Gender Alignment is a term used by some non-binary individuals to describe the way their experiences and/or gender may intersect with the gender binary. Related terms include Woman aligned, man aligned, and sometimes neutral aligned or unaligned. The terms feminine aligned and masculine aligned are also sometimes used but these are not interchangeable with woman/man aligned. Someone with a feminine gender is not necessarily a woman or related to women, and someone with a masculine gender is not necessarily a man or related to men. Additionally some non-binary people feel a connection to womanhood/manhood but their gender does not feel feminine/masculine.
There is no consistent definition of gender alignment. The term is intentionally vague and it can be used to describe several different things. Possible meanings can include:
- A non-binary person with a vague or partial connection to masculinity/femininity and/or to manhood/womanhood. (Such as in proxvir/juxera, as well as libragenders, or demigenders.)
- Someone who connects to manhood/womanhood through experiencing man/woman specific attraction. For example, someone may be feminine aligned because they are a lesbian/feel attraction to women as a woman.
- A genderfluid person who is sometimes a man/woman or partially a man/woman, but sometimes is not.
- A non-binary person who presents masculinely/femininely (regardless of their actual gender).
- Someone connected to manhood/womanhood through their experience with society. They may be treated as and/or have experiences similar to that of a man/woman. This includes interacting with the patriarchy as a man/woman.
Gender alignment is something that one may identify as, but not all non-binary people use gender alignment. Just because someone identifies themself as a certain alignment doesn't mean that someone with a similar gender and/or experience will also identify with the same alignment or even identify with alignment at all.
Terms such as masculine aligned and feminine aligned as often misused and misunderstood by people who are not non-binary, and are sometimes use to imply that non-binary people are actually men or women. They are also misused as a way to try and associate or categorize non-binary people using the gender binary. The galactian alignment system was created as less easily misunderstood alternative to alignments based language.