Another grouping system for those who aren't 100% binary

A blog for the alibinary system, which is currently composed by exobinary, viabinary, ideobinary and mesobinary. See /system for the system Q&A and /about for the blog Q&A.

[givemecoins]

Viawoman/Viagirl | Viaman/Viaboy

Viawoman/Viagirl: relating to having an experience similar to a binary womanhood, while not being 100% a binary woman. Ex: Juxera, Xirl, Paragirl, etc.

Viaman/Viaboy: relating to having an experience similar to a binary manhood, while not being 100% a binary man. Ex: Proxvir, Xoy, Paraboy, etc.

See Viabinary.

I don't know if there are already flags for these identities, but I wanted to make some for myself. The symbolism of the circles is to represent this relationship of proximity to binary genders, while being their own thing.

----------------

@radiomogai

[alibinary]

Here's another statement trying to explain what the alibinary system is and isn't for:

The alibinary system - viabinary, mesobinary, ideobinary and exobinary - is meant to be a set of self-applied labels describing one's relationship with the woman/man binary in a more specific way than the word nonbinary does.

These words, therefore, should not be extrapolated to mean:

Relationships to any genders (for instance, viabinary isn't meant to be used to describe being close to maverique or neuangi; there are words such as paragender available for that instead)

Someone's gender identity, presentation or alignment (for instance, someone can be an exobinary juxera or a viabinary agender person)

Any specific subset of nonbinary gender identities (for instance, nonvir isn't inherently an ideobinary identity, because the reasons one may identify as nonvir may differ from person to person and some might identify with exobinary or viabinary rather than ideobinary)

I know about fiagender/miagender/niagender/etc. being based on the word viabinary. That's fine! Because, as I said on another post, those can be separated from the idea of trying to claim these experiences as inherently viabinary.

I also understand the impulse of trying to categorize every label in accurate ways and thus conclude there are certain gender identities that always correspond to any specific label under the alibinary system, but a lot of nonbinary people don't go for the most accurate labels they can. A lot of people use "demigirl" to mean "feminine nonbinary person" or "masc agender" to mean "genderless person who doesn't like being gendered but who doesn't want to call out being constantly misgendered as a man and who prefers that over being misgendered as a woman".

For those of us who live in exorsexist societies, there's value in being able to tell "I'm nonbinary and I relate to a binary gender", "I'm nonbinary and I relate to both binary genders more or less equally", "I'm nonbinary and I don't relate to binary genders, but my identity is dependent on the idea of binary genders somehow" and/or "I'm nonbinary and I'm completely outside of the binary". All of those terms were conceived because of intracommunity discussions leaving folks feel erased.

There is also value in being able to say "my gender identity is based on this one nonbinary gender, but is distinct from it" in different, nuanced ways, just like there is value in being able to specify any sort of gender identity, but this isn't really what the alibinary system is meant to cover.

[alibinary]

Idk if it's about the system but I'd ask can masculine/feminine genders be binary? are they referring to gender expression, identity and/or alignment? in some languages female=feminine and male=masculine because terms like hembra/fembra/fêmea and macho (equivalent to fe/male) are more used for nonhuman animals. so are they binary only when non-cross-aligned? (as in masculinized woman or feminine boy)

Some can say they have any masculine and/or feminine binary gender, while others conflate femininity with femaleness as well as masculinity with maleness. However, being nonbinary depends on whether each person considers their gender a different experience of binary gender or a gender identity that's at least partially separate from the binary.

I'd say this is similar to questions such as "are trans men/women nonbinary, since they tend to be alienated from binary cis folks", "are GNC folks nonbinary since they may feel disconnected from the gender roles imposed on them because of their assigned gender" or "are gay men and lesbian women nonbinary since they're rejecting something associated with their assigned gender": sure, some of those folks are completely justified in saying they're nonbinary because of that detachment from the norm, but that doesn't mean everyone with those experiences is going to claim they're nonbinary and that doesn't mean any of those "sides" is wrong.

This is one of the reasons why terms such as ideobinary and viabinary have to do with how one positions themself with regards to the binary, instead of being about "if you're femgender you're ideobinary while if you're a nonbinary woman you're viabinary". Someone may say they're a nonbinary woman for having a feminine nonbinary gender that doesn't quite fit into the binary besides the femininity, while someone else might be a nonbinary woman for having strong ties to being a woman while being distinctly masculine. So the first nonbinary woman may say they're ideobinary while the second may say they're viabinary.

Até na língua portuguesa, onde os termos "gênero feminino" e "gênero masculino" são usados como traduções de "female" e "male", tais conceitos também são utilizados e entendidos quando se trata de "um homem feminino" ou "uma mulher masculina". Escrevi sobre essa questão polissêmica aqui. (Não querendo presumir que você não leu, já que é provável que esta pergunta seja de anos atrás.)

[ryany-deactivated20260305]

Just wanting to aware you that via in viaspec is named after viabinary, which comes from the phrase "viabinary-to-binary" term that @/momma-mogai-sphinx used when coining miaspec, niaspec, fiaspec, liaspec, etc. Niaspec is an exospec and viaspec term bc it's neutral regarding the binary/viabinary. However, terms like aiaspec, agiaspec, etc. wouldn't be technically via, would they?

There's the term alibinary. So using aliaspec or alispec would fit better I think. Not trying to gatekeep. But I made a flag for viaspec once and then saw you're using it now to reference your posts so I could change the definition if you want. But I wonder if it would be helpful anyway

Oh, I was under the impression viaspec/viagender spectrum was an umbrella term for all those -spec terms, since this post includes aiaspec, agiaspec, and xiaspec under it.

