Cryptidgender

Cryptidgender is an identity that can describe a person's gender as connected to cryptids, mysterious creatures, or their strange, otherworldly qualities. The term also has an earlier, more specific meaning related to how some people with psychotic disorders experience their gender.

A cryptid is a creature whose existence is claimed or rumored but has not been scientifically confirmed. Examples include Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, and Mothman. Cryptids are often associated with folklore, urban legends, and unexplained sightings.

People who use the term cryptidgender may connect their gender to cryptids in a few ways:

• Identification with cryptids: Some describe their gender as being a cryptid, or as feeling like a mysterious, nonhuman creature.
• Connection to specific creatures: Others connect their gender to Bigfoot, Mothman, shapeshifters, or other particular cryptids.
• Feeling outside conventional gender categories: Some people use cryptidgender because they experience their gender as simultaneously masculine, feminine, neither, and something more.
• Aesthetic connections: Cryptid-related imagery, including forests, darkness, mysterious creatures, and supernatural phenomena, can provide a way to represent someone's gender.
• Nonhuman identity: Some people's sense of gender overlaps with otherkin and alterhuman communities, where people describe themselves as nonhuman in some sense.

Cryptidgender falls under the broader umbrella of xenogender. This term describes gender identities through concepts outside traditional male and female categories, including animals, nature, fictional creatures, and abstract ideas.

The Cryptid Gender System

Some people see cryptidgender as part of a wider gender system that includes:

• Cryptidmasc: A cryptid-related masculine gender identity within the system.
• Cryptidnonbinary: A gender described as being a nonbinary cryptid.
• Cryptiddemigender: A gender combining cryptid identity with demigender.
• Cryptidfeline: A gender associated with being a feline cryptid.
• Cryptidshapeshifter: A gender associated with being a shapeshifting cryptid.

This system allows people to describe identities combining cryptid-related concepts with other characteristics.

Origins of the Term Cryptidgender

Cryptidgender developed within online xenogender and MOGAI communities, particularly on Tumblr. Its name combines "cryptid," a mysterious creature whose existence has not been scientifically confirmed, with "gender."

One of the earliest documented uses dates to September 17, 2020, when Tumblr user @LucidChaos published a post coining cryptidgender. The creator described their gender as inconsistent or difficult to understand and connected to a nonhuman, supernatural, or mythical perspective. They specifically described it as a neurogender associated with experiencing a psychotic disorder.

The concept has roots in earlier xenogender terminology. In 2014, Tumblr user @puurpel coined cryptogender, a closely related term describing a mysterious, difficult-to-define gender that evokes cryptids and the paranormal.

During the early 2020s, additional cryptid-related gender identities appeared in online communities, including labels associated with particular cryptids, nonhuman experiences, and cryptid-inspired aesthetics.

Today, cryptidgender is used in several overlapping ways, generally describing a gender connected to cryptids, their mysterious qualities, or a sense of being outside conventional human gender categories.

Related Terms

• Cryptid
• Xenogender
• Otherkin