Stargender
A gender described through celestial imagery.
Stargender describes a gender whose experience is conveyed through stars or celestial imagery. Like colorgender it belongs to the xenogender family, where the description reaches outside the usual vocabulary.
Related terms in the same family include lunarian, for gender described through the moon, and solarian, through the sun. People who use them typically say the image is doing descriptive work rather than aesthetic work.
The family as a whole is the most mocked corner of gender vocabulary, and also the corner where people are most often trying to describe something genuinely difficult with the tools available.
Stargender is part of a family, not an isolated joke
It is usually presented as a single absurd example, detached from the xenogender family it belongs to and from the reason that family exists.
The reason is that the standard vocabulary has three reference points and some people's gender is not near any of them. Borrowing an image is what is left.
Saying it well
Say this
- My gender is stargender.
- Celestial, and I mean that descriptively.
- Lunarian and solarian are in the same family.
- The image is the most accurate thing I have.
Not this
- Your gender is not a star
- This is satire, surely
- That is an aesthetic
- Nobody actually uses that
Questions people actually ask
What does stargender mean?
A gender described through stars or celestial imagery, part of the xenogender family.
What are lunarian and solarian?
Related terms in the same family, describing gender through the moon and the sun.
Why use an image instead of a word?
Because the standard vocabulary has few reference points and some people's gender is near none of them.