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Demi-gender

'Demi-gender' is an online-grown identity label in which someone reports identifying 'partially' with a particular gender. The Latin 'demi-' means 'half'. Well-known variants are demiboy (partly a man/boy) and demigirl (partly a woman/girl). The term generally falls under non-binary.

What does the label mean?

According to self-descriptions, a demi-gender person identifies 'in part' with a gender category — for instance 'half' male — while the other part would be another gender, genderlessness or an undefinable experience. What being 'half a man' would mean in substance — and how such a division might be substantiated — is not made clear in the literature.

Origin and scientific status

Demi-gender is a relatively young label that arose mostly in online LGBTQ+ communities and on Tumblr/Discord-like platforms. There is hardly any clinical or scientific literature in which demi-gender is investigated and validated as a separate category. That makes it a typical example of what critics call 'identity proliferation': a rapidly expanding assortment of self-descriptions without a shared definition or empirical basis.

A critical point: 'partial identification' with a sex is, for most people — across the ages — the rule rather than the exception. Almost no one fits every gender cliché. Whether that justifies a separate identity category, or rather indicates that the strict distinction between 'real' and 'not real' gender identities is too narrow, is open to debate.

Demi-gender and dysphoria

Not all demi-gender persons report gender dysphoria. For some the label describes an inner experience without distress; for others it comes with complaints. Anyone considering medical care on the basis of such a label would do well to realise that hormones and surgery are far-reaching and partly irreversible — a consideration that is not necessarily made well in the diffuse field of identity labels.

Usage and terminology

The terminology around demi-gender is not standardised. Alongside demiboy and demigirl, demi-nonbinary, demi-genderfluid and countless other combinations circulate. Related labels are genderflux (shifting intensity of the gender feeling) and genderfae (fluid within the feminine spectrum). What someone precisely means by a term depends strongly on the person; that makes the label of little use for general language and policy purposes.