What is the meaning of the word Bigender?
Bigenders are people who unite the features related to both "male" and "female", whose sense of self and self-identification are mobile. They behave in accordance with either traditionally masculine or traditionally feminine social roles - or both at the same time.
They can feel both sexes at the same time or transfer freely among them, in which case they can also determine as gender-fluid.
Bigender is someone with a “floating”, mobile gender personality. The person feels like either a man or a woman, regardless of physical gender. His / her gender-role sense of self (social gender, gender) changes depending on the mood, interlocutor, and environment.
What is influenced on becoming Bigender?
When we speak of this kind of individuality, we mean one of the elements of a person's sexuality, which is gender identity or sexual identity.
Thus, we are not talking about biology, sexual orientation, or gender expression, but rather what and how one feels that one’s identity is related to gender.
A bigender person could be a mix of binary gender and nonbinary gender (for example girl and agender) or two nonbinary genders (for example demigirl and genderfluid).
It is not possible to define bigender as only a man or a woman. Bigender is just specified as being any two genders, and they can be fluid or variable between them. In this case, they may identify as bigender flux.
Bigenders may also have the features of transgender or nonbinary. People who experiment over two genders can be trigender, quad gender, multigender, etc.
History
In 1995 Gary Bowen used a more up-to-date description of bigender in the «Dictionary of Words for Male Women». Bigender was defined as a combination of two genders, showing the cultural specificities of male and female roles.
The results of the review organized by the San Francisco Department of Public Health identified less than 3% of people from the transgender society that were appointed male at birth and less than 8% that were appointed female at birth really were determined as bigender
What pronouns are used for describing bigenders?
Neopronouns like xe/xem/xyr are also possible for using. These words are considered gender-neutral and do not assume attention to any gender.
How to differ bigender, genderfluid, pangender, and bisexual
As it was told before, bigenders are most often people who combine the traits associated with both "masculine" and "feminine".
Gender-fluid people are those whose gender transforms over time. A gender-fluid person can feel like a woman one day and a man the next.
So someone who is considered genderfluid has no features of two genders like a true bigender.
One more definition in the same context is pangender. The difference between bigender and pangender, that the last one “feels comfortable with any types of gender labels”. This means that a pangender is the sum of all the known genders, such as transgender, agender, nonbinary, and many others, at the same time.
Then, when it needs to make differences between bigender and bisexuality, they operate on absolutely various aspects. Bigender is a gender individuality, and bisexual is a sexual tendency. Bisexuality means you prefer more than one sex, whereas bigender means you belong to two sexes. You can share the role of bigender and bisexual at the same time.
How to be sure you are bigender
Really, there is no classification of signs to formulate the correct definition of bigender.
Nevertheless, relationship experts discovered some features that can prove you are bigender:
- Your attitude to the sex pointed out after your birth can differ. Today you may have a feeling as if you are a woman, but the next day you identify some man's features in yourself. You can also just feel unpleasant when someone uses your assigned-at-birth pronouns or assumes your gender.
- Your clothing style can combine both male and female wardrobe at the same time. You can express your bigender identity the way you wish.
- You could have experienced gender dysphoria. Gender dysphoria is the concern that people may feel when their gender identity and their biological sex are not in harmony. This could be because you have spent much time in a surrounding where gender expression was accepted, or because people in your environment do not regard your identity.
How to cherish friends or partners who are bigender
Bigender deserves respect as anyone who is a man or a woman. Even if the terms can make you feel confused somehow, it is important to know that respect is common for everybody, and confirming the gender identity of other people does not diminish your identity in any manner.
It will be a polite sign to use the correct pronouns yourself and to correct people when someone is mistaken.
There are many groups on social media such as BiGender.net and the Bigender Reddit branch, where people can join and find support from their peers and people with the same bigender minding. On June 17, Bigender Pride Day is also marked.
Bigender community flags
The first flag was previously raised for the bigender community. It was considered improper and challenging because of the nature of its creator. The designer, who identified himself as part of the LGBTQ + community, has been criticized for claiming transphobia and partner abuse.
After Tumblr has provided presumed proof of the creator’s identity (TW: transphobia, violation, cruelty, suicide, and handling), many people in the bigender community have abandoned the flag and now the second flag is most commonly used. It has unconfirmed color meanings.
Famous bigender people
- Slovak musician B-Complex (also Matia or Maño Lenická) is a music producer and DJ.
- Canadian science fiction writer A.M. Dellamonica considers himself as a «bigender».
- Ukrainian writer R.B. Lemberg is a bigender.
- James-Beth Merritt, author of the 2018 book «Bigender: Candid, Unambiguous Memories».
- The young writer Mia Siegert is a bigender.
- Singer Sam Smith, winner of the "Grammy Award"