MOGAI Discourse; a critical analysis.

created 06:27, 26 June 2020
last edited 03:41, 28 June 2020

MOGAI is an all-inclusive acronym for the LGBT+ community standing for Marginalized Orientations, Genders and Intersex. This acronym has a lot of controversy, and is targetted with many accusations of being a community of people turning the queer community into a 'trend'. Here we will be doing a critical analysis of the acronym, and whether or not it is helpful.

Glossary

MOGAI - Marginalized Orientations, Genders and Intersex
Queer - Any form of LGBTQ+ identity
LGBTQ+ - Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and more.
Cisgender - Someone who strictly identifies as the gender they were assigned at birth.
Straight - Someone who is attracted to the opposite gender.
Cishet - Someone who is both straight and cisgender.
Gay - Someone attracted to the same gender.
Lesbian - A woman who is attracted to the same gender.
Bisexual - Someone attracted to two or more genders.
Trans - Someone who does not identify as the gender they were assigned at birth.
Non-binary - Someone who does not strictly identify as either a man or a woman.
Pan - Someone attracted to all genders.
Allo - Someone who is able to experience attraction, the opposite of asexual or aromantic.
Micro-labels - Labels to describe small details in ones identity.
Anxiegender - A gender affected by anxiety.
Exclusion - Leaving certain things or people out of a group, in this case the LGBTQ+ community.
Cupioromantic - Someone who does not experience romantic attraction but still desires a romantic relationship.
Trixensexual - Someone who is exclusively attracted to women and non-binary people.
Marginalized - When a group or person is treated as a lesser or insignificant.

Arguments for the MOGAI Acronym

MOGAI is shadowed with many accusations of glorifying oppression and the discrimination the queer community faces for the sake of being apart of a trend, but is it a trend? Why is MOGAI helpful?

Less clunky

If you were to have an a letter for everyone in the LGBTQ+ acronym without leaving anybody out, you would have LGBTQIAPKCDEFHJMNORSUVWXYZ2 which is riddled with flaws, being too long, being hard to memorize, and in general sounding ridiculous. MOGAI is a 5 letter, short and all inclusive acronym.

All inclusive

MOGAI represents all people who diverge from the societal norm of being cisgender, straight and allo in 5 letters without 'prioritizing' other orientations, and treating everyone with equality and respect.

Validates obscure identities

The acronym MOGAI does not exclude anybody, and in 5 letters accounts for trans people, non-binary people, gay people, lesbians, bi people, pan people, the list can go on but for the sake of brevity we shall stop there.

Arguments Against the MOGAI Acronym

MOGAI is shadowed with many accusations of glorifying oppression and the discrimination the queer community faces for the sake of being apart of a trend, but is it a trend? Why could MOGAI be harmful?

Coining "unnecessary" labels

MOGAI has a reputation of coining obscure micro-labels for the slightest difference in orientation or gender, which to some may seem ridiculous and unnecessary; potentially harming the cause for equal rights by confusing people outside of the LGBT+ community.

These unnecessary labels are sometimes called offensive as to some they may seem ridiculous, for example in the case of Anxiegender, a term that describes any form of gender identity affected by anxiety, which can be seen as a glorification of anxiety, in my personal eyes it is not, but rather a term to more accurately describe certain people's experiences.

Allows cishets into the community

The acronym is accused of letting everyone into the community, but this argument is inherently exclusionary because it implies that obscure identities do not deviate from the societal norm of being straight, cisgender and allo which is a completely opinion based argument.

Glorification of mental illness

Many times you can see MOGAI blogs glorifying mental illnesses, such as in the case of the depression pride flag or misophonia pride flag, which may make mental illness look like a cool and quirky trend, which is damaging to society as a whole because of the brutal mortality rates and risks of mental illness.

Discussion

The discourse has many arguments, most very similar to eachother but this blog post has stored some of the main ones, now I shall be giving my personal opinion on the matter.

"Allowing cishets into the community"

The whole point of MOGAI is marginalized orientations, genders and intersex. If an orientation or gender is not marginalized, it is not a MOGAI identity, and the claim that some of the more obscure identities are merely opinion based and inherently exclusionary.

Micro-labels

Micro-labels are a form of jargon to connect with other members of the queer community to easily express and explain ones personal experiences; for example, someone interested in flags may know what a canton, hoist, fimbriation, bordure or fess is but in a normal conversation these words would not be used as communication is a two way street, and if the other person fails to understand you, you have failed to communicate a point. For example, a cupioromantic trixensexual person may not tell people upon meeting for the first time that they are a cupioromantic trixensexual person because they are very obscure, unknown terms, instead these labels may just be summarised with the term "bisexual".

Glorification of mental illness

I think the glorification of mental illness is a fucked up thing to do, as someone diagnosed with depression, anxiety, OCD and a potential eating disorder I am repulsed by the depression pride flag. However, I believe this to be the fault of the creator and people who make these flags rather then MOGAI as a whole, because 4chan claimed in 2017 that the LGBTQ+ community was adding a P for 'pedosexual' does that mean it was true? No, the P stands for pansexual.

Conclusion

I personally see no problem with MOGAI, though other peoples opinions may differ, and I believe that people have the right to define their orientation or gender how they please rather then letting other people speak for them. A reader may disagree with the points I make, but at the end of the day, just be kind to each other, rather then responding with hostility to what you disagree with, engage in a healthy discussion or debate.

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