This does seem like a bit of problem, but I'm not sure what the solution is. Like rename the terms to not use -ia in their names? Or just avoid using viaspec, and stick to something like -iaspec or -spec instead?

[alibinary]

While the concept of viabinary (defined here) was used as an inspiration for terms such as fiaspec and miaspec, which then were also used as a basis for other labels talking about gender identities related around specific gender identities (eg. androgyne, xenogender) instead of their qualities (eg. androgyny, xeninity), I don't see -ia terms as inherently related to alibinary system terms at all.

The point of the alibinary system is to be able to have an "alignment system" (but please don't conflate it with the concept of gender alignment) where folks can find kinship with others and discuss issues they face in ways which specifically don't revolve around the labels they use for their gender identities.

A nonbinary person who doesn't want to label themself any further but who doesn't get taken seriously when they come out because they don't mind "living as a cis woman" most of the time can say they're viabinary and find comfort in other nonbinary folks who feel comfortable, at least to a certain degree, being seen as a binary or binary-like gender. (More examples of possible viabinary experiences here.)

Likewise, while I'm sure a fair bit of fiaspec and miaspec folks would fit the definition of viabinary, some may see themselves as ideobinary ("like, yeah, sure, my identity/sense of self is somehow tethered to the binary, but I'd rather it didn't get conflated with a binary-like identity"), exobinary ("I see myself as completely detached from the gender binary, at least in some ways, and I need that to be recognized") and/or mesobinary ("I feel like I'm both or in-between binary genders or related identities in some way, I can't just 'pick a side' even though my identity isn't just off the binary") instead.

So, while I can understand the urge of labeling certain gender identities as inherently viabinary, mesobinary, ideobinary or exobinary, this in turn would undermine why this system exists. So I wouldn't, personally, use them as a jumping off point to categorize any gender identity.

That said, -iagender identities are well-established in some circles and, as I said, they can be separated from the viabinary label entirely. They may be inspired by a "viabinary-to-binary" idea, but the execution is different, and the intention was never, I hope, to classify everyone who is fiagender/miagender as viabinary or the other way around. Therefore, if others want to use the same naming scheme to talk about aporagender-like identities or xenogender-like identities or so on, I don't think that undermines the viabinary label or the alibinary system.

I would use "-iagender/-iaspec" to avoid confusion regarding being or not being related to the concept of viabinary, since "viaspec" could be seen as something only relating to binary genders. That's only a suggestion, though. I would prefer "viaspec" to "alispec" or similar, however, as the alibinary system is barely used as a reference to those identities and not in ways that make sense regarding what the alibinary system is meant to be.

[epochryphal]

resources centering exobinary folks

We’re live!

I am thrilled to unveil the website and 52-page, 72-tip booklet I have been working on!  Graphics and coding done fantastically by @khemi!

Endless flowing gratitude to the people who have looked the booklet over and offered feedback thus far - if you would like crediting, under whatever name, on the website or on I’m thinking the back page of the booklet, I would be more than happy to name you.

And more feedback is exceedingly welcome!  I started work on this months ago but it lay dormant for quite some time until the past week, when I rushed to completion and through several intense edits, so there are bound to be things that could use improving.  The website is still a bit sparse to start, too.

This is very much the first public draft, for my first workshop on the topic, and I expect to update it with feedback right away (and already have a few pieces that didn’t make my timecrunch because aaa) - so yes, your input will count!

I dearly hope this is useful to folks and I’m so excited to share it with you all!

[alibinary]

I've just seen this (after reading the exobinary posts) so I haven't read through everything on the site, but this is great! I would have never imagined one of the terms I've coined to come so far as to have a website domain based on it. I've also skimmed the booklet there and it looks like it's an amazing resource to help uninformed allies; I hope your workshop went well. 🥰

[the-biornicles]

Viabinary vs. Ideobinary

These two terms could be seen as similar. So, what is the difference?

This random infodump is brought to you in part by Lior’s brain!

Enjoy!

Keep reading

[alibinary]

Hi, that's mostly true! As the coiner, I'd just like to add that fem/masc aren't the only ways someone can experience being ideobinary. As a nonvirmina, it's how I experience it - I coined the alibinary system as it is because most folks ignore such experiences when separating binary-related genders and gender identities completely off the binary - but any non-male/non-female experience that can be mapped back to those genders can be ideobinary.

So, for instance, folks who have genders that are defined as opposites of or lacking maleness/femaleness (eg. nongender non-women, antiboys) may want to claim the ideobinary label. Same for, say, folks with xenogenders linked to feminine or masculine ways of expression but whose genders aren't feminine or masculine themselves.

While viabinary issues tend to be related to dealing with the line between a binary identity they relate to and being nonbinary, ideobinary issues include not wanting to have anything to do with binary genders, but also having to simultaneously acknowledge how our experiences aren't really describable if the concepts of woman and man don't exist, in a way someone who is, for instance, completely genderless or autonomous might not have to deal with.

[isobug]

Exobinary flag

Exobinary issues are mainly experienced by people with identities that are completely outside and/or independent of the gender binary or anything related to it.

( To clarify, this term is not meant to categorize identities or identity labels, it is meant to give a word for experiences. )

Flag colors are taken from the Neutrois, Agender, Stellarian, and Aporagender flags ( all identities which may be included under the Exobinary experiences umbrella depending on the individual. ) I made this as an alternative flag to use for a request because the existing flag gives me eyestrain. Free to use by anyone anywhere as always!

