The Recontextualization and Disidentification of Gender

Maverinity is an autonomous gender quality that lies outside of masculine, feminine, neutral, and null - this makes it an outherine identity. While it is obvious that the intrinsic categories that maverinity falls into are autonomous and outherine (both at the same time), there are two very distinct features to this autonomy that are specific to the maverine experience: The recontextualization of gender and the disidentification of gender.

Autonomy starts with a separation from any governance, which is why maverique - a “maverick-like” gender - gets its name from being