#microlabel community

[vince-ria]

Its crazy how i followed ~600 blogs on here, and out of ~600, ~100 of them were mogai or microlabel blogs.

[the-crystalized-cosmos]

We see a lot of people claiming that microlabels (especially in the queer community) don't serve a purpose, or that people aren't putting their focus in the right area, or that they're essentially 'overlabeling'. And honestly I want to talk about this and break it down. Because a lot of time the combative arguments are just calling it out as harmful rhetoric, which is true, but we don't talk about what microlabels actually do for communities enough. And while we of course don't need to justify their existence, we should actually talk about the change and influence they're causing! Because it's important and a good thing.

As a disclaimer, this will mostly be talking about queer microlabels. That's where we see the most discourse, and I have the most familiarity. But this can definitely apply to other communities, and I will touch on that later.

First off the statement that microlabels don't serve a purpose has always been beyond wild to be. To start there is the most obvious part of them giving names to experiences people live. Feelings people have. That is more then enough purpose. But importantly, tied into that, they give people the right and ability to define *themself*. Which is so important in a world that is constantly trying to decide what we can and cannot be. Being able to take that power into our own hands, not just with common labels (which is also important) but to fully create something and say "this is me" is so important. It is a way to gain back power people have been trying to strip from us for so long.

Beyond that we have several whole communities built around microlabels. And that community is so important. Not only do so many people find a home there, because they find others who are like them. Who also have a very unique experience and need an equally unique term. But there's an important solidarity there. Because so many people use labels that only a couple others use, you have a community that is so diverse. One that does look to learn about others experiences a lot of the time. One that supports, *celebrates*, those differences. I'm not blind to the discourse in the community, of course I'm not. But there is so much solidarity that doesn't get talked about. Having a space where you can exist around people with identities that are wildly different from yours, is important. And the overarching fact that both of yours are really unique, even if the details are wildly different, still creates a sense of community. And that's so important, especially to baby queers who are starting to find themselves.

This doesn't even mention the fact that it builds that sense of resistance against being "the right type of queer". Microlabels are one of the most fought about things, one that gets thrown under the bus so much. So so many of us learn to be "the weird queer". We learn we don't have to be acceptable to the mainstream. That's so important. Learning not to live by others standards of what's allowed and what's not is a huge thing that needs to happen if we want to see major change. Having a community that does that naturally is impressive to say the least. We learn not to give into what they want us to be. Because what they want us to be is not queer in the end.

Going even deeper into parts of the community, archivist and archving is a huge (though often overlooked) part of the community. Their work is so important. Preserving queer history, no matter how mundane, is important. It shows we have been here. We have always been here. And there have been several times where there have been what people expect to be "minor" terms that became big. You never know what will be a cornerstone of the community one day. I know we have found several major/common terms that don't have that history any more. Furthermore it does promote just looking into queer history in general. Looking at the historical use of a lot of terms, especially ones like fag, dyke, tranny. How they have been used in our community as identities for so long. How they have been taken from us as identities, terms we're no longer allowed to use to define ourself because they're "bad". Looking into that history, is important. Preserving that history is important. It allows us to not lose important parts of our journey. To not allow that to be taken from us. And that's just terms. There's so many every day parts of history we never would've known without the microlabel and especially archiving community. So many events that have nearly gotten lost to time.

Other things we see especially in the microlabel community is the promotion of exploring yourself. Allowing yourself to be wrong. Which is such an important part of self discovery that isn't talked about enough. The idea that you don't have to be right. That you don't have to put that pressure on yourself to find the perfect label. That's so important. As well as allowing yourself to decide how what terms, if any, you use. So many people think that just because there's so many terms in the community everyone has to have a million and that's all we ever want. When in reality, we see so much talk about the freedom to choose. Yes the freedom to choose what terms fit you best, to choose how you define the terms instead of the terms defining you, but also the freedom to choose none. To choose that labels don't work. To choose that maybe they do, but it's no ones business. To choose that you just don't care enough to bother. And that's equally as important as being able to create a label that is hyper specific to you. The freedom to identify how we want is so so important. To not let others decide what we are. That's what we want in the future.

This doesn't even address the fact we see people complain the microlabel community is having "too much fun"? Which is, a wild thing to say.

People should be allowed to have fun in their identity. To not have to take everything seriously. So what if those terms are just something they enjoy. Having fun in your identity does not hurt anyone. In fact that's important. It allows people to explore more parts of themselves, without fear of judgement or exile.