Taglist - @radiomogai, @revenant-coining, @epiceneandroid ( this is related to your rq which I'm currently working on! )

[alibinary]

Viabinary experiences I’ve had: Being uncertain whether to pick ‘female’ or 'other’ on questionnaires if the 'other’ option doesn’t have a text box, because I feel like picking 'other’ requires me to deny my femaleness and picking female requires me to deny my non-binary-ness. Feeling invisible when asked my pronouns, because I am AFAB and prefer she/her pronouns. Feeling like I still have a connection to cisgender, because I’m AFAB and mostly female, but people all assume you can’t be both non-binary and cisgender. An ongoing uncertainty about whether I’m just GNC or actually nonbinary, and how much my feeling of disconnection with full femaleness is due to being an aroace autistic person who’s constantly presented with an NT allo-allo model of femininity. I don’t know if this is a viabinary thing, but I’m pretty sure I don’t feel gender dysphoria, or if I do it’s very subtle, so I feel like an imposter among all these people with 'real problems’. Not wanting to be closeted but feeling like there’s no point coming out because I’m fine with my name and pronouns, and sometimes it bothers me more to be treated as 'third gender’ than as 'female’, and people who know I’m nonbinary often default to seeing me as 'third gender’. Feeling left out when people describe nonbinary people as people who are neither male or female. Feeling like I’m in the liminal space between nonbinary and binary (cisgender). Feeling like a traitor to unaligned nonbinary people because I call myself female-aligned and don’t mind being lumped in with binary women as long as it’s a fairly inclusive space. Alternatively, feeling like I’m intruding on nonbinary spaces because unaligned people need them more.

[alibinary]

Seeking input regarding mesobinary

Mesobinary is a term for people who feel like their gender identity and/or experience is related to both binary genders in some way.

It’s mainly a term for discussing the issues of having such an identity, while living in an exorsexist society that constantly tells/forces/etc. people to pick one binary gender.

You can read more about it and the system it’s in here, here and/or here.

Mesobinary, and other alibinary system terms, are not genders, or gender alignments, or ways to group specific gender identities. One can identify as mesobinary for being a man/woman bigender person or a man/woman androgyne, but one can also be a librandrogyne, an altefluid person, an ambonec, a millegender person, a genderfae person, a nonbinary person without further labels, and so on, and identify as mesobinary.

Meso means middle. My intention in coining mesobinary as such has to do with how mesobinary people are often asked/forced to “pick a side” between labels for men and labels for women, groups for men and groups for women, and so on, when they /do/ have ties to both of these groups, and thus they are in a way “in-between” those choices, regardless of their actual gender identity, or regardless of their actual preferences regarding those choices (man, woman, both, neither or in-between when that’s possible).

I’m using meso here to give people a starting point to remember this term. The same goes for exobinary, ideobinary and viabinary. These are just okay-ish prefixes, and not necessarily accurate depictions of the gender identities people in each of those groups use.

However, someone asked me (it’s on this blog) about changing the term or using an alternate term, because people who relate to being both men and women in some way while not relating to being “in-between” binary genders may think mesobinary can’t describe them accurately.

I talked with other people about this, and one of them asked me to make this post, separate from the ask, so people can see the context before responding.

Basically, the question is: do you feel like mesobinary is too inaccurate a word to describe people who may not feel any connection to being in-between binary genders? Do you feel like ambisobinary would be a better word, even if it may not be so intuitive?

[nbandproud]

An addendum:

I have briefly considered making mesobinary into two separate categories, one for people who feel they are/have a connection to being in-between binary genders and another for people who relate to both binary genders separately.

However, I don’t think this is very fair for the rest of the system.

Exobinary groups people who don’t want to have anything to do with the binary because they have no gender and people with lots of different genders who want all of those genders recognized even when they have nothing to do with the binary.

Ideobinary (the category I’m in!) groups people who don’t want to be seen as binary at all but who have connections to masculinity/femininity and people who don’t want to be seen as binary because their experience is completely distanced from a certain binary gender while not having anything to do with the other binary gender either, but who may not care at all about masculinity/femininity.

I do think all of those groups can lead to subgroups eventually (such as mid-mesobinary x ambi-mesobinary and/or genderless-exobinary x com-mesobinary), but, again, if there is no community/resources/posts about the system as is, it’s kind of pointless to make more terms based on this system.

[alibinary]

Seeking input regarding mesobinary

Mesobinary is a term for people who feel like their gender identity and/or experience is related to both binary genders in some way.

It’s mainly a term for discussing the issues of having such an identity, while living in an exorsexist society that constantly tells/forces/etc. people to pick one binary gender.

You can read more about it and the system it’s in here, here and/or here.

Mesobinary, and other alibinary system terms, are not genders, or gender alignments, or ways to group specific gender identities. One can identify as mesobinary for being a man/woman bigender person or a man/woman androgyne, but one can also be a librandrogyne, an altefluid person, an ambonec, a millegender person, a genderfae person, a nonbinary person without further labels, and so on, and identify as mesobinary.

Meso means middle. My intention in coining mesobinary as such has to do with how mesobinary people are often asked/forced to “pick a side” between labels for men and labels for women, groups for men and groups for women, and so on, when they /do/ have ties to both of these groups, and thus they are in a way “in-between” those choices, regardless of their actual gender identity, or regardless of their actual preferences regarding those choices (man, woman, both, neither or in-between when that’s possible).

I’m using meso here to give people a starting point to remember this term. The same goes for exobinary, ideobinary and viabinary. These are just okay-ish prefixes, and not necessarily accurate depictions of the gender identities people in each of those groups use.

