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Androgyne of the Archeart, phlog edition |
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Queer Etymology: Enby |
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This post was initially published on Androgyne of the Archeart on |
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16 December 2019 and republished on 20 September 2020. It can be found on the |
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web at https://blog.sixy.name/2020/09/20/queer-etymology-enby/ |
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There's a lot of misinformation about various LGBT/Queer terms, especially when |
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it comes to neologisms coined on social media where the origin may not be well- |
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documented. For this post, I'm going to address the etymology of the word 'enby' |
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and the misconceptions around it. |
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The context of this post is that within the last few months I have become aware |
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of discussions around the term 'enby' and the initialism it is derived from: NB. |
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Due to NB being an initialism also used in discussions of race to mean non- |
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Black, some people of color have asked that people not use the initialism to |
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mean nonbinary. A lot of people in these discussions have made the claim that |
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the word 'enby' was coined by nonbinary people of color as an alternative to the |
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initialism. This claim is false in all respects. |
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This September 2013 post[1], originally from Tumblr user revolutionator[note] is |
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the origin of the term |
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> i wish there was an nb equivalent to words like boys and girls |
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> |
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> nb |
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> |
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> enby |
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> |
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> enbies |
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'Enby' is literally just intended as a nonbinary equivalent to 'boy' and 'girl', |
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and the discussion of initialism collision with 'non-Black' came years later as |
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far as I can tell. And as many nonbinary people have brought up, the term can be |
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quite infantilizing [see 2021 addendum] and should not be used for people who |
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don't use it for themself. |
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As for the other part of the false claim, that it was coined by a person of |
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color, I'll let this (partially redacted for privacy on a locked account) |
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screenshot of the coiner's Twitter profile say all that needs to be said about |
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that: |
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[twitter.png] |
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[Image description] |
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Screenshot of someone's Twitter bio that says: |
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vector/nonbin/29/white. coined "enby" lol. love ghosts and my friends. |
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[japanese text not able to be copypasted from image]. nb lesbian married2cat. |
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im british i just live in america |
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[End image description] |
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Note: The link is to a Wayback archive of a reblog by Tumblr user faunmoss from |
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6 years ago as of this writing in 2019. The original post itself is on a blog |
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that Vector last posted to in 2015, with a large string of numbers as the |
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current username and behind the post-2018 NSFW filter, which breaks links to |
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direct posts outside the mobile app. Reblogging to drafts from mobile and |
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checking the timestamp with Xkit shows the OP was posted on 10 September 2013: |
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[tumblr.png] |
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[Image description] |
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Screenshot of the quoted revolutionator post. The displayed username is |
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02348294832908091 and the timestamp says it was posted on September 10th 2013 |
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[End image description] |
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[1]: https://web.archive.org/web/20191201064221/https://faunmoss.tumblr.com/post/61760779664/revolutionator-i-wish-there-was-an-nb |
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2021 Addendum: A couple years later, I'm not really happy with how I phrased |
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this. While 'enby' can be infantilizing, it's no more so than the words it was |
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coined as an analogue of (i.e. 'boy' and 'girl'). |
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