Bigender is a gender identity in which a person has or experiences two genders. The genders may be any combination of two genders, and those genders can be binary ("man" or "woman") or non-binary. They may be experienced simultaneously or may alternate, and they may not be experienced equally or in the same way. For example, a bigender person may be both a woman and a man, agender and neutrois, or non-binary and a woman.[1] Bigender is an identity under the transgender umbrella.[2]
Etymology[]
Early examples of the term 'bigender' appear as early as the late 1980s,[3] though at this time it was grouped under the "androgyne" label as "bigenderist". Definitions were rooted in the expression of "either gender role" or as "having two genders".[4]
Bigender itself is a combination of the prefix bi-, meaning two,[5] and gender.[6]
Community[]
Some, but not all, bigender people may feel or express a mixture of being masculine and feminine at the same time. Others may describe their two genders as being a wide number of possibly gender combinations, such as trans feminine and agender, or femme and genderqueer. There is also no set of particular pronouns that bigender people may use.[7]
Bigender Pride Day is held on June 17.[7][8]
History[]
The term bigender came into use in the 1980s,[9][10] with a particular use of it from 1988 in the form of "bigenderist".[11] It rose in popularity and use in modern times through the online website Tumblr, and the social media app Facebook has an option for users to select "bigender" when joining the app.[9]
Flag[]
The most known bigender flag was created by a user named no-bucks-for-this-doe, and is believed to have been created sometime in 2014.[12] The flag consists of seven stripes total, from top to bottom:
- Dark pink
- Pale pink
- Pale purple
- White
- Pale purple, with the same color value as the previous purple stripe
- Pale blue
- Dark blue
It is believed that the two pink stripes represent femininity, while the two blue stripes represent masculity. The two purple stripes may represent androgyny, or otherwise a mixture of femininity and masculinity. Lastly, the white may represent non-binary identities in general.[12]
Another theory on the flag's meaning proposes that the white stripe represents "the possible shift to any gender, although with bigenders, this only means shifting to up to two genders at a given moment".[13] Yet another theory is that the purple stripes instead represent nonbinary genders as a whole, while the white stripe represents "neutral genders, such as agender". In addition, having the pink and blue stripes at the very top and bottom of the flag respectively is meant to “represent a sense of separation, yet coexistence between masculinity and femininity”.[14]
The alternative bigender flag.
However, at some point the creator of that design was accused of abuse and transphobia. This lead to the creations of alternative bigender flag designs.[13][14] The design shown here is one such alternative design.[8][13][14][15] The creator of this particular design is currently unknown as well as the intended meanings behind each stripe.[8][14][15]
One proposed set of meanings for this alternative bigender flag is as follows:
- Pink: Femininity and female gender expression[13]
- Yellow: Gender outside the binary of just man and woman[13]
- White: Embracing more than one gender[13]
- Purple: Fluidity between genders[13]
- Blue: Masculinity and male gender expression[13]
Distinction[]
Genderfluid[]
- Main article: Genderfluid
Bigender is different than genderfluid, which describes people who have multiple genders, sometimes simultaneously, and/or whose gender identity fluctuates. Their gender may also shift at random or under certain circumstances. In comparison, a bigender person specifically only has two genders, though they may experience them simultaneously or one at a time.[1]
Non-binary[]
- Main article: Non-binary
Bigender is also different than non-binary, with non-binary serving as the larger umbrella term for bigender people. A non-binary individual does not identify with either binary of male or female, while a bigender person can. They can also identify as both a binary identity and a non-binary identity.[7]
Media[]
Video games[]
Television[]
References[]
|