However, someone asked me (it’s on this blog) about changing the term or using an alternate term, because people who relate to being both men and women in some way while not relating to being “in-between” binary genders may think mesobinary can’t describe them accurately.

I talked with other people about this, and one of them asked me to make this post, separate from the ask, so people can see the context before responding.

Basically, the question is: do you feel like mesobinary is too inaccurate a word to describe people who may not feel any connection to being in-between binary genders? Do you feel like ambisobinary would be a better word, even if it may not be so intuitive?

[alibinary]

is it possible to do an alternate term for alibinary spectra? in the case I'd suggest ambisobinary (mixing ambigender / mesogender concepts but not necessary them itself). because meso often means in the middle (as in mesomorph is in the middle of ectomorph and endomorph). some ambisobinary aren't okay with meso- because they have both binary gendered-ness and don't feel represented as in the middle but exactly both at once. fully comgender but not necessarily non-demigendered.

Mesobinary is not meant to describe any kind of gender, and mesobinary shouldn’t be used to describe bigender/polygender people in general either.

Mesobinary people are “in the middle” because the issues they face usually have to do with having to “pick a side” between binary genders or identities (sort of) related to binary genders (such as female-aligned or transmasculine), or with being reduced to one of those “sides”.

This is why the “in the middle” analogy is there, instead of a “both sides” one.

Who are those people who “aren’t okay with mesobinary”? Do they understand the system and what is it for? I’m open to changes or alternative terms, but not if people are misusing the concepts in the first place.

[nbandproud]

different kinds of nonbinary issues

I’ve already posted about this elsewhere a few months ago, but I think the idea is polished enough for me to post it on Tumblr now too.

There are a lot of different kinds of nonbinary people. And there are many ways for nonbinary people to relate or not relate to binary genders. There was a discussion a long time ago that resulted in the coining of “midbinary” and “abinary”, which I thought could result on interesting discussions, however, most people only used those as identities or as a way to categorize identities, which is okay, but not what I expected.

And even those terms are not really polished, imho. Is someone who defines themselves as a masculine agender person midbinary, which references the binary, or abinary, because their gender identity is not male or female, since they are genderless? Can you only be one or the other? Is one more exclusive than the other (as in, if you are male/female/masculine/feminine/a mix of those at all you can’t be abinary, just like if you are not 100% male or not 100% female you are not binary even though you may still be a man or a woman)?

Anyways, those are rhetorical questions. I’m here to present another system.

This system is based on what kinds of issues one faces because of their gender identity. Which means, you can say you are more than one of those things at once, or that you are some of those or others depending on the moment.

I am also aware most identities have their own issues, that may be more specific or not related to those. I’m not claiming the following categories are the only kinds of nonbinary-specific oppression.

Exobinary issues are mainly experienced by people with identities that are completely outside and/or independent of the gender binary or anything related to it. They may include:

People doubting the existence of gender identities that don’t relate to the gender binary in any way;

People completely doubting and/or overlooking gender expressions, alignments or dysphoria that doesn’t fit a “male, female, masculine, feminine or in-between those” restriction.

Ideobinary issues are mainly experienced by people with identities that rely on masculinity/femininity or other “projections” of binary ideas, without being (necessarily) close to binary genders. They may include:

People pushing the idea that something that an identity related to masculinity, femininity or that otherwise implies a connection to binary genders are similar or the same as a binary gender (eg “antigirl = boy” or “feminine nonbinary = self-hating binary girl“ or “mascgender = demiboy”;

A divide that often occurs when talking about different kinds of nonbinary people that only takes into account “people with genders that are similar to binary genders” and “people with genders that are equally both binary genders or not binary at all”, leaving in the dust those who don’t feel right claiming they are similar to binary genders, but whose identities are based on binary or binary-related ideas;

A presentation issue: how to express you are not a woman at all, while having a feminine gender? Or not a man at all, but having a masculine gender? Or being something totally different from a man, while not being a woman? Or being something totally different from a woman, while not being a boy? Being “neutral” or “completely out there” may not be comfortable options if those don’t express the actual gender identity.

Mesobinary issues are mainly experienced by people with identities involving both binary genders and/or being in-between those genders. They may include:

People pushing the idea that binary genders are opposite and that no one can ever be both;

People trying to “gauge” whether one is “more male” or “more female” to be able to ignore one part of a person’s gender identity;

Exclusion of spaces/labels specific to men or women for being partially women or men, respectively.

Viabinary issues are mainly experienced by people with identities which are close to one binary gender, even if they are nonbinary. They may include:

Having either their nonbinary identity or the binary part of their identity doubted, ignored or looked down upon;

Being alienated from common nonbinary depictions or descriptions that put emphasis on being completely separate from the binary or in-between binary genders;

Being seen as binary within nonbinary spaces;

Being treated as a “self hating” and/or “wanting to escape cis/male privilege” version of the binary gender they are close to.

Note that this is to facilitate discussion; there are several issues that more than one of those groups may face, or that only a part of those groups will face.

[alibinary]

Some people commented about really liking this concept, and I think they didn’t have the chance to see this blog yet, so I’m mentioning them, if I can

@autisticpadfoot @paradife-loft @the-wandering-avarian @epochryphal @excuuuuuse-you @queerinfinities

This blog - which is for the system described above - is looking for submissions based on this system.

I’m also looking for other kinds of content regarding the system, so feel free to send questions or other things!

[alibinary]

Possibilities / possible examples

I’ve seen a lot of people confused about how can they know whether they are mesobinary, viabinary, exobinary or ideobinary, if it’s not solely dictated by gender.

