-Jargon GIN Terms Masterlist ./. End PT]

I said I would do it, so I went ahead and did it.

[PT: I said I would do it, so I went ahead and did it. ./. End PT]

Tagging @imoga-pride and @in-nature-archive.

Here is a list of GIN ([Gender]-in-nature) terms that I used on my old blog (Gender-Resource) for tagging. I have also included more recent GIN terms that either I have coined or has been coined by others that I currently use or likely will use in the future for tagging.

If anyone has any questions about the terms here, just let me know and I would be happy to answer them :-)

Enjoy!

Fin: (Feminine-in-nature)

Unfin: (Unfeminine-in nature)

Troin: (Troinine-in-nature)

Min: (Masculine-in-nature)

Droin: (Droxinine-in-nature)

Unmin: (Unmasculine-in-nature)

Lin: (Androgynous-in-nature)

Unlin: (Unandrogynous-in-nature)

Femain: (Femasline-in-nature)

Ambiguin: (Ambiguine-in-nature)

Altrin: (Altraeninine-in-nature)

Nin: (Neutral-in-nature)

Unin: (Unneutral-in-nature)

Neuin: (Neutrine-in-nature)

Epin: (Epicene-in-nature)

Trinin: (Trinterine-in-nature)

Amin: (Ambiguous-in-nature)

Perin: (Peraine-in-nature)

Ilyin: (Ilyagine-in-nature)

Mvin: (Mavriquine-in-nature)

Auin: (Autonomous-in-nature)

Othin: (Other-in-nature)

Nuin: (Null-in-nature)

Vin: (Void-in-nature)

Agin: (Agender-in-nature)

Glin: (Genderless-in-nature)

Gein: (Generic-in-nature)

Kein: (Kenochoric-in-nature)

Luxin: (Luxine-in-nature)

Inbin: (Inbissiec-in-nature)

Enmin: (Enmitiec-in-nature)

Shocin: (Shocking-in-nature)

Uin: (Undescribable-in-nature)

Din: (Describable-in-nature)

Apin: (Apathetic-in-nature)

Usin: (Confused-in-nature)

Main: (Male-in-nature)

Fein: (Female-in-nature)

Lein: (Femache-in-nature)

Buin: (Butch-in-nature)

Sobin: (Soft Butch-in-nature)

Fuin: (Futch-in-nature)

Femin: (Femme-in-nature)

Bufin: (Butchy Femme-in-nature)

Genoin: (GNC-in-nature)

Qin: (Queer-in-nature)

Ain: (Aporine-in-nature)

Ouin: (Outherine-in-nature)

Diasin: (Diastine-in-nature)

Xin: (Xenine-in-nature)

Oriein: (Orientation-in-nature)

Lexin: (Lexcial-in-nature)

Gsrin: (Gesneriad-in-nature)

Aesin: (Aesthetic-in-nature)

Coriin: (Coric-in-nature)

Whilin: (Whilom-in-nature)

Roin: (Neuroine-in-nature)

Iin: (Intersex Exclusive-in-nature)

Altin: (Altersex-in-nature)

Yin: (Yonderine-in-nature)

Cuin: (Culturally Exclusive-in-nature)

2sin: (Twospirit-in-nature)

Amplin: (Amplusian-in-nature)

Chin: (Changing-in-nature)

Plasmin: (Genderplasmic-in-nature)

Cinn: (Choice-in-nature)

Idin: (Fluid-in-nature)

Uxin: (Flux-in-nature)

Flin: (Fluix-in-nature)

Aporin: (Nonspecific-in-nature)

Porin: (Specific-in-nature)

Unrelin: (Unrelated-in-nature)

Relin: (Related-in-nature)

Plin: (Partial-in-nature)

Poin: (Polygender/Omnigender/Pangender-in-nature)

Antin: (Antigender-in-nature)

Novin: (Novel/New-in-nature)

Infin: (infinite-in-nature)

Doxin (Paradoxical-in-nature)

Oposin (Opposite-in-nature)

Contrin (Contradictory-in-nature)

Vain: (Vague-in-nature)

Vasin: (Vast-in-nature)

Win: (Weak/Disconnected-in-nature)

Reclin: (Reclaimed-in-nature)

Rin: (Rejected/Repulsed-in-nature)

Contrin: (Contraversial-in-nature)

Polin: (Political-in-nature)

Sucuin: (Subcultural-in-nature)

Cocuin: (Countercultural-in-nature)

Quesin: (Questioning-in-nature)

Virin: (Virine-in-nature)

Lierin: (Eraine-in-nature)

Commin: (Commidine-in-nature)

Ithin: (Itherinine-in-nature)

Andin: (Anderine-in-nature)

Diphin: (Dipherine-in-nature)

Umbin: (Umbinine-in-nature)

Pretin: (Preterine-in-nature)

Bin: (Binarine-in-nature)

Nobin: (Nonbinarine-in-nature)

Enbin: (Enbinine-in-nature)

Midbin: (Midbinaraine-in-nature)

Nomidbin: (Nonmidbinarine-in-nature)

Abin: (Abinarine-in-nature)

Noabin: (Nonabinarine-in-nature)

Trin: (Trinarine-in-nature)

Midtrin: (Midtrinarine-in-nature)

Atrin: (Atrinarine-in-nature)

Noatrin: (Nonatrinarine-in-nature)

Tin: (Trans-in-nature)

Cin: (Cis-in-nature)

Trisin: (Tris-in-nature)

Ipsin: (Ipso-in-nature)

Ultin: (Ulter-in-nature)

Iptin: (Ipter-in-nature)

— Gent (link)

[PT: -- Gent (link) ./. End PT]

[your-bigender-big-brother]

What Exists Within the Gender Trinary?

