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every time i sit down to read and learn more about xenogenders and neopronouns, i hit a really big wall of cognitive dissonance. i guess it's just two different ways of experiencing the world and society around you. that being said, still gonna read on. this is interesting.
right now we're on "catgender". it's an umbrella term that includes nyagender, meowgender, kittygender, etc. i'm curious as to how purr/purrself would mesh with modern english syntax, but it's definitely far from the most foreign-shaped pronoun i've looked at.
first big gripe and of course it's fucking otherkin. like, gender is a construct, and as such is malleable. species just... isn't. as such, it seems a bit inappropriate to refer to yourself, in all seriousness, as "biologically a dog" when you're just not. just my take though.
think i'm beginning to clear up the dissonance. xenogenders as expression of your gender through objects, concepts, and other tangible things, rather than pre-determined, abstract descriptors. i can fuck with that.
this carrd is a bit preachy and defensive, and seems to focus more so on deflection of criticism or concerns rather than any actual analysis, which is fine. that being said, as gender is a social construct, yes, all genders are "made up" by someone, but that's just semantics.
i'm not convinced challenging xenogenders as a concept is inherently ableist, as that does feel like a shield from genuine analysis. most challenges from what i've seen are in bad-faith, but if someone is legitimately concerned, i'm not convinced ableism is always the motivator.
this carrd only has eight xenogenders on it and not one of them is amongusgender, and that's really what kicked off this whole excursion so i'm feeling a bit miffed by that /j. that being said, desertgender is catching my eye.
okay i don't know how to feel about trendergender. i'm not sure what function it's fulfilling as a reclamation, because you're literally looking people in the eye who call you a transtrender and saying "yeah". isn't that just validating trans/nbphobia? seriously asking.
not sure how a gender can be anxious. that's not really what that word means. feels a bit like romanticizing a serious mental illness (chronic anxiety). also, why is robogender for neurodivergent people only but catgender isn't? what's the qualifier? genuinely asking.
i wonder what it would be like to be beegender while also allergic to bees. also, i thought emo was out, but i guess MCR are (allegedly) going back on tour this year, so maybe it's making a comeback.
why are we promoting delusions about being dead/undead? that's just legitimately unhealthy. i don't know if i can, in good consciousness, support that one. undeadgender is giving mad rabiosexual vibes tbh.
so in regards to zenitsugender, amongusgender, and minecraftgender, where does interest or hyperfixation end and gender begin? is there a line? and if there isn't, what happens when your hyperfixation ends? do you drop the gender and move on to a new one? genuinely asking.
there's a very clear clash between many of these xenogenders and traditional binary gender, not just in terms of theming, but in function, and i think that's deliberate. neurodivergent people experience gender differently, and that includes utility-wise.
as such, it makes sense that gender would serve a very different purpose in these spaces and circles than in contemporary postcolonial society. so my question is, what makes these things genders? if they're so far removed, what anchors them to the term gender?
the vibe i get from this reading is that it's more of a feeling than anything. it seems like a way to express this particular part of your identity. perhaps the data is stored in the same area of the brain. idk man, it's interesting, and very different from my own experience.
there's still places where i'm uncomfortable. for instance, i'd never be okay calling someone "it", as that's extremely dehumanizing (maybe that's the goal ????). the amount of times i've heard from trans/nb people "anything but it" has made that a hard line for me.
i don't know how many of these are legit and how many are trolls. however, "n-wordgender" (i'm censoring, but they used the hard r) is probably bait, as is "nazigender". so, uh, yeah. not valid. sorry about that one, but i feel comfortable saying that nazism is not a gender.
catboys are valid.
also, "xenophobia" is not hatred of xenogenders. it's hatred of people from different countries than your own, and has strong ties with racism. that's another hard line for me.
all in all, respect xenogenders and neopronouns. that being said, nothing and no one is beyond criticism or analysis. be serious about your life, but don't take life so seriously. and, more than anything, just be an adult about everything. we don't have time for immaturity.
also, not everything needs a content warning. a lot of things do, but to overextend content warnings robs them of their significance and meaning. this is something i see happen a lot with a lot of things on the bird app, and it's about time to cut it out.