It also leads to people being able to decide how important their identity is for them. Maybe it's super important and they want it to be treated as such. Or maybe they just want to bring home a partner one day, or casually mention they want to go by a different name at breakfast and everyone will be cool with it. If we only treat our identity as something serious and strict, we'll never reach that.

Like I said, we see this mostly in the queer community. It has one of the biggest microlabel communities out there after all. But honestly? You can change out queer for just about any other community that has its own microlabel community and all of my points still stand. Alterhuman is another bigger one we're familiar with, and while we haven't seen nearly the same amount of hate, I'd be lying if I said we didn't see it. But everything I've said here still applies. And that's because fundamentally microlabels have a lot of influence. They're important in so many ways people don't talk about. And again, we shouldn't need to justify their existence. That's not what this is meant to be. We should actually acknowledge their importance though. What they do. Being able to look at how different parts of larger community have influence is important. And who knows, maybe someone will look at microlabels in a new light because no one ever talked about it like this before.

[gender-jargon]

May 15th XDoV 2022: All About Xenogenders

Hello, all! I’m positively delighted to wish everyone a happy 2nd annual xenogender day of visibility. Xenogenders and those who identify with them are very commonly misunderstood due to misinformation about what xenogenders are, how they work or why someone may want to use them. In this post, I am going to attempt to explain the concept of xenogenders for the uninitiated, particularly those who have concerns of it’s legitimacy as a feasible category of non-binary identity. 

What is a Xenogender?

The term “Xenogender” was coined by tumblr user Baaphomett in 2014 via MOGAI-Archive. Ze defined the term xenogender as, “a gender that cannot be contained by human understandings of gender; more concerned with crafting other methods of gender categorization and hierarchy such as those relating to animals, plants, or other  creatures/things”. As a result, “Xenogender” is a very large umbrella term with many sub-identities.

“Xeno” is from Greek, “xenos”, meaning “strange”, “foreign” or “alien”. This is referring to the the fact that xenogenders are approached in a way that anthrogenders are not, being outside the bounds of how human society tends to describe and categorize gender, thus the description of “alien”.

Xenogenders hold an anontrinary quality that is not masculine, feminine, androgynous, epicene, gender-neutral, outherine or any other “human” quality without being genderless or beyond gender. This xenine quality is described with the aid of xenic description, which utilizes “non-human” concepts that are not traditionally used to describe genders, such as emotions, sensations, aesthetics, ideas, archetypes, media, living things, inanimate objects, situations, locations, actions, and language. Most xenogenders describe how one experiences their gender as opposed to what one experiences their gender as.

Xenogenders, as an umbrella term, have a gender glyph, which is the Iris 7 astronomical sign. This symbol, a star beneath a rainbow, represents Iris, Greek goddess of rainbows. The stripes of the flag are the various colors that irises grow. Other attempts were made toward a more traditional gender glyph while invoking the imagery of the iris flower, resulting in this glyph made from tumblr user system-lgbt in 2018.

The xenogender flag, specifically the one used in this post, was created by user pastelmemer in 2017. There is also an alternate flag that was created in 2017 by Mod Hermy of Pride-Flags.

Who Can Use Xenogenders?

Anyone can identify as any xenogender, given the particular gender identity in question is within the individual’s experience; if the identity is exclusive to a particular group you are not part of, the gender identity is unavailable to you. If a xenogender is specific to a particular group, it will either be stated as part of or along side the definition. When you are in doubt, if it is possible, it is best to contact the coiner to inquire about the exclusivity of the term.

A very common misconception is that xenogenders, as a whole, can only be used by neurodivergent (ND) individuals. The only xenogenders that are exclusive to ND individuals are neurogenders. Neurogenders describe how one’s neurotype, mental illness and/or neurological condition can effect how one experiences their gender identity. Since one’s neurodivergence can effect one’s perceptions of self, others and society, and thus their gender, they are classified as xenogenders. Most xenogenders are not neurogenders, but all neurogenders are a type of xenogender. Neurogenders do not serve to equate one’s neurodivergence with their gender; one’s gender identity is effected by, not defined as, one’s neurodivergence. Neurogenders are often used in conjunction with other, frequently unrelated, affinitive terms.

Why do People Identify with Xenogenders?

