Demigirl (also known as Demiwoman, Demifemale, Demigal, or Demidudette) is a gender in which one is partially, but not fully, a girl or woman. They may or may not identify as another gender in addition to being partially a girl. The other part of one's gender can be any gender or combination of genders, including a lack of gender. Demigender people may also identify as non-binary. Additionally, a demigirl individual may consider themself to be transfeminine, transmasculine, or almost any other identity under the transgender umbrella.
The male equivalent to demigirl is demiboy, the non-binary equivalent is deminonbinary, and the neutral equivalent is demineutrois.
History
On August 12, 2010, user Bad Patient of AVEN made a post saying:
"...I said to myself that I can any word relate to me if I just stick a "demi-" in front of it. And then I realised that it might actually help me find a word for my gender identity. I've felt for some time that I may have too much of the masculine element in me to call myself agender and feel good about it — so maybe it would be a nice idea to call myself a demiguy. Demidude. Demibloke..."
This was possibly the first recorded instance of someone using demi- to describe their gender. Though, Bad Patient goes on to say it isn't completely serious.
In December of that year, a different user in that forum, seeking more information, wrote that the only place they could find a description of the term "demigirl" was on the yada wiki.[1][2] In response, another user claimed that the term was coined there, but no exact dates can be found, and the definition is slightly different to the most common definition used today. The given definition being "...either someone AFAB who feels the barest association with womanhood or an non-binary AMAB person who is transfeminine, and feels a vague association with femininity".
"Demigirl" and "demiguy" were added to the AVEN Gender Definitions Masterlist on December 12, 2010.[3]
By October 14, 2011, "demigirl" and "demiguy" had been added to the Genderqueer Identities & Terminology page of the popular blog Genderqueerid.[4] The blog owner, Marilyn Roxie, had collected data for a survey of genderqueer people that year, (September 15 - October 15) and added demiboy and demigirl as options. Nine people selected "demiboy", and seven people selected "demigirl".[5]
This lead to an increase in awareness of these identities and by early 2014 the prefix demi- was commonly known in relation to genders. At an unknown point between October 2011 and 2014 the common definition of demigirl shifted from the previously stated definition to "someone who is partially a woman".
Flag
The demigirl flag was created by Tumblr user Transrants on or before July 4, 2015.[6] There is no confirmed color meanings, but it is commonly assumed that the greys represent a partial connection and the grey areas, the pink represents womanhood or femininity, and the white represents agender or non-binary identity.
The demigirl symbol was designed by a group of non-binary Brazilians on October 2, 2014.[7] It is the female/Venus symbol with half of the extending cross removed
Resources
- ↑ https://www.asexuality.org/en/topic/52633-transwhatevers-of-aven/page/728/?tab=comments#comment-1733093
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20110415202533/http://yada.wikia.com:80/wiki/Demigirl
- ↑ https://www.asexuality.org/en/topic/159465-gender-definitions-masterlist-forum-ettiquette-and-faq/
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20111014042115/http://genderqueerid.com:80/gq-terms
- ↑ https://genderqueerid.com/gqhealth
- ↑ https://www.deviantart.com/pride-flags/art/Demigirl-1-543925418?q=sort%3Atime%20((demigender)%20AND%20(by%3APride-Flags))&qo=51
- ↑ https://www.deviantart.com/cari-rez-lobo/art/Gender-Symbols-486052086