If you’re active in trans and non-binary spaces, it’s possible you’re already aware of outherinity, whether you know it or not. If you’ve ever met someone who describes themselves as 'aporagender,' or flown the yellow-white-orange colors of the maverique flag, then congratulations! You already know more than most reading this article. So, what is outherinity? While the term 'outherine' itself was only first coined in 2019, the idea goes back further than that. As I mentioned in the introduction, both maverique and aporagender are subsets of outherinity, and both were introduced around 5 years earlier in 2014. For maverique, the term was proposed by Vesper H after they were dissatisfied with the term 'neutrois’, feeling as though their gender, while unrelated to masculinity nor femininity, also wasn’t neutral, but was still very present. For aporagender, the term was proposed by a Tumblr blog of the same name, and described as being unrelated to masculinity, femininity, or anything in-between, while still being present. Unlike maverique, aporagender may also be an umbrella term that includes things like neutrois, but it may also be a standalone gender as well. But we can go back even further than this. In fact, many individuals who identify with simply ‘non-binary’ or ‘genderqueer’ may be considered outherine if their gender as well is neither masculine, feminine, androgynous, nor neutral, but still present. I should also note here that there is a difference between outherine and xenine, or xenogendered. Xenine, in short, is beyond human understandings of gender. Outherine, on the contrary, is generally not, and the person who first proposed the term also specified a difference. It is possible for someone to be both if they are multigendered, but on its own, outherine is distinct from xenine. So, to answer the question, outherine is unrelated to masculinity, femininity, nor neutrality, but is still a present gender quality. In the original introduction for outherinity, Oltiel, the one introducing the term, described four non-outherine gender qualities: masculine, feminine, androgynous, and neutral. Outherine, on the other hand, gives a “name for a fifth, sixth, seventh, etc quality.” Oltiel also described three examples of how one may be outherine, those being
- Having an entirely new gender quality apart from the four, but not xenine.
- Having an entirely new gender quality, but comparable to the overall four.
- Having a unique combination among the four that cannot simply be described as a combination of two or more, but something entirely new.
Oltiel also explained how some folks with culturally exclusive genders may consider themselves outherine if they so choose. For example, some cultures have their own terms for those with both masculine and feminine gender qualities. However, these terms are uniquely separate from simply a combination of male and female, and usually aren’t the same as being androgynous or bigendered. Since it was first proposed 6 years ago, the term has seen some popularity. The outherine flag was designed shortly after in the same year, and both the tesseract and the oberon symbol have been used to represent outherinity. In Portuguese, outherinity is 'outerinidade' and outherine is 'outerine’. The outherine equivalent of ‘man’ or ‘woman’ is ‘oumin’ (plural ‘oumen’), a ‘jackalope’ is someone who presents outherine but isn’t perceived as such due to the nature of outherinity, and ‘tofferosic’ describes oumen who love other oumen. Sublabels have also been described, such as 'anderfaun' for those who are male in an outherine way, 'anderdoe' for those who are female in an outherine way, and 'anderdawn' for those who are androgynous in an outherine way.