So here are some examples that might help:

Possible exobinary examples

⭑ Lyon is a maverique. Lyon's dysphoria makes them unable to decide on what kind of body they want, because they don't want a "feminine", "masculine", "androgynous" or "neutral" body. Lyon feels erased when people act like people who transition must be either transmasculine or transfeminine, or when people judge their presentation as masculine, feminine or androgynous. Lyon identifies as exobinary because they feel like they are completely out of the binary.

⭑ Allie is polygender. Some of faer genders are masculine or feminine, but most of faer genders are xenogenders, like caelgender, a gender relating to space, and gendoux, a gender relating to pastels. Fae feels like faer genders aren't acknowledged enough; most people who talk about them just do it to say they can't really exist, and Allie's local trans community has shunned faer for talking about faer "weird genders" instead of sticking to using gender identity just to define the body fae wants. Even if Allie has masculine and feminine genders, fae feels like the biggest hurdle fae faces is the lack of acknowledgement for different identities that don't rely on the binary at all, and this is why Allie only identifies as exobinary.

⭑ Yuri is genderless. Yuri identifies as exobinary and wants exobinary spaces because Yuri hates being gendered in any way, and even a lot of nonbinary-specific stuff acts like people can only be man-adjacent, woman-adjacent, feminine, masculine and/or androgynous.

⭑ Stela is a nonbinary girl. But ze is very political regarding hir identity; ze only identifies as a girl for political reasons, and would prefer people acknowledged the possibility of a world without the influence of binary genders. This is why Stela identifies as exobinary.

Possible ideobinary examples

⭑ Violli is an alteandrogyne; someone whose gender is androgyne, but a version of androgyne which is on a mirror universe/on a different plane of existence. Violli doesn't feel like eir identity is that related to binary genders and isn't comfortable with the idea that eir gender is just "in the middle" between male and female, but ey also doesn't see eir gender as completely independent from the binary, so ey just identifies as ideobinary within the alibinary system.

⭑ Giuli is a demiboy. He has a partial connection to the concept of boy, but he doesn't consider himself boy-adjacent. Giuli considers his gender to be a nonbinary mess, with some of this mess pointing to the idea of boyness and boyhood. He considers himself ideobinary because he doesn't feel close to a binary gender and considers his nonbinaryness more important than his boyness, but his gender relies on the concept of being a boy in some ways.

⭑ Jack is an antigirl/ungirl. This means xeir gender is defined as an opposite of girl. Jack doesn't consider xeir gender to be anywhere close to boy, just away from girl, and so xe has trouble figuring out xeir gender presentation and desired transition. Jack doesn't feel like xeir gender identity is free from the influence of binary genders, but also doesn't consider xemself close to binary genders, so xe identifies as ideobinary.

⭑ Wyr is genderfae, which means ver gender changes from time to time, but never to masculine genders. Wyr is sometimes a woman, or partly a woman, but a lot of the time, ver experiences genders that exist completely outside of the binary, such as maverique, neutrois or stargender, and sometimes Wyr is graygender or genderless. Ve also experiences feminine nonbinary genders sometimes, such as femgender. Wyr identifies as ideobinary and exobinary, since ve identifies with being outside of the binary and with having some relationship to the binary but not being close to it.

Possible mesobinary examples

⭑ Robin's gender is in-between woman and proxvir; a gender that is similar to man/male, but separate. To keep it simple, Robin just identifies as androgyne. Even so, zey feels like treating male and female as opposite universes that can't interact together in any way is invalidating zeir gender, and zey doesn't fit in very well with "fuck gender" jokes or "gender is not a thing" rhetoric. Robin describes zeir desired transition and presentation as transandrogynous, because zey wants to be in a state in-between binary genders, although zey finds it hard to find resources that don't equate androgyny with soft masculinity. Because of those things, Robin feels like mesobinary fits zem better than other terms within the alibinary system.

⭑ Jyoti is a neulier/gender neutral/femil/maverique polygender person. This means sie has many genders, and that one of hir genders is woman-like and entirely neutral, another is neutral, another is woman-like but masculine, and another is not male, female or neutral, but is a specific nonbinary gender that exists. Jyoti hates being seen as feminine and is undergoing hormone replacement therapy to be seen as more masculine, even if that means sie may get mistaken for a man. Even so, sie is not a man, and half of hir genders are woman-like, so sie would like to be able to participate in woman's spaces or identify with labels meant for women. This causes some problems, since people want Jyoti to "pick" between identifying as a trans man or as a cis woman, when sie is neither. Jyoti identifies as mesobinary because, even though sie isn't a man at all gender-wise and isn't much of a woman either, sie feels like hir experiences and struggles are close to those of people who are in-between binary genders.

⭑ Taylor is a man/woman genderfluid person. Taylor doesn't relate much to nonbinary-centric terms, such as diamoric or trixic, because hu is almost always either a man or a woman. However, hu doesn't think it's fair for hum to use terms such as sapphic or achillean on profiles since hu won't change those every time hus gender changes, and hu feels awkward on men-only/women-only spaces because people assume you can only be one and not be other the next day. Taylor identifies as mesobinary because, even if hu isn't "in the middle" between binary genders, hu feels like hu experiences similar issues to those who are.

⭑ Eri is a librandrogyne, which means voi is agender with a connection to androgyny. Eri wants voids androgyny acknowledged/respected, even though voi doesn't consider voidself as someone with a gender. Because of this, Eri identifies mainly as mesobinary, even if voi also identifies a bit with being exobinary and ideobinary.

