Gender in New Phyrexia - Spheres Within Spheres
Being asexually reproducing organisms with no mating types ("sexes"), Phyrexians lack native concepts of sex and gender-as-linked-to-sex. The Phyrexian language does not make use of pronouns at all, much less gendered distinctions. However, given the rigid structure of the Machine Orthodoxy's social mores, it is likely that some conception of "gender" does exist among New Phyrexians—just not in a form that humans might recognize.
Because of the Machine Orthodoxy's enforced cultural dominion over New Phyrexia, I'll be approaching this analysis from an Orthodoxy-centric lens, with the understanding that this dominant cultural view is likely greatly diluted and altered in spheres besides the Fair Basilica.
I hold that instead of there being a male/female gender binary in New Phyrexia, there is rather a single "gender"—proximity to the Mother of Machines—from which all other Phyrexians fall to varying distances. It's like a set of nested, concentric circles (a common motif in Phyrexian philosophy!), at the center of which is Elesh Norn.
As such, much of what humans categorize as femininity is seen by Orthodoxy Phyrexians as holy, good, and superior because Elesh Norn is feminine. Qualities associated with femininity or "Norngender" include white mana, law, dominance, assertiveness, holiness, righteousness, fertility (as in the potency of one's glistening oil), and compleation. Physical characteristics of this sacred femininity include porcelain plating, elaborate crests, the silhouette of a narrow waist and wider hips, and large size. Phyrexians that fall short of these ideals fall at increasing distances from the "center", leading to a set of concentric rings that might look like this in expanding order:
Elesh Norn, the Mother of Machines herself, the ideal relative to which all New Phyrexian perfection and expression is defined.
The Orthodoxy's most faithful priestesses and angels of Norn, essentially extensions of Her will.
Lesser Orthodoxy members, such as centurions, enforcers, acolytes, civilians, and porcelain dolls (compleated prisoners of war).
Loyalist compleated Phyrexians from other factions.
Rebel compleated Phyrexians.
Newts, who are born of Phyrexia but have not yet come of age and been compleated into adults.
The incompleat.
Or in the form of a diagram I made on MS Paint:
Compleation moves a person into greater proximity to Norn, the degree of which depends on their faction.
The cutoff line of who is "Norngender enough" is highly arbitrary and subjective but usually lies either between the priestesses and the rest of the Orthodoxy, or between the Orthodoxy and the rest of Phyrexia.
This does mean that the higher-ranked members of the Machine Orthodoxy often appear more feminine (in truth more "Norngender"). Consider for example the very feminine, tall, crested form of the Grand Unifier Atraxa as opposed to rank-and-file legionnaires who have a more bulky and masculine silhouette.
However, masculinity is not actually the opposing pole to femininity/Norn, just one form of distance. For example, having non-porcelain metal plating is just as "opposing" or "distant" from the Orthodoxy gender ideal as being masculine, if not more so. New Phyrexian gender is not a binary system or even a continuum; it's a single center with radiating spheres of distance.
Notably, incompleat feminine humanoids are not seen as any better than non-feminine ones, because though they might superficially resemble Norn, they are still incompleat and thus incapable of holiness. Feminine form in a humanoid is no more sacred or respectable than the fact that both humanoids and Elesh Norn have arms.
It's likely that the gender system in Old Phyrexia was superficially similar, albeit with Yawgmoth in the nuclear center rather than Norn. Also, because Yawgmoth was born a human and not a core-born Phyrexian like Norn, Old Phyrexia's conception of gender could have been more binary, where femininity (and perhaps Rebbec?) was the diametric opposite of masculinity/Yawgmoth:
Gix is notably masculine, but also far more "Yawgmothgender" and thus of a higher status than the incompleat newt Xantcha, who immediately distances herself (and affirms her subordinate position via distance from Yawgmoth) by defining herself as feminine. This subordination-via-distance-from-Yawgmoth model was symbolized in the physical layout of the original planet Phyrexia as well, with Yawgmoth residing in the core and the nine spheres radiating outward.
It's possible that a vestige of binarism persists in New Phyrexia, as Eight notably took on he/him pronouns when connecting to Wrenn, but I'm inclined to believe that New Phyrexian gender ideals are far removed from the human-normative binary, and rooted instead in their spherical philosophy and theocratic approach to power.
