#maverique pride

[404luxionotfound]

Credits: Concept on the left by fern7polymer (discord), fix on the right by me Sylveon assets by Layell (showdown)

[lgbtqiatext]

[queer-as-he11]

reflections on my gender identity as of late 💛🤍🧡 (and how my neurodivergence fits into it)

[PT: reflections on my gender identity as of late (and how my neurodivergence fits into it) /End PT.]

Meant to post this at the end of pride month, but life has been very busy as of late

Heads up, this is going to be a *really* long post. I tried to fix it up as best as I can, but I'm known to ramble. Like, a lot. Sorry!

Also, before I get to the aforementioned rambling, I want to give credit where credit is due. I would like to thank blogs like @your-bigender-big-brother and @themaveriqueagenda (please let me know if you don't want to be tagged!). I learned so much about maverinity from them, and I can never thank them enough for it. Please go support them both if you can, they totally deserve it!

TL;DR: Neurodivergence has played a big role in my gender confusion; I felt distanced from feeling like my gender actually was female, because my gender has always felt like "me." An experience unique to me that didn't fit into any existing categories. Being maverique has allowed me to recontextualize and independently define my gendered experiences, which is what I was really looking for all along.

A big part of my experience as a neurodivergent individual has been trouble understanding how to navigate the world socially and how to understand my own feelings. I like to keep things straight (ha!) in my head, and if they don't fit into the structure, they nag at me until I analyze them as thoroughly as I can. Vaguely defined concepts like gender, and how I was supposed to feel about *my* gender, have been difficult problems, especially recently.

I mean, if you ask anyone to define what "gender" really is, you might see some similarities and common themes in the responses, but there isn't a universal definition. One theme I've observed while exploring my gender is internal, subjective feelings of genderedness. For me, saying, "my gender is female" felt like a horrible oversimplification. "Female" felt like a role I was just going along with, even if it felt like a cop-out.

I understand "womanhood" because it is the social script I was told to conform to since my birth, I share (and value) many female experiences similar to other women, and it's how the world will probably always treat me at a glance. But I never really felt like a woman. Honestly, even saying that I'm just a neurodivergent girl with a neurodivergent experience of womanhood isn't satisfying. My gender has always felt like "me." Staunchly so, and I am very proud of that. It's not an offshoot of some base branch; it is wholly different because everything about me is. It's like saying my eyes are a normal color when they're actually some impossible color: nobody else could correct me on that just by interacting with me, but I would know there was something beyond description.

Furthermore, it wasn't that I just really wanted green eyes because I think they're cool, or that I couldn't tell whether my eyes were blue or grey. I haven't been picking up labels because I want to be the most special person in the world, nor have I been stuck deciding between male, female, masculine, feminine, neutral, etc. None of those categories described me. Simple as that. For example, I like my body. I do not like the fact that I have been conditioned to see it as a woman's body, or that society will treat me as a woman based on my body. Because that's not me. I'm me. In an ideal world, that would just be my gender. Because I do live amongst society, I wanted a descriptor that could accurately convey the complexities of my gender without giving a dissertation.

From the first moment I read the definition of maverique, it struck me. While other genders had to be considered, maverique resonated. It was personal, it defied conventional description, and it captured the finer fluidities of my gender without tying them back to the binary or anything derived from it.

I did drop the label for a while, though. I started to define myself through others' eyes again. When any part of myself resembled binarity, I doubted myself. I'm definitely not doing it justice when I say this, but accepting that I am maverique helped me see myself with my own eyes again. I don't need to draw from or force myself into gendered expectations. That's too rigid for who I am. I get to reshape my gendered experiences to fit my experience. Most importantly, I get to define myself by who I am rather than by the categories I do/don't fit into. I have adopted other labels that have resonated with me as well, such as genderqueer, multimav, aurorian, etc. They help describe parts of my experience a little more specifically (because I am a sucker for details).

In sum, I'm glad to be a gender that reminds me to appreciate my autonomous and unconventional nature. It has given me so much, and I dearly appreciate finding a label like this.

💛🤍🧡

[cosmichroma]

Maverique flag made from cropped NASA APOD images! 💛 ☁️ 🧡

[gummi-stims]

💛🤍🧡Maverique flag candy corn marshmallows from lav.bakes on tiktok!🧡🤍💛

Recipe page here (but doesn't seem to contain one for this specific flavor?)

[fairylightsupapplepine]

Maverique!!

💛🤍🧡

[my-t4t-romance]

why did I color in this maverique symbol a year and a half ago and then never post it

anyway check it out

[xxcalicofemmexx]

maverique + flag colors

Maverique: A gender that is completely unrelated to the gender binary. It is not masculine/man/male or feminine/woman/female or any combination, but it still has a distinctly gendered feeling. It's often described as being characterized by autonomy and inner conviction. A sense of gender that is independent of all else, as if in a category all of its own, without outside influence. A distinct and firm sense of gender