#dyadic

[ipso-faculty]

Poll: what do people who are NOT intersex prefer to be called?

We've had a few polls on the site for which of perisex/endosex/dyadic is preferred by intersex people to describe non-intersex people. I'm curious what the people being described by these terms prefer - especially if trans* and/or nonbinary have different preferences from cis folks.

Perisex/endosex/dyadic: which term do actually non-intersex people prefer?

I am not intersex, I am not cisgender, and I prefer "perisex"

I am not intersex, I am not cisgender, and I prefer "endosex"

I am not intersex, I am not cisgender, and I prefer "dyadic"

I am not intersex, I am not cisgender, and I have no preference

I am not intersex, I am cisgender, and I prefer "perisex"

I am not intersex, I am cisgender, and I prefer "endosex"

I am not intersex, I am cisgender, and I prefer "dyadic"

I am not intersex, I am cisgender, and I have no preference

I am intersex and want to vote anyway 😎

Abstention / show results

Voting ended onFeb 27, 2025

Tagging @transgenderpolls @nonbinarypolls for reach 💜

(Apologies to folks who struggle with deciding if cis/not cis, and to those questioning their intersex status. Use your best judgement and/or flip a coin as desired.)

[basicallyanotherwitchesthing]

John Lilly, M.D. and Antonietta Lilly - The Dyadic Cyclone - Pocket - 1977

[themogaidragon]

Dysex Questioning Intersex Flag

PT: Dysex Questioning Intersex Flag /END PT

ID: A flag with three horizontal lines of unequal sizes. The yellow center stripe is way bigger than the two others, taking nearly all the place. The two smaller stripes are white on top and purple on the bottom. In the center of the flag is a purple, yellow and black infinity symbol, with the left side having a much larger circle. END ID

A flag for dysex people who are questioning if they're intersex, questioning which variation they have or questioning, if their variation is intersex or dysex, or if they want to identify as intersex or dysex. Dysex defines individuals who currently have/had non-typical sex characteristics that are not inherently intersex by themselves, whether from birth or naturally developed. Includes polymastia, polythelia, athelia, amastia, breast hypoplasia, breast hypertrophy, gynecomostia, micromastia, hypotonia, bicornuate uterus, septate uterus, retroverted uterus, macropenis, macroorchidism, macrovagina, labial hypertrophy, hormone-disrupting tumors, etc.

Design made combining the questioning intersex flag (link) by @gonyadaldysgenesis and the dysex flag (link) by @fuck-your-norms.

Here are the symbol in its own as well as the symbol on the questioning intersex flag that I've redrew just in case someone needs them.

ID: a purple, yellow and black infinity symbol, with the left side having a much larger circle. END ID

ID: a pink and purple infinity symbol, with the left side having a much larger circle. END ID

[dhddmods]

Perisexuality is a spectrum too!

Seen a few posts about this now, and we wanna put in our two cents.

So many people view perisexuality through the lens of eurocentric beauty standards, and end up falsely believing they are intersex.

Mulleripathians can be hairy, flat chested, minimal hips, or have a deeper voice.

Wolffipathians can have less body hair, visible breasts, low muscle mass, wide hips, and a higher voice.

Certain races are hairier than others. Certain disabilities cause voice differences, less hair growth, or more hair growth.

Weight can determine breast growth. Certain disabilities cause low muscle mass.

Hip size and voice pitch is genetic, and while statistically mulleripathians are more likely to have widened hips and higher pitched voices, thats just an average.

You aren't a bad person if you have fallen into the stereotypes of how perisexuality is "supposed" to look. Thats just a result of living in a racist, fatphobic, ableist society.

You also aren't a bad person for questioning intersexuality, especially if you experience multiple of the "opposing" traits at the same time (ie; a presumably mulleripathian person who is experiencing hairiness, minimal breast growth, voice deepening, and increased muscle mass.) Because sometimes it is a sign of intersexuality, especially a hormonal variation or chromosomal variation!

But just remember, having a few chin, lip, or breast hairs as a mulleripathian isn't always a sign of intersexuality. Having a larger chest and less body hair as a wolffipathian isn't always a sign of intersexuality. Having small hips or wide hips, or certain voice pitches, isn't always a sign of intersexuality.

Being intersex is about primary sex traits that a person was born with or developed during childhood/puberty. That includes sex hormones, sex chromosomes, genitals, and reproductive organs. And while sex hormones & chromosomes can most definitely affect your secondary sex traits, it isn't the only thing that can affect them.

If you want to learn more about intersexuality vs perisexuality, please read our intersex guide. We've put a lot of love and care into it.

[imoga-pride]

Do you know what the category for terms like intersex and perisex is called?

