In today’s post, we will be examining the variations of the bigender flag, their origins and the meanings behind the colors.
Sexuality and gender are concepts that are constantly challenged, broken down, reshaped and redefined in our era.
In the effort to decipher our sexual psyche and embrace people whose identity was previously excluded from our spectrum of gender normalcy, new symbols of social awareness arise and one of those symbols is the bigender flag.
Understanding Gender vs Sex vs Sexual Orientation
To understand the meaning of the bigender flag better, we should first revisit the notions of gender, sex and sexual orientation first.
“Sex” refers to the anatomy of a person’s genitalia and sex chromosomes. In general, the presence of a Y chromosome defines a male person while its absence defines a female person.
However, there are multiple disorders of sex development (DSDs) that might result in a hormonal and anatomical deviation from this dyad.
This can include atypical characteristics like hypospadias, clitoromegaly and ambiguous genitalia. People with DSDs often fall in the intersex category of the sex spectrum.
“Sexual orientation” refers to the sex or the gender of the people that a person is attracted to.
As the American Psychological Association puts it, “sexual orientation refers to an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic and/or sexual attractions to men, women or both sexes”.
As such, a person may be heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual or asexual. Multiple other categories are also included to describe sexual orientation and sexual preference.
“Gender”, on the other hand, is a social construct. The distinction between biological sex and gender was first advocated by sexologist John Money and his colleagues in 1955.
This relates to the societal structures that exist around the definitions of masculinity and femininity.
With the advent of the feminist theory, the term “gender roles” was used to describe the socially entrenched expectations for a man or a woman, their behavior and personality.
While most cultures have adopted a binary system for a long time, third and non-binary genders have emerged lately. This involves individuals that identify either with both sexes, the opposite sex, neither sex or are gender-fluid (fluctuating between genders).
The terms you will hear used often in the non-binary scope would be agender, demigender, transfeminine, pangender and bigender.
Bigenderism: What Does It Mean?
Bigender people may identify with both genders, have two distinct gender personalities or fluctuate between two genders.
Moreover, bigender people can identify with binary as well as non-binary genders (eg. neutrois).
According to a survey from the San Francisco Department of Public Health, in 1999, less than 3% of people assigned the male sex and less than 8% of people assigned the female sex at birth identified as bigender.
Bigender Flag: Meaning and Origins
The first bigender flag can be traced back to the Tumblr user no-bucks-for-this-doe, with the flag predating July 2014.
There has been no specific explanation regarding the coloring of the flag, but certain assumptions have been made. Many people believe that blue reflects masculinity and while pink represents femininity, as the outermost strips of the flag.
The purple hues are believed to reflect non-binary genders. As the gradient transitions to gray colors, agender, gender-fluid and neutral genders are represented.
This flag, however, has been deemed controversial, as its creator has been accused of transphobia and aggression.
The most recognized bigender flag appeared around 2015 for the first time, with the identity of its creator still being unknown. As a result, clear meanings could not be ascribed to the colors.
However, it is assumed, as with the flag by no-bucks-for-this-doe, that blue and pink represent masculinity and femininity, respectively, purple signifies androgyny, white agenderism and yellow non-binary genders.
Multiple bi-gender flags were created throughout the years, notably by the users named pastelflowers, asteri-sympan and KYmicrophone.
In 2019, the Tumblr user Lestis also created flags that incorporated red, black, orange and green stripes.
Red and its variations in pink represent different versions of femininity, and how they can be experienced by bigender people.
Yellow encaptures the camaraderie and feeling of solidarity that the genderqueer community aims to create. Green reminds us of personal development, growth and nature.
It is also interesting to note the transition of the gradient of the flags based on the mix of the three primary colors.
Created by the mixture of green, red, blue and black in equal amounts and providing the actual absence of all colors, the color white often represents agenderism/asexuality.
Bigender Flag and Similar Gender-Inclusive Flags
The bigender flag has been inspired by and has inspired various other non-binary gender identity flags, such as the bigender flag created by the user Asteri Sympan.
Usually composed of four colors, white reflects all genders, yellow represents non-masculine and non-feminine genders, black encompasses non-genders while purple reflects gender fluidity, a combination of masculinity and femininity.
In a similar way, you can view other pride flags related to gender and sexual orientation, like the pangender, polygender, neptunic and lesbian flags.
- Read our detailed article on the Pangender Flag Meaning, the origins behind it and for a contrast discussion between pansexual and pangender identification.
This wraps up our post on the bigender flag, its origin and the meaning of colors on it. Thanks for reading!
Bigender Flag, Its Meaning, Origin and Variations
