Shadowstraight is an orientation that has one of two definitions:
- An orientation affected by the fact that one is transmasculine, a trans man, transneutral, nonbinary, or just not a woman (includes multigender and genderfluid/genderflux/fluidflux folxs), as they either are dysphoric about being called a woman, and/or experience a disconnection from traditional womanhood. They may describe their attraction as any of the following: MLM; MLNB; MLX; NBLM; NBLNB; NBLX, etc – but they don’t identify their labels as WLM due to reasons listed above. With a multigender and/or genderfluid/genderflux/fluidflux identity, one feels straight when with a woman and/or has a fluctuating level of dysphoria where they may sometimes view their attraction as bennetian (straight/julietian) in nature, or as WLM.
- An orientation affected by the fact one is transfeminine, a trans woman, transneutral, nonbinary, or just not a man (includes multigender and genderfluid/genderflux/fluidflux folxs), as they either are dysphoric about being called a man, and/or experience a disconnection from traditional manhood. They may describe their attraction as any of the following: WLW; WLNB; MLX; NBLW; NBLNB; NBLX, etc – but they don’t identify their labels as MLW due to reasons listed above. With a multigender and/or genderfluid/genderflux/fluidflux identity, one feels straight when with a man and/or has a fluctuating level of dysphoria where they may sometimes view your attraction as darcian (straight/romeric) in nature, or as MLW.
In either case, to express the disconnection, the prefix shadow- is used.
This term also includes those whose orientation is fluid and/or flux. They may not 100% identify with the label straight due to barely experiencing attraction to men/women (or in general), having an attraction to men/women that feels straight but also not, having an attraction to men/women that is fluid between queer and queern't, and/or experiencing attraction through a straight or bennetian/darcian lens.
In simpler terms, shadowstraight may be defined as the following:
- Being multigender/genderfluid/genderflux/fluidflux but never MLW, yet feeling like their attraction to women is strayt. Likewise, being multigender/genderfluid/genderflux/fluidflux but never WLM, yet feeling like their attraction to men is strayt.
- Being m-spec and not WLM or MLW, yet feeling a connection to the label depending on your gender identity.
- Being too dysphoric about being called a woman/girl/being thought of as one, yet being either NBLM, MLM or XLM with a connection to the straight label. Likewise, being too dysphoric about being called a man/boy/being thought of as one, yet being either NBLW, WLW or XLW with a connection to the straight label.
- Having a fluid/flux orientation where one is not 100% straight for whatever reason that may be, but one retains a connection to the straight label.
- Feeling as though one is straight, but also not.[1]
This can also be called shadowduaric, shadowbennetian, or shadowdarcian.
History
The shadow- orientations (shadowlesbian, shadowgay, and shadowturian) were first coined by Tumblr user ashix0trender0juice on 19 July 2020, with shadowenbian and shadowstraight being coined later on 26 August 2020. The flags were made around the same time. The blog has been deleted, but the user remade as sir-eldritch. The flags were also redesigned and posted on 27 June 2022.[1]
A redesign of the shadow- flags were created by Tumblr user thepokedexisgay. The shadowstraight redesign was posted 28 February 2021.[2]