Possible viabinary examples

⭑ Myriam is transfeminine. Myriam is generally fine with being seen/treated as a binary woman, but kit also wants kits nonbinaryness to be acknowledged, especially within nonbinary, trans and queer spaces. This is why kit identifies as viabinary.

⭑ Lex is a mutare, which means neir gender is always changing to something else. However, Lex doesn't mind being seen as a man in general, and some of the genders ne goes through are male-related genders anyways. Lex identifies as viabinary because even though neir gender identity is fluid and has multiple possibilities, ne doesn't like the idea of completely letting go from a binary identity and presentation.

⭑ Karo is a faesari: someone who's on the gender neutral spectrum, but who has a strong attachment to femininity. Gem doesn't really feel like a woman at all, but would like to be able to not care about being seen as a woman without getting or feeling invalidated for "not trying hard enough" to "look/act more nonbinary". Karo identifies as viabinary for that, but also as ideobinary, since gem fits that definition too.

⭑ Aldenir is a melle. As in, her gender is male, but not masculine at all; it's feminine instead. Aldenir considers her gender to be different from binary male, but related to it, and would like to be respected as a nonbinary person (instead of "just GNC") and as someone who isn't and doesn't want to be considered androgynous, neutral, transfeminine and/or a woman. Because of this, Aldenir identifies as viabinary.

Notes

⭑ The examples given are examples. Not everyone who is any of the gender identities listed will define them exactly as I have defined them here, not everyone who has those experiences needs to choose the labels or pronouns I've chosen here, etc.

⭑ These are *possible* examples because I want to stress there is not a huge pool of people who have defined themselves as exobinary/mesobinary/ideobinary/viabinary yet, these examples are all made up so I can show people what I am going for with this system.

⭑ Feel free to tag this blog on posts about using the alibinary system that you want to be shared!

[nbandproud]

arco-pluris replied to your post “Would anyone be interested on a blog based on the…”

sorry, I’ve made a flag for mesobinary because it felt like a spectrum/umbrella term. is it wrong?

I don’t think it’s wrong to make flags for those terms, but usually, terms like “spectrum” and “umbrella term” are used in ways that don’t mean what viabinary/mesobinary/etc. are meant to be.

I’ve already tried to explain this here, but I’ll try to say it again:

Those terms are not meant to categorize identities or identity labels, they are meant to give words for experiences.

(Experiences that often have to do with discrimination, oppression, invalidation and/or erasure.)

If someone wants to identify solely as mesobinary (as their gender), that’s okay.

If someone wants to identify as a mesobinary androgyne, that’s okay too.

But saying mesobinary is an umbrella term for androgynes, male/female bigender people, binaryfluid people, etc., or that there’s a mesobinary spectrum that is for people who are both male and female in some way, is misapplying the term.

I didn’t want to use -gender as a suffix, or to make cute pride graphics for those labels, or to give examples of gender identities that might fit into those experiences specifically because I coined these terms for them to be more about discussion and finding community than about specific gender experiences or alignment(-like) systems.

As I said:

There is a reason I separate these identities between issues “mainly faced by” certain groups, and not between identities or people: because I feel like they are more useful for talking about the issues we face.

Using mesobinary as an example: mesobinary is meant to group people who face issues relating to being both binary genders in some way.

A mesobinary person may want to discuss how they have complicated feelings regarding using binary presentations and terminology, because they feel like they should be entitled to anything binary, but they also feel like binary things exclude another part of their identity.

Another mesobinary person may feel like discussing the general misrepresentation of what could be seen as mesobinary-like representation, since most characters that can be interpreted as such are fusions of a boy and a girl, or are stated to be both a boy and a girl or in-between those solely because of their physical appearance and/or body parts.

And those mesobinary people? Maybe they are male/female bigender or androgynes. But maybe they are polygender, or librandrogynes, or gender neutral, or just identify themselves as nonbinary or genderqueer or biogender.

Meanwhile, there may be male/female ambigender people who see themselves more like ideobinary than mesobinary. Or librandrogynes that feel like being exobinary affects them more than mesobinary.

You know how there are several issues under exorsexism, such as gender reductionism and anti-xenogender bigotry?

Words like mesobinary, exobinary, ideobinary and viabinary can help us pinpoint where certain experiences are not being taken into consideration, or how invalidation can come into play in different ways for those groups, or even ways to come up with resources and awareness that we didn’t notice we were lacking before!

[acemindbreaker]

It reminds me of the word transgender. Transgender isn’t a gender, it’s an experience (a mismatch between gender & assignment). There are people who identify their gender as transgender, but most people who consider themselves trans consider their gender to be something else - male, female, agender, demigirl, etc - and trans is a description of how their gender relates to society and/or their body. Trans isn’t even an umbrella term for multiple trans genders, because female and male aren’t usually trans genders (most female and male people are cis, not trans) and even most nonbinary genders have some people who identify as trans and some who don’t. (I identify as nonbinary but not trans myself, because I feel like my assigned gender fits, it’s just an incomplete description of my gender.)

Is this making sense? Am I getting at what you mean by these terms?

[alibinary]

Yes. I don’t want to use the term “gender alignment” because of how it’s been tainted with gender reductionism and people trying to categorize genders by alignment, but this is sort of what the alibinary system is about.

People with certain gender identities may be more drawn to one or another term, but people shouldn’t judge where on the system others are based on the labels they use.

Just like people can have any gender alignment or any gender element regardless of labels, just like they can have dysphoria in any way regardless of labels, etc.

[alibinary]

Alibinary System Q&A

What is alibinary?

Alibinary is a word made from the prefix ali-, meaning other, and the word binary. I’m using this word because the system I coined has to do with how different people who are not binary have different relationships to the gender binary.

