Nymgirl or abingirl refers to an abinary girl, a person who identifies as a girl but in a way removed entirely from the gender binary. It is a type of girlhood that lacks ties to the gender-binary, including a relationship to binary girlhood, womanhood, femaleness, cisness, female-alignment, binary femininity, and most other widespread connotations of girlhood. Nymgirls may even see their girlhood as anonbinary or something else entirely.
The term is a combination of the words "homonym" and "girl". A nymgirl describing their gender identity as “girl” is utilizing a homonym, because their gender, which they call “girl”, is a separate gender from the binary gender “girl,” despite the fact that the two genders have the same name. It refers to those who repurpose or redefine the word girl in an abinary way. Nymgirls may also choose to come up with their own definition of girl to more accurately describe specifically how they experience girlhood outside of the binary-gender system. Some possible examples of nymgirl experiences include:
- Feeling as though their gender is the place where the binary gender girl used to be.
- Having a gender that started out as the binary gender “girl” but has become something else entirely, while still feeling as if the name “girl” applies to that gender.
- Using the word girl in contexts which do not pertain to the gender binary.
- Feeling as though their girlhood is unrelated to or cannot be explained in relation to boyhood.
- Having a gender that sounds like the word girl but is spelled differently, and is thus may be a different gender (qirl, gxrl, g*rl, and etc.)
- Feeling connected to attributes of girlhood that are unrelated to binary gender.
- Experiencing a version of girlhood in a gender system that is not the Western binary-gender system.
- Feeling gender euphoria from being called a girl despite being completely outside the gender binary.
- Feeling as though the abinary aspects of their identity cancels out or removes the binary gendered meaning of the word girl.
The boy alternative to nymgirl is nymboy.
History
Nym- and nymboy were coined by Tumblr user Xenoleaf on August 31, 2020; however, nymgirl was coined by Reddit user u/hiitsyaz, on August 26, 2021, due to wanting the girl equivalent of nymboy. Nymgirl has an extremely similar history to nymboy in terms of the reasoning on why it was created in the first place.
Nymgirl is also an attempt to call attention to the fact that “girl” itself is an umbrella term and can have a lot of different meanings, definitions, and connotations outside of its most common use in the boy/girl male/female gender binary system, as is nymboy.
Flag
The nymgirl flag was created by FANDOM user LazyKxtie on August 26, 2021, as requested by FANDOM user FoxBanana.[1]