Gender & Sexualities

Atheirdin's view on gender and sexuality is much different to ours. This page talks specifically about the human cultures around gender & sexuality - this may differ for other species, particularly humanesque cultures, in some cases.

**Gender** is about how you present yourself, regardless of biological sex and/or genitalia. There are fashion, accessory, and physical traits that make up each of the 3 main gender presentations, each along with their own respective pronouns. The three gender identities are Femme (feminine), Masc (masculine), and Andro (androgynous/neutral). Femme people use she/her pronouns, Masc people use he/him, and Andro use they/them. Pronouns and identities change whenever you like depending on how a person presents themselves; one person could dress femme one day and then masc the next, even if it doesn't match their birth sex. Atheirdin does not have a concept of birth genders or being assigned a sex at birth.

**Sexuality** gives you a label that defines which presentation you are attracted to. There are 8 sexualities which each encompass different attractions. These can change over time and are not fixed, permanent identities, much like gender identities. As sexual attraction is not as stigmatised as it is in our world, Atheirdin does *not* have a form of the LGBTQ+ community, homophobia issues, or hate against anyone of particular sexualities. It is a normalised part of the universe's culture.

## Gender

There are 4 different main gender identities in Atheirdin.

* Femme - Those who present themselves as feminine. Usually use she/her pronouns.
* Masc - Those who present themselves as masculine. Usually use he/him pronouns.
* Andro - Those who present themselves as androgynous. Usually use they/them pronouns.
* Unknown - Those who present as something different or are part of a different species. Usually use alternative pronouns (typically from their own languages).

The 4th gender is 'Unknown' and refers to those who may be from other species (such as humanesques that follow a different style of gender presentation). It can also be used for humans when you cannot tell how someone is presenting - for example, someone who wears traits of both Femme & Masc and you cannot tell which identity they prefer to be referred to as.

When a child is born, it is common practise for the parents to choose how they prefer to dress their child until they can pick themselves. Parents will typically opt to dress them Andro, At the age of 10 in Atheirdin (which is age 5 for us), the child can then pick how they identify and present themselves. By the age of 20 (10 for us), a child normally understands what their identity is and what they enjoy dressing as.

## Sexuality

In Atheirdin, sexualities depend on the gender presentation of others.

There are 8 different sexualities:

* Renar(o/a) - Attracted to masc
* Fenar(o/a) - Attracted to femme
* Aenar(o/a) - Attracted to androgynous
* Tenar(o/a) - Attracted to all
* Refenar(o/a) - Attracted to masc & femme
* Fenae(ro/ra) - Attracted to femme & andro
* Renae(ro/ra) - Attracted to masc & andro
* Onar(o/a) - Attracted to none

Each sexuality has a set prefix that correlates to your personal gender identity. For example, Renar is the base word for those attracted to Masc. If someone identifies as Masc too, then the word will become Renaro. If someone identifies as Femme, the word will become Renara. If someone identifies as Andro, the word will stay as Renar. This is the same across all of the identities, the 'o' is added for Masc and the 'a' is added for Femme. The only one that has a slightly different prefix is Fenae - it becomes Fenaero (Masc), Fenaera (Femme), and Fenae (Andro).

Some of the sexualities have equivalents in our world. For example, Onar is similar to being aromantic/asexual & Tenar is similar to being pansexual.

The way sexualities are stated is by saying 'I am \_'. For example, saying 'I'm Fenara' would be a Femme-presenting person who is attracted to other Femme people. 'I'm Fenara' would be the direct way of saying 'I'm Femme attracted to Femme'.