Genderfluidity vs plurality

Being genderfluid means that you have a gender identity that regularly changes over time. Changes in identity may be accompanied by changes in your pronouns, name and gender expression. You may notice here a similarity to plurality, especially median and monoconscious – headmates may have different genders, names, pronouns and appearances. Through passive influence or memory sharing systems may also experience changes in their gender identity.

Human experiences are complex and often there are no clear boundries between them. The most important thing is to find terms that according to your judgement best desribe your experiences – you are free to identify both as plural and genderfluid. With that said, experience that usually helps to tell apart changes in gender identity in plurality vs genderfluidity is a feeling that your gender was always the same and has naver actually changed. Let's look at Alex, an example of a genderfluid person: today Alex is a girl, but for the last couple of days they were agender. When she thinks about herself from these few days, she still feels she's the same person, she just is different gender rigth now. She would describe her gender as alternating and not a single one of her genders seems more real to her (although she may prefer one of them). And now let's look at an example of a monoconscious system with a host named Sofia. When alter named Mark takes control from her, he will remember that just moments ago he was feeling feminine, but this feeling may seem foreign, false, not belonging to him (or at the same time belonging, but not belonging to him). He may try to explain it away, for example by concluding that he is just great at getting into the girl character society expects him to perform. But he will know without a doubt that he is not and never was a girl, even if for some time he did believe he was due to societal expectations. But when Sofia comes back to front, the memory of feeling masculine will be strange to her. She may feel it must have been some mistake, maybe because she knows some trans people she started questioning her gender too much and came to the wrong conclusions. When they start searching for something about their experiences and stumble upon genderfluidity, they will feel it's not exactly rigth – Sofia's gender is always the same, as is Mark's gender. Obviously these are just illustrative examples and your experiences don't need to look exactly the same for you to use a certain label.

Of course there are plenty of other signs that it's plurality and not just genderfluidity, like changes in interests, skills, handwriting or mental age. If you are able to find at least two versions of yourself that are the same gender, it may be another sign of plurality. Another clue may be transition plans changing alongside the gender identity. Getting back to our examples, Alex sometimes feels uncomfortable with typically feminine parts of her body and wishes they could disappear, but they won't consider an actual surgery, because most of the time they feel good in their body and they deal with dysphoria by binding and wearing androgynous clothing. Mark on the other hand is sure that he wants to go through full transition, in the begining not considering the fact that Sofia doesn't want to change their body at all, because he still belives she is just his social role. Only when they learn about plurality and start a conversation with each other, they will be able to achive an agreement that will help them both be somewhat comfortable in the body. Maybe they will also discover they are not the only ones – those feelings of being a little girl and strong woman that won't give up on anything may turn out to be a separate parts of Sofia and the former will call herself little Sofia, while the latter will later choose a name Veronica.

Created: 10.02.2025
Translated: 14.05.2025
Last update: 14.05.2025