#diverse

[stanford-photography]

Flora 25071101 By Jeff Stanford, 2025 Buy prints of this image at: https://fineartamerica.com/featured/flora-25071101-jeff-stanford.html   or more of my images at: https://jeff-stanford.pixels.com/

[kitschycritter]

our differences make us stronger 💗

[melodeelaine]

Galapagos Cacti

[daily-ynfg-worlds]

Art Deco World

[wrongdose]

The colors on my face are more diverse than Genshin Impact

My lighest shade is the darkest /hj

[gendercensus]

Diverse vs. divergent

This is something I see people tripping up on sometimes, in a gender context and also in a neurotype context, so since the Gender Census research is primarily language-focused I thought posting it here might be quite on-topic.

"Diverse" is an adjective that describes a group as containing variation within it. Something that is diverse has [the inherent quality of] "diversity" (noun). It cannot describe an individual.

"Divergent" is an adjective that describes someone or something within a larger group as being different from the "norm". Something or someone that is divergent has [the behavioural quality of] "divergence" (noun).

So:

A person cannot be diverse, but they can be divergent.

A group of people/things that are diverse can contain very common examples as well as very uncommon examples relative to that whole group.

An individual person can e.g. have diverse interests, and in that situation the group that is diverse is the interests, not the person. Some of those diverse interests may be common, and some may be divergent.

A group of people can be diverse, and they can also be divergent as a subgroup of a larger group.

This applies to words/terms that end in "-diverse" and "-divergent".

So, for neurotype contexts:

A normal population is neurodiverse, and contains within it neurodivergent individuals and neurotypical individuals.

An individual person cannot be neurodiverse. They would be described as neurodivergent.

"The neurodiverse community" could refer to the entire human race, which would include both common and uncommon neurotypes, including all neurotypical people.

"The neurodivergent community" is correct, and refers to the subgroup of individuals whose neurotypes are less common and differ significantly from "the norm".

The neurodivergent community is itself diverse, and even neurodiverse, containing its own more and less common neurotypes relative to the neurodivergent subgroup as a whole.

And for gender contexts:

A normal population is gender-diverse, and contains within it gender-divergent individuals and cisgender and binary individuals.

An individual person cannot be "gender-diverse". They would be described as gender-divergent. (Or perhaps this is where people would usually say "gender non-conforming"?)

"The gender-diverse community" could refer to the entire human race, which would include both common and uncommon genders, including all cisgender and binary people.

"The gender-divergent community" is grammatically correct, and refers to the subgroup of individuals whose genders (or lack thereof) are less common and differ significantly from the more common human experiences of gender.

The gender-divergent community is itself diverse, and even gender-diverse, containing its own more and less common genders (or lack thereof) relative to the gender-divergent subgroup as a whole.

[hvadfandendotjpeg]

I need everyone to know that "ups" is the danish word/expression for "whoops", which makes UPS a really really funny name for a delivery service specifically