Kenochoric refers to an umbrella term that is centered around the idea of kenopsia: the eerie atmosphere of a place that's has been abandoned. It is a broad label with many different variations and traits, ranging from eerie, lonely, and vast, to unstable, genderless, and nostalgic, among other things. It may be considered a gender of its own, or be used as a modifier.
Kenochoric is not inherently a part of any other gender label (with some not even identifying as nonbinary), but for some, it may be considered a xenogender, a neurogender, and/or an aesthetigender. Kenochoric itself may be aligned as well, with examples being kenomasc, kenofem, and kenofluid,[1] as well as kenovir, kenoera, and kenoavire.[2]
The term for kenochoric-in-nature is KEIN. Kenochoric alignment is referred to as kenic (or voidrian if one wishes to use the galactian alignments.)[3]
Kenochoric can generally be classified with the following traits:
- A connection to things like liminal spaces, voids, darkness, vast concepts (ocean, space, etc.), distortion, or similar.
- A lonely, empty, eerie, or melancholy feeling.
- Some kind of disconnect from gender. This can mean genderlessness, an empty or absent feeling, gender apathy, a distortion of one's gender, or just a general disconnect.
- An unstable, hard to define, hard to name, or generally "unstable" relationship with gender.
- A strange, nostalgic, foggy, wistful, etc. feeling.
- A sense that one's gender is not human, or that it is unable to be defined with human definitions (or any definitions).
In depth explanations of these definitions can be found on the kenochoric Carrd. The coiner has also stated that it is okay if someone considers themself kenochoric while not perfectly fitting under its definition.[4]
Kenochoric Genders
There are many genders that fall under kenochoric, with the vast majority of them being on its Carrd. Some of its most popular ones include:
History
Kenochoric was made by Tumblr user kenochoric on November 18, 2020.[5] Terms such as neagender had been created before this point, but had later been put under this umbrella term. Since this point, a Carrd was made by the creator, with consistent updates for new terms.[6] Furthermore, an archive blog exists on Tumblr to document them quicker.[7]
The flag for kenochoric had been created on the same day as the term. The stripes have the following meanings: Black represents the void, absence, emptiness, and darkness. Dark purple represents disconnect with gender, obscurity and a difficulty to properly define itself. Purple represents vast concepts and places, such as oceans and deep space. Light purple represents liminal spaces, transitional spaces, the "boundary" between what was and what is.
Etymology
The term kenochoric stems from the word kenopsia. Kenopsia is an eerie, forlorn atmosphere of a place that’s usually bustling with people, but is now abandoned. It can also be loosely tied back to the word choric, which refers to a chorus, something that may be a part of a kenochoric persons' aesthetics. It was originally called kenocoric, but was changed because kenopsiacore does not currently exist.