(An essay under the cut.)

The gender trinary is typically viewed as consisting of femininity, masculinity, and neutrality. In a previous essay, I talked about what gender neutrality is, and before that I explained what identities lie outside of the trinary. Now, let’s take a step back and talk about what exists within the gender trinary and how complex it can actually be.

The gender trinary is simply made up of femininity, masculinity, and neutrality - however, you may see gender terms that refer to qualities that are not trinary nor in between anything within the trinary. What does “in between'' refer to in this context? We’re already familiar with the concept of androgyny (also called epicenity), which is the experience of being between masculine and feminine in some way - some people may lean one way or the other, some may be in the dead center, and others may see themselves as being a perfect blend of both. Keep in mind that this isn’t an inherently multigender experience, but often an experience of gender expression or presentation (depending on who you ask.)

In-between qualities don’t just exist within the binary of feminine and masculine. If you imagine the trinary as a literal triangle with each main quality sitting right on its points, you can draw a line between all three to complete the shape. Along these lines are your in-betweens. You can be in between masculinity and neutrality, or femininity and neutrality - called neutromme and neutremme respectively. You can even be right in the center of the entire triangle and consider yourself as being in between every single gender quality (some people might call this neutrandrogynous or something similar, but it doesn’t really have a word.)

Additional identities within the trinary aren't just the in-betweens. Words like “masculinity” and “femininity" are actually umbrella terms for more specific identities, such as fluid or fluctuating genders, masc- or fem-aligned genders, proximal genders, and genders related to atrinarity while still being within the trinary.

Many people also view the trinary as male, female, and neutral - genders rather than gender qualities. In this case, a lot of identities that can fall within this trinary are demigenders - demiboy, demigirl, demineutral - or multigender identities such as bigender or trigender (though multigender identities can also encompass atrinarity and beyond depending on the individual.) Neutrois and similar niaspec genders can fall under the trinary as well as “compound” genders like boygirl, manwoman, neutramale, and neutrafemale. Aporagender also falls under the trinary, as it can include neutrality.

As you can see, the gender trinary includes far more than just three gender qualities. These three are more like gender quality categories, where any one of them may encompass several other gender qualities. Remember, just about any gender term can be an umbrella term for more specific labels, and any attempt to put genders into strict categories will always be met with exceptions. It may be a trinary, but there's plenty of wiggle room for even more.

[sunkern-plus]

coming out as transmasc has freed me to tell you my transition goals are these three men

[omega-imagines]

Someone tell me why omegaverse/miscecanis has helped me come to terms with my gender more??? I'm a trans man but my transition goals are to appear epicene (for me a combination of both male and female) rather than purely male and I don't want to go on T cuz I love my voice. I've always felt I had to be non binary or a least somewhat feminine cuz I want to keep my uterus and cuz I want to carry children one day but I've realized I'm just a male omega and it's really okay for me to want to be a mother and still be a man.

Please, any male omegas feel free to talk about your experiences with gender. Y'all are valid 💕

[themagicalkidproject]

Ooh how about an epicene magical kid and a panabinary magical kid? Bonus points if you make them plus sized and apple/fridge shaped (sort of like a mix between toriel from undertale with alphys' wide shoulders and big torso/chest and belly areas) because I hate that there's like no representation of my main genders that are my size or shape. Thank you if you can!

I really hope this is the body type you were envisioning, Anon, but in case it’s not, I’ll be sure to add any adjustments to the Epicene Kid! I’m still going too fast for my friend and Alt ID guy, so Alt IDs will be added later!

Panabinarity is a term and flag coined by @imoga-pride describing a gender that is every gender outside the binary!

This Magical Kid has a Rosy Maple Moth Theme! They use They/It pronouns and Honey/Honeys/Honeyself, Soft/Softs/Softself, Pink/Pinks/Pinkself and Flow/Flower/Flowers/Flowerself Neopronouns!

Honeys name is Rubi, after the scientific name of the Rosey Maple Moth! Rubi can absorb light from any source and turn it into energy for themself or allies. However, any source outside the sun itself is not bottomless- Rubi has the unfortunate downside of basically burning out every lightbulb in the area.

Their Magical Kid Weapon is a large, unbreakable lamp! They swing it around like a staff, but if worse comes to worse they can find the nearest outlet and become an energy beacon for allies. While the lamp is unbreakable, the lightbulb inside will run out of energy just like everything else Rubi takes energy from- it’s a real drain on pinks bank account…

A useless fact about soft is that soft is Acherontia’s single parent! They refused to let their kid go at it alone, and demanded Glass make them a Magical Kid so they could keep their child safe. Glass dubbed this an Act of Courage and agreed- secretly, though Rubi suspects it, Glass engineered Rubi’s powers to allow soft to offer relief to Acherontia.

Can you tell I got too attached to background characters again?

The Magical Kid Project is a project wherein I steadily turn Pride Flags into Magical Kids! Requests are open through my inbox! Commission info is under the #commissions tag, I have a deal on Magical Kid Portraits!