#omg also i have wanted to get a gynandromorph butterfly tattoo for ages

[finelinegynandromorph]

i was doing reading for class today and im scream !!!!!! tbh i did not exactly know what gynandromorph meant in your url but figured it has something to do with some sort of sex/gender presentation thing and was like ok yes can get behind this BUT HELLO THIS IS WHAT IT MEANS??? a kind of mosaic 🥺🥺 pls 🥺🥺

fine line gynandromorph…… 🥺🥺🥺 the best url 🥲

hi hi hi i was so very excited to receive this ask emmett!! ❤️ ty for thinking of me!!

yes! this is gynandromorphism!!! back when fine line was released in 2019 and i was doing a ~lot~ of self-reflection i was struggling a fair amount with the way that gender and sex were taught in some of the courses i was in (fortunately i also ended up taking some fantastic seminars that focused on comparative gender and sexuality that were really expansive and formative for me! but yeah not all classes were like that) and in response i started collecting little examples of non-conforming gender and sex in non-human animals and plants and fungi because they felt like little happy reminders that the rigid binaries so often presented as "biological" really are just human social oversimplifications of the wonderful and diverse world that is gender!

gynandromorphs were one of these little sunny gender moments and they really lodged themselves into a space in my chest that i don't think i fully understood then (or even now honestly)! it presents in various ways but one that really struck me was bilateral gynandromorphism, where you have a half-half of phenotypes (which reminds me of this trend you sometimes see in drag circles too, here's an example below from s7 of rpdr lol) that is just so striking and fun!

a few different eastern tiger swallowtail gynandromorphs!

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gorgeous lobster! (this is going in sage lobster tag)

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katya and violet in bilaterally gynandromorphic (?) outfits (w the caveat that these aren't phenotypes, they're forms of presentation, but it still sort of fits to me)

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anyway even though i think my own gender isn't neatly split down some midline i think it's such a beautiful representation of the complexities of presentation and how there's so much expansive beauty out there! and all this was occurring in the context of me listening to fine line on repeat and grappling with my own gender feelings and i always felt this little draw to h's butterfly tattoo and the idea of a being existing as a fine line — so that maybe i could see myself not only in the beautiful ambiguity of the neatly divided bilateral gynandromorph but also within the line that divides the masculine from the feminine — that i could exist at the juncture of the two and what that might mean for my whole body and self. like a mosaic?? made of many fine lines??

i mean, doesn't this just scream a gynandromorph baby?

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hmmm also just in case this reaches someone out there who wants to argue that h wearing a suit and hoop skirt doesn't mean he's trans: cis men can for sure wear dresses! but as a non-binary lad i think h might be non-binary *and* i also love how fluid he is in his presentation. as two things that are interrelated but distinct!

i just think gynandromorphs are a really cool lens to think about intersexuality in non-human contexts and spark fun gender presentation thoughts. like lines being fluid? if h's outfit is bilaterally gynandromorphic here but split along like a different axis? anyway

demonstrably i'm still figuring out what that fine line means for me but it felt happily intertwined with my gender love for our dear mum h so yeah! i'm so stoked that your reading mentions gynandromorphism!! what is the class about, if you don't mind me asking?

hope you're well emme 💞