I think just using nonbinary would make this information hard to find and make this system hard to talk about, since there are many nonbinary systems already.

That said, I don’t think alibinary is meant to be an identity on its own here; please use alibinary system (or AS) when talking about the system, or “people who use the AS/alibinary system”, not “alibinary people” or “alibinary community” or whatever.

But ali is similar to allistic! Appropriation!

1. I’m autistic myself.

2. I don’t think coining new words based on prefixes or using words such as alias, alibi and alien constitutes any sort of appropriation.

3. Alibinary and allistic don’t even look similar.

What is this system composed of?

Viabinary, a word for those who relate to having an experience similar to a binary gender, while not being 100% that binary gender;

Mesobinary, a word for those who relate to having an experience of both binary genders, or to having an experience of being in-between binary genders;

Ideobinary, a word for those who relate to having an experience that does rely on binary or binary-related concepts, while not relating to have an experience that is similar of that of a binary gender;

Exobinary, a word for those who relate to having an experience that is completely independent of binary genders, or at least outside of binary experiences.

In the future, I hope to have more detailed posts for each of these experiences.

Isn’t it problematic/bad/exorsexist/binarist to have all of these based on the binary?

Since binary genders are considered to be the norm, at least in most Western societies, I think it’s fair to say our relationships to the gender binary may affect how we experience exorsexism, dysphoria, erasure, and so on. This is why these terms are the way they are.

If you don’t feel like they apply to your reality, if you don’t feel like sharing spaces with people with completely different identities even if you face similar issues in some ways, or if you are uncomfortable with this system, you are free to not use those terms or participate on communities based on those terms.

What about people with multiple genders? Or genderfluid people? Or people who relate to more than one of those?

Anyone is free to use as many of these labels they want, if they feel like they apply to them.

Someone may say they are mainly exobinary but also relate to some ideobinary stuff, or that they are genderfluid and experience exobinary, mesobinary and viabinary issues at different times, and so on.

Is mascgender a viabinary or ideobinary identity?

This system is based on what issues one is/feels affected by, not on what gender identity someone is. A mascgender person may relate to both, or to one of those, or to none of those; that may vary from person to person.

If you are unsure of what applies to you, you may want to read more on each of these terms.

Are there combo terms?

Not for now. If someone wants to make them, I don’t mind, but I think having more content for the system as it is should be more of a priority than coining more terms.

I want this system to be useful, instead of being just another set of identities and flags that people are like “oh cool” before moving into the next ones when the set is finished, with no one remembering which term means what one week later.

Is there a term for those who don’t fit any of these?

Not for now. If you feel like there is a specific set of issues that may need a word within this system (as opposed to something that may just be described as, say, neurogender issues, pomogender issues, aporagender issues or genderfluid issues), feel free to talk about it!

As for a term that just means “none of the above”, I don’t see how that would be helpful, at least for now. I don’t think you can manage to fit everyone who doesn’t fit into this system as people who face the same kinds of issues, and it’s not like anyone is being forced to choose between viabinary, mesobinary, exobinary and ideobinary, so if you don’t fit anything, I don’t see any reason to want to have a word for it at all. Most people don’t even know about this system!

Anyways, this system is not meant to replace any other sort of terminology. You can still identify as agender, lunarian, xenic, singularian, genderqueer, undefined, quoigender, apogender, genderflux, gendersylph, colorgender, nonbinary girl or whatever your other identities are, regardless if you use the alibinary system or not.

Don’t you think this system can erase certain issues?

This system is meant to bring up issues and discussions that are not taken care of if we are talking about people who aren’t binary as a whole, or if we are talking about issues within specific communities only.

This system is not meant to be a replacement for talking about more general or more specific issues.

We can still talk about aporagender issues. We can still talk about exorsexism. We can still talk about maverique specific issues. We can still talk about solarian specific issues. We can still talk about juxera specific issues. We can still talk about gender reductionism. We can still talk about bigotry targeting genderfluid people. We can still talk about hatred against xenogender identities. We can still talk about agender spectrum erasure. We can still talk about erasure of anyone who is not binary from transgender communities, or from “LGBT” communities as a whole.

The alibinary system is supposed to be a tool to talk about specific issues, to be used alongside with other existing terms, not instead of them.

[acemindbreaker]

My experience mostly falls under viabinary (female), then. Maybe with elements of exobinary? I know that I have gender components that are unconnected to the binary, but I’m not sure if that counts since my gender is always at least partially female.

[alibinary]

Well, that depends on what you think is important.

Do you feel like the erasure of experiences that make no reference to the binary at all affects you personally?

Do you feel like you would be “at home” along with people with no attachment to the binary, even if only because of some parts of your gender, not others?

If so, than maybe exobinary can fit you (as well as viabinary, if you choose to id as such).

There’s also nothing wrong with having more than one gender/a gender with multiple properties and just choosing one/some over other(s) for this system.

(For example, a neutrois/woman bigender person can say they are just viabinary, or a egogender/woman/proxvir/neutrois/androgyne genderfluid person may want to identify with midbinary and exobinary, but not viabinary.)

[alibinary]

is it okay attribute other meanings to a gender? for example, I have a proxvir friend who see it as a masculine gender. should ae coin another term or mix another gender with it?

I’m not sure if you are talking about this in general or regarding the system...

My take on gender identities in general is that you don’t need to justify them, even if the label(s) you use is(are) not 100% accurate.