Like how cis, trans, iso, etc. has gender modality / sex modality. It's like gender/sex modality in that it describes a specific relation to gender/sex, but unlike gender/sex modality, it's not about correspondence/transitioning and is just what a person is born with. And, typically anyways, those modalities aren't genders/sexes in it of themselves, like man/woman/nonbinary/etc. would be the actual gender, and cis/trans/iso/etc. is the relationship to said gender, but intersex/perisex kinda(?) are sexes.

Terms that fit, I guess, from what I know:

Sex characteristics (link): some jurisdictions use this term over just "sex" to encompass the legal protections intersex people have geolocally. For example, the term sex-based discrimination typically refer to sexism or misogyny, whereas sentences using this term, such as 'discrimination due to sex characteristics', could emphasize the inclusion of intersexism;

Sex traits ([w]; [x]; [y]; [z]): this is an alternative to sex characteristics

The term variations also appear, however, the term variations in sex characteristics (VSC) implies it refers to variance, so dyadic wouldn't be included. However, the terms "endosex variations" and "perisex variations" are in use by some.

Sexness/sexedness or sexuation/sexuatedness (from intersexness and intersexuation, meaning intersexedness) could be a thing, however they are mostly about the (cap)ability to reproduce sexually (sexedly)/sexedliness.

I'm not sure if people used the term "sex alignment" but this could also refer to multiple things contextually.

Sex identity is also used, however many would not see intersexness as solely identitary.

Edit: @queercripintersex reblogged with: Pretty sure I've seen "intersex status" used for this and depending on context may be a good option

Comment: I also saw @intersex-questions referring to altersex terms as sex labels, so that's an option, sounds more for hyponyms.

[intervex]

Endosex flag

A new flag design for endosex, which acts as a sort of midway design between my perisex flag design and the dyadic flag. [SVG here] Endosex is one of three common terms used to mean not intersex, and was initially coined in German by Heike Bödeker (who is intersex) in 1999. The other common terms are perisex and dyadic.

I've been thinking there's utility in having slightly-different-but-similar meanings for endosex, perisex & dyadic to allow for us to talk about how intersex-ness in nonhumans can be really complex. My survey about what these slightly-different meanings should be is still open, so if you have thoughts about whether a snail with typical sex development should be perisex and not dyadic (or something along those lines), send me your feedback here! 📋️

For comparison: I've put the dyadic flag on the left. Designed by @pride-flags-for-cishets, it uses a square as a contrast to the ring of the intersex flag. And it has blue and pink to indicate the traditional sex dyad/binary. It gets used in designs like the extersex flag.

But for some perisex trans/enby folks, a pink-and-blue flag understandably doesn't sit so well! 🙃 So I designed a perisex flag after a flag design by @clowncaraz inspired me. I'm trying in the perisex flag to illustrate how perisex folks are on the two ends of the two "typical" ways that sex development happens (Wolffian or Müllerian). The filled-in arrows represent Wolffian and Müllerian.

Both the endosex and perisex flags use a dark periwinkle that is both purplish and bluish, a colour that I've been seeing used in other flag designs to indicate not being intersex.

The white in the perisex and endosex flags is used to indicate that biology is not destiny: trans people can take their bodies and put them on a completely different path.

The dyadic flag doesn't have any confirmed colour meanings, so I don't have an obvious meaning for the black in the endosex flag.

I'm thinking I'll wait on the results of the endosex/perisex/dyadic-in-nonhumans survey before assigning a meaning to the black. Same for if the light periwinkle means anything beyond not-intersex like the dark periwinkle does. Expect a follow-up on this in late October / early Nov.

The light periwinkle in the endosex flag is the same one in @clowncaraz's design because it's just a really nice colour that I'm fond of for this purpose, and wanted a way to make use of it. 😁

Tagging for archival: @varsex-pride @radiomogai @liom-archive @beyond-mogai-pride-flags @conformant-archive

[sirenium]

'Oh transfemmasc and its variants are intersex exclusive!' No they are absolutely not. An experience such as that is not exclusive to intersex people. There are labels made to be intersex exclusive if you really care about not using a label used by 'icky' dyadics (not against those labels at all, I think it's very cool that we're moving away from transfemmasc being 'exclusive' to us and are instead making terms that are like it, just tailored to intersex people). Everyone acts so progressive until someone has a queer experience they don't like.

[atypical-transfem]

Kind of a rhetorical question

Can someone (preferably other intersex peeps) please explain how dyadics/perisex/endosex are so hellbent on not being reminded of the fact that they're dyadic/perisex/endosex?

Like this doesn't even bringing up the fact they're so ignorant about their privilege and how their community, at large, is so inaccessible for the intersex (and questioning) community.

Why do they have such a knee-jerk reaction when we remind them that they, by large, (supposedly) benefits from intersex suffering?