Demiagender (everything you need to know)
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The Optimistminds editorial team is made up of psychologists, psychiatrists and mental health professionals. Each article is written by a team member with exposure to and experience in the subject matter. The article then gets reviewed by a more senior editorial member. This is someone with extensive knowledge of the subject matter and highly cited published material.
In this blog post, we will teach you everything there’s to know about demiagender and other semi-genders.
Are you curious about what this world means? Keep reading!
What is demiagender?
Demigender (Demi, from French, Meio + Gender, in English, gender) is an umbrella term that covers people who feel only partly related to a certain gender identity.
It is a relatively new concept in the LGBTQIA + community, making it still unknown and / or little accepted.
Among the various “types” of Demigenders are Demigirl, Demiboy, Demiagender, Deminonbinary, Demiflux and Demifluid, but there are still several combinations to be recognized around the world.
The person can divide his “parts” of identity into percentages (example: 60% female and 40% male), according to the way one feels.
Demigirl
Demigirl (or semi-girl) is the gender identity of someone who defines their gender as partially feminine, while the other half is unimportant, unspecified or another gender.
They usually have “she” and “hers” as pronouns, but it can vary according to the person’s particular taste. A person can identify himself as Demigirl regardless of his biological sex.
Demigirl can also be considered biologically women who do not feel a significant connection to their sex but not to the point of suffering gender dysphoria.
We can also use it for transsexual women who still feel ties to “old sex”, remembering that WHO DEFINES GENDER IS THE PERSON, NOT THE OCCASION.
Demiboy
Demiboy or demiguy (or semi-boy) is the opposite of Demigirl. It is someone who identifies partly as male gender and partly as unimportant, unspecified or another gender.
Usually, they have “he” and “his” pronouns, but it can vary according to the person’s particular taste.
A person can identify himself as Demiboy regardless of his biological sex.
Demiboy can also be considered biologically male people who do not feel a significant connection to their sex but not to the point of suffering gender dysphoria.
We can also use it for transsexual men who still feel ties to “old sex”.
An agender (agender) is a person who defines themselves as genderless, so a demiagender (semi-agender) is partially genderless, while the other part can be unimportant, unspecified or another gender.
Their pronouns vary widely but are usually “they” and “their”, “them” and “theirs” in English.
A Demiagender does not depend on his biological sex to identify himself.
Deminonbinary
A Deminonbinary (or Semi-non-binary) defines its gender identity as partially non-binary, that is, neither female nor male, while the other part can be unimportant, unspecified or another gender.
Their pronouns also vary widely, and identification as Deminonbinary is independent of your biological sex.
Demifluid
A Demifluid (or semi-fluid) identifies itself as part of a static gender (it can be man, woman, non-binary, schedule) and part of a gender that changes (it can also be man, woman, non-binary, schedule ).
Got confused? It’s a little bit, I can’t deny it. I will use our friend and Julia as an example. Julia’s pronouns are he and they.
Sometimes Julia feels part of the agender and sometimes she feels part man, but Julia always feels half a woman. Did you understand?
Again, it is independent of biological sex and has a huge variety of possible pronouns, defined by the individual
Demiflux
A Demiflux (or semi-stream) identifies itself as two or more genres that vary. The difference between a Demiflux and a Demifluid is that, in Demifluxes, all parts of its gender are subject to change.
It is nothing new that it is independent of biological sex and there is no predefined pronoun.
Demiandrogyne
Demiandrogynes (or semi-androgynous) have part of their gender defined as androgynous, that is, both female and male, while the other part can be unimportant, unspecified or another gender.
What is gender?
In the context of the LGBTQIAP+ community, gender, or gender identity, is a person’s subjective and personal experience in relation to social gender categories.
Every society has gender categories and expectations that can be associated with certain sexual physical characteristics; these categories can serve as a basis for personal gender identity in relation to society.
In a binary gender system, most people adhere to and reinforce ideals of masculinity and femininity in all aspects of sex and gender: physical sexual characteristics, gender identity and gender expression.
In all societies, there are people who do not identify, partly or completely, with the gender associated with their physical sexual characteristics.
Currently, these people can identify themselves as transgender (trans), genderqueer or non-binary people.
People who identify with the gender associated with them at birth are generally categorized as cisgender people or cis.
Some societies have other gender systems. For example, some Native American societies have the genus two-spirits, and some South Asian countries have hijra as an official gender other than women or men.