Proxvir is defined as a gender relative to male, but is something separate and entirely on it’s own. So I see it as a male-adjacent nonbinary gender “by default”, but if someone prefers to use this label as, idk, a mix of androx and maverique, or as an alternative to/something closer to neuvir or to cenrell or to magiboy, as long as they don’t use their definition as the default or as the only valid one, I don’t care.

Gender is subjective, anyways. If there is nothing that defines a man other than someone being comfortable calling themselves a man, and if there is no simple definition that can define the concept of gender, I don’t see why someone can’t identify with the definition of proxvir even though they experience that gender in a way that is slightly different from the original definition, or consider that “a gender relative to male but separate” may include “a masculine nonbinary gender”.

As for the system, someone who sees their gender as masculine or male-related but not similar to being a man may want to identify as ideobinary, and someone who sees their gender (or, maybe, gender alignment or something else) as similar to being a man may want to identify as viabinary. It’s also possible to identify with both.

And, again, the alibinary system is not limited to what gender identity you have, so someone may be a proxvir and mesobinary, for instance.

[nbandproud]

arco-pluris replied to your post “Would anyone be interested on a blog based on the…”

sorry, I’ve made a flag for mesobinary because it felt like a spectrum/umbrella term. is it wrong?

I don’t think it’s wrong to make flags for those terms, but usually, terms like “spectrum” and “umbrella term” are used in ways that don’t mean what viabinary/mesobinary/etc. are meant to be.

I’ve already tried to explain this here, but I’ll try to say it again:

Those terms are not meant to categorize identities or identity labels, they are meant to give words for experiences.

(Experiences that often have to do with discrimination, oppression, invalidation and/or erasure.)

If someone wants to identify solely as mesobinary (as their gender), that’s okay.

If someone wants to identify as a mesobinary androgyne, that’s okay too.

But saying mesobinary is an umbrella term for androgynes, male/female bigender people, binaryfluid people, etc., or that there’s a mesobinary spectrum that is for people who are both male and female in some way, is misapplying the term.

I didn’t want to use -gender as a suffix, or to make cute pride graphics for those labels, or to give examples of gender identities that might fit into those experiences specifically because I coined these terms for them to be more about discussion and finding community than about specific gender experiences or alignment(-like) systems.

As I said:

There is a reason I separate these identities between issues “mainly faced by” certain groups, and not between identities or people: because I feel like they are more useful for talking about the issues we face.

Using mesobinary as an example: mesobinary is meant to group people who face issues relating to being both binary genders in some way.

A mesobinary person may want to discuss how they have complicated feelings regarding using binary presentations and terminology, because they feel like they should be entitled to anything binary, but they also feel like binary things exclude another part of their identity.

Another mesobinary person may feel like discussing the general misrepresentation of what could be seen as mesobinary-like representation, since most characters that can be interpreted as such are fusions of a boy and a girl, or are stated to be both a boy and a girl or in-between those solely because of their physical appearance and/or body parts.

And those mesobinary people? Maybe they are male/female bigender or androgynes. But maybe they are polygender, or librandrogynes, or gender neutral, or just identify themselves as nonbinary or genderqueer or biogender.

Meanwhile, there may be male/female ambigender people who see themselves more like ideobinary than mesobinary. Or librandrogynes that feel like being exobinary affects them more than mesobinary.

You know how there are several issues under exorsexism, such as gender reductionism and anti-xenogender bigotry?

Words like mesobinary, exobinary, ideobinary and viabinary can help us pinpoint where certain experiences are not being taken into consideration, or how invalidation can come into play in different ways for those groups, or even ways to come up with resources and awareness that we didn’t notice we were lacking before!

[arcopluris]

So the point is that we can’t previously include identities without identification / it requires living experiences? I thought like lingender was within mesobinary but I’m still questioning if masculinity and femininity binary genders?! Because binary would include male/female, boy/girl, (wer)man/woman and masc/fem (?). Could we make separated system for people that aren’t female but identify as girls/women for example?!

[nbandproud]

Every identity has to do with a “lived experience”, regardless if the person is out to anyone or not, regardless of how the person has identified before, regardless of how the person is perceived by others. So, yes, you need “lived experience” to identify with any of those labels in this sense, but no, you don’t necessarily need to have personally gone through anything special to identify as mesobinary.

Some lingender people may feel like they are mesobinary. Others may feel like they are ideobinary. Others may feel like they are viabinary. Others may feel like they are exobinary. Others may feel like they are a combination of some or all of those.

Stop trying to categorize gender identities into these categories, because it’s not what these categories are for.

Someone who is not partly a woman but who identifies with the words woman and girl may, again, be part of any of those categories, or none, because self-identification with any/none of those experiences is more important here than other labels they may use.

Viabinary is for people who feel like they are binary-adjacent in some way, while ideobinary is for those who don’t necessarily feel like they are binary-adjacent, but don’t feel like their gender identity is completely independent from the existence of binary genders.

(e.g. I’m ideobinary because my gender is both masculine and feminine. It’s completely unrelated to binary genders and I’m uncomfortable with the idea that it’s in-between binary genders, but saying it’s completely outside of binary constructs ignores that masculinity and femininity, while not being the same as maleness and femaleness, are derived from notions that probably wouldn’t exist without the male/female gender binary.

However, someone else may also have a masculine and feminine gender that is not male and female, and feel like ideobinary doesn’t really resonate with them as much as mesobinary. Or as much as exobinary. Or they may id as both mesobinary and ideobinary. Or they may see themselves as viabinary, because they may care about something else more than they care about this part of their gender identity. And so on.)

If you feel like you want categories for gender identities themselves, or for labels people use, you should probably try elsewhere.