Genderfluid means the gender underneath changes over time, so man, woman, both, neither, or something with no name at all can each be accurate depending on the day. Genderfaun is a kind of genderfluid, the way a labrador is a kind of dog, with one direction closed. It never goes feminine. Not on a soft day, not on a tired day, not after a haircut.
Everyone who is genderfaun could truthfully say genderfluid instead. The narrower word exists so you are not repeatedly explaining the half of the range that is missing. And the test between the two is unusually clean: if you have had a feminine day, even one, even years ago, genderfluid is the word. The exception is the entire content of the other one.
How to tell them apart
- Look for the exception. One feminine day, ever: genderfluid. None at all, and you have tested it deliberately, more than once: genderfaun.
- Separate "less masculine" from "feminine". The Genderfaun page says its readers can tell those two apart and only the first ever happens to them. Genderfluid includes both.
- Ask what "she" does. Genderfaun: wrong in every weather, a slap on man days and merely inaccurate on nothing days. Genderfluid: it may land right some weeks, and that is exactly the point.
More likely Genderfluid
- You have had feminine days. Even rarely, even briefly, even years ago.
- The range is open in every direction and nothing is fenced off. You cannot name a place your gender will never go.
- You do not need a word that says where you never go, only one that says you move.
More likely Genderfaun
- You have tried the dress on, sat with the word "she", waited for a day that would make it fit. It did not come, and you tried more than once.
- You hesitated over "trans man" because of the weeks you are not one, and over "genderfluid" because people then ask about your girl days.
- Being read as masculine on a nothing day is survivable. Being read as feminine on any day is a different order of thing.
When both words are honestly available
- Always, in one direction. Genderfaun is a kind of genderfluid; most people who use the word call it that, and the wider word is there for any room where the narrower one needs explaining.
- Only in that direction. A genderfluid person with feminine days cannot honestly take the narrower word, because the missing half of the range is the whole of what it says.
What people get wrong
Genderfaun is genderfluid with extra syllables.
It is genderfluid with a stated boundary, and the boundary is the whole point. It exists so you stop being asked where your girl days went.
If you are never feminine you must present masculine, or have a problem with femininity.
Presentation is not gender. There are genderfaun people who are femme every single day in how they look and never once feminine in what they are.
Questions people ask
- Is genderfaun just genderfluid?
- It is a kind of genderfluid. Everyone who is genderfaun could say genderfluid instead and be telling the truth. The narrower word adds one fact: the fluidity never goes feminine. If that fact is doing work in your life, if you are tired of explaining the missing half, the narrower word earns its place.
- Can I be genderfaun if I wear dresses or makeup?
- Yes. Presentation and gender come apart on both pages. A genderfluid woman in a suit on Monday and a dress on Friday is not fluid unless the thing underneath moved; a genderfaun person in eyeliner and a long skirt is not feminine unless the thing underneath is. Clothes are not the test.