Although an academic focus is not the objective of this text, it is interesting to note that in the academic context, there is a distinction between sex (anatomy of the individual’s reproductive system, secondary sexual characteristics) and gender, which can refer to the social roles that are associated according to the “sex” that society assigns, or can refer to personal gender based on self-awareness (gender identity).
However, in day-to-day conversations, it is common that there is no distinction between the terms “sex” and “gender” and both are used interchangeably.
In essence, gender does not depend on the person’s genitals or appearance, current or desired, just as it is not necessary or immutable: for example, there are people of gender or gender-fluid.
The origin of personal gender identity is not clear, as it is possible that there are as many social as biological factors, however, regardless of the origin, gender is not a personal choice, as it is a completely unconscious personal process.
There is also the expression of gender, which is the way that a person can express his gender visually in society.
For example, gender-neutral people may seek a more neutral look (even if it is in relation to binary genders).
Gender identities can be constituted by lack of gender, presence of a “pure” gender, presence of several genders (one at a time or several at the same time), presence of one or more genders affected by cultural/neurological/biological factors or uncertainty about the gender itself, among other types of identities.
There are other types of gender or classifications, other than Demiagender. For example, Trigender and Aliagender.
You might also enjoy reading about the 76 types of Xenogender.
Types of orientations
There are other orientations besides sexual and romantic. Most of the time, these attractions are only used by the aromatic and asexual communities, especially by asexual and aromatic people.
It is not necessary to try to categorize yourself in all possible attractions, even if you are part of the asexual and aromatic communities.
These are just terms to help people understand your feelings of attraction, and if they are not useful or easy for you, you do not need to use them.
Aesthetic attraction: Attraction for how someone looks, even without involving sexual feelings;
Platonic attraction: Willingness to have emotional intimacy with someone, without necessarily involving romantic or sexual feelings. For many aromatic people, Platonic attraction goes far beyond a desire for friendship;
Sensual or sensorial attraction: Desire to touch, to exchange affection, to have physical proximity to someone, even without involving sexual desires;
Alternative attraction: Desire for familiarity and intimacy with someone, in a way generally described as between Platonic and romantic.
However, this attraction can include any emotion-related attraction that is neither 100% platonic nor 100% romantic;
Queerplatonic or quasiplatonic attraction: Desire to form a queerplatonic or quasiplatonic relationship with someone.
Depending on the case, this attraction can be considered a subtype of the alternative attraction.
Queerplatonic or quasiplatonic relationships (RQPs or QPRs): These relationships generally differ from friendships in having some type of commitment involved; people in these relationships can aspire to live together, exchange affections interpreted as romantic, have sexual exclusivity among themselves, among other factors, without having romantic attraction involved.
The concept of queerplatonic/quasiplatonic orientation was made especially for this type of relationship, but many people use platonic or alternative orientations to describe in which situations they feel like having queerplatonic partners.
There are other types of attractions, such as intellectual, physical and emotional. Attractions can be categorized in different ways by different people, according to their needs.
Just as there are no limits to how many gender labels or guidance prefixes there may be, there are no limits to the categorization of types of attraction.
The orientations derived from these types of attraction work in the same way as sexual and romantic orientations: a prefix is added to the type of attraction. For example, a person can be aplatonic, bi-sexual or polystetic.
It should also be noted that if a person says he is asexual and aromatic but uses some other guidance next to them, the person must be referring to one of these guidelines.
For example, a person who identifies as an asexual and aromatic lesbian may be a woman who only feels alternative and / or queerplatonic attraction to other women.
(However, it is possible that the person simply has exceptions to not being attracted, and these cases of attraction can be described with lesbian orientation.)
Conclusions
In this blog post, we taught you everything there’s to know about demiagender and other semi-genders.
Demigender (Demi, from French, Meio + Gender, in English, gender) is an umbrella term that covers people who feel only partly related to a certain gender identity.
It is a relatively new concept in the LGBTQIA + community, making it still unknown and/or little accepted.
Among the various “types” of Demigenders are Demigirl, Demiboy, Demiagender, Deminonbinary, Demiflux and Demifluid, but there are still several combinations to be recognized around the world.
Thank you for reading! What did you think of knowing this magical world of semi-genres?
Did you already know them? Did you identify with any? Do you believe them? Let us know your opinion!
And don’t forget: we all deserve respect!
Further reading
Exploring the Dimensions of Human Sexuality, by Jerrold S. Greenberg
References
transequality.org/
Genderqueerid.com
nonbinary.wiki/