There are many reasons that one may identify with or as a xenogender. Some of these reasons include, but are in no way limited to:

Accessibility

Xenogenders and xenic description can be very accessible for some individuals, particularly children who are exploring and verbalizing  their gender, but don’t fully understand the intricacies of gender identity and individuals who better relate to and/or better understand  xenc description, as opposed to anthroine description, both neurotypical and neurodivergent.    

Versatility

Anything can be used as a basis or inspiration for a xenogender or xenic-alignment, which is one of the most unique and interesting aspects of xenogenders, xenic-alignment and xenic description. This versatility allows for xenogenders and xenic-alignments to be anything, ranging from vague and simplistic to hyperspecific and intricate in essence. With xenogenders, the possibilities are limitless, allowing “non-human”, nontraditional concepts to be incorporated into gender, it’s roles and the expression of one’s identity in creative, largely unprecedented ways that have not been widely established outside of the Microlabel/Neogender tumblr community.

Metaphor/Simile

Xenogenders are far more often than not metaphorical than they are literal. Xeninic description allows for one to be poetic or figurative when outlining their gender. This feature of xenogenders allows people to partially or fully self-describe using a figure of speech, as opposed to categorizing and conveying  themselves solely using the qualities used in one’s cultural system of gender.

Genderfuckery

Another common reason that people use xenogenders is the desire to subvert anthroininity or even the concept of gender as a whole. Describing one’s gender using xeninic description for the sake “fucking with” gender is quite easy, making a prime choice for those who desire to “fuck with” gender, especially in a way that isn’t connected to traditionally “human” concepts of gender.

Reclamation

Some people use xenogenders as a method of reclaming dehumanization they experience by taking on xenogenders that they find empowering. This dehumanization can be related to one’s a-spec orientation, being transgender and/or non-binary, being intersex, neurodivergent, disabled or any other type of dehumanization that can be directed at someone not listed here. After all, xenogenders are used to describe nontraditional, “non-human” concept of gender, making them excellent for this purpose.

Alterhumanity

While the alterhuman subculture is entirely distinct from the topic of xenogenders, many alterhuman individuals use xenogenders because they relate to concepts that are not traditionally kept among humans and feel better represented by them due specifically to their alterhumanity. Because of this, there is a lot of overlap between these two communities. For many alterhumans, xenogenders aren’t as metaphorical, but tend to instead be more literal, because they are being used to describe what gender they hold as an alterhuman, not necessarily how it is experienced. Not all alterhumans identity with xenogenders and not all individuals with affinitive xenogenders are alterhumans.

Enjoyment & Gender Euphoria

For some, identifying with xenogenders is done simply because they enjoy the concept illustrated by the xenogender, or similarly, because identifying with provides them with provides gender euphoria. For example, if an individual has a deep, overarching enjoyment for something that would be considered xenine concept and that effects their gender identity for some reason, that can be the basis for a xenogender in itself. For some, it surpasses personal pleasure and because a function of gender euphoria. Gender euphoria is very personal. While most individuals can find join in anthrogenders and their qualities, others are delighted by the freedom, specificity and diversity of description provided by xenogenders.

Freedom

For those that do not experience a sense of freedom from anthrogenders due the relation to traditional, “human” subjects, xenogenders can be extremely freeing. Gender identity is a social construct. Social constructs are ideas that are physically intangible, or as many say, “fake”. This is both true and false; social constructs are real in the sense that they effect people’s lives and shape how society functions, but they are fake in the sense that they are not something that someone can touch with their skin or generate from the constituents of the universe in some way. Given that social construction are not immutable, many people feel the rightful freedom to experiment, which often leads to expressing their gender, and often their disconnection from antrhogenders, as a xenogender. What freedom means for an individual for one’s gender is highly unique. Some people go further by embracing genderlessness, autonomous genders, yonderine “gender” and even non-participation in the construct itself.  

Est Quid Est

Sometimes, people are simply the gender that they are because they can be or just are; a person doesn’t necessarily have to justify identifying with a particular gender identity in order to be of that gender identity. Gender identity is a sense of self, and for some, that sense of self is best described as xeninoic. Certain people’s experiences fall in what in the lexical gap we currently have when it comes to language, so, sometimes, it simply is what it is.

Conclusion

Xenogenders are very much real and valid. They are a creative, subversive end-product of gender as a social construct. Regardless of being situated very, very far away from the gender binary in the gender spectrum, which may make them rather difficult to initially understand, xenogenders are indeed authentic and operable in their own right and are fully deserving of respect along side other transgender identities. 

With today being XDoV, I would like to challenge you to take a moment to read about xenogenders from people who identify with them or, if not available, those educated in such gender theory. To those with xenogenders; happy day of visibility. Thank-you for being revolutionary.

- Gent

[gender-jargon]

Information Regarding Mogaipedia.org

As most of the MOGAI/LIOM community is aware, the most infamous anti-MOGAI website, mogaipedia.org, now ceases to exist. After doing to some looking around, I have found that she is still active on other, unrelated accounts on different websites, but her only relevant account, @/mogai-watch-poems, has been inactive for two years. I am very happy that she found something better to do with her time than to harass and bully the members MOGAI community, as she was one of the absolute nastiest, most hateful people I had ever had the displeasure of encountering in relation to the online MOGAI community and it’s detractors.

While I’m happy that the most prolific cisgender transmed (read: transphobe with extra steps) has moved on with her life, with her has left an absolutely massive wiki and all it’s terms. Mogaipedia, as much as I thoroughly hate to admit, was an excellent resource for finding terms, especially some from the early days of the community, despite her demeaning poems, purposeful misrepresentation of concepts common to the MOGAI community, frequent attribution errors and improper/misleading definitions. I was afraid that many of these terms had been lost, but nonetheless, I decided to do some searching to see if some, if not all, of these terms had been preserved. After all, once something is placed on the internet, it can never be truly removed.

With that in mind, I decided to see if I could use the Wayback Machine to view captured URLs. To my surprise, 6,564 URLs have been captured for the entirety of the website, mostly due to run-of-the-mill, automatic web crawling. If you look for just wiki pages, there are 4,027 URLs available. I appears that much of the website has been preserved in this manner. I’m unsure how many terms were archived on the original site, but once I figure it out, I will post that information in an update on this post.

TL;DR: Mogaipedia is gone, but the terms are not.

- Gent

[gender-jargon]

Preserving Mogaipedia Using Carrd

Two days ago, I created a post to inform everyone that the information hosted on the hellhole that was Mogaipedia has not been entirely lost. While this is great news, the method in which it was preserved is not very accessible for the average internet user. In other words, actually accessing the information is kind of a pain in the ass and said access could certainly be streamlined, and quite easily. I decided to take it upon myself to fix this issue.

Basically, I am going to attempt to preserve and archive Mogaipedia.org using carrd. I am currently getting a list of all the terms that were saved by the Wayback Machine. I can confirm that at best, 80.8% of the articles were saved, leaving approximately 19.2% of the terms “lost”. I am going to use a few search tumblr tag search engines, go through @/mogai-watch-poems and one of her “personal” accounts where she wrote her poems before the creation of her infamous website to see if I can fill some of that ~20% gap. At the time of writing, I am on my initial sweep of the site and have archived 4.76% of the terms, not yet including a glance at her other accounts. 

From there, I am going to use carrd to list out the terms and their definitions, along with any other relevant information found on mogaipedia. However, I will be doing fact checking and fixing any definition, attribution or categorization errors I come across and am aware of. This carrd will not include her shitty poems or her blithering bigotry. It will be all info; none of the offensive garbage. I’m going to be writing in the style of an alphabetical masterlist as opposed to a wiki. This is going to take a little while, but I consider preserving that website to be important due to how expansive it was, how long it existed and how much information it held.

I will continue to update the community on this endeavor as the situation evolves.

TL;DR: I’m archiving mogaipedia using carrd, but this, time, it will not include any of the petty bullshit. This is being done to preserve the information so that it can still be utilized, while also eliminating the vitriol the website platformed. 80.8% of the terms have been confirmed to be preserved using the Wayback machine, but I may be able to uncover more if I dig deeper. More to follow in the near future.

- Gent

[gender-jargon]

I downloaded a compressed archive of all the pages and their history on LGBTA wiki. This can be opened using a program and the text for these pages, in all their versions, can be read. It’s a total pain in the ass, but these terms won’t be completely lost.

Here’s the link for it on the Gender-Jargon Google Drive: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JnAyEhbbZ29mBwP0IlaB4wjb2kdm-jog/

- Gent

EDIT: I am attempting to archive as many terms as possible. If you want to help archive these terms on archive.is, please send me a message.

[gender-jargon]

It appears I have been able to archive ~5% of the available Mogaipedia caches and captures per day. I have some personal stuff coming up that takes priority, but at this rate, I should have a full list of terms that were accessible via the Wayback machine sometime around July 4thish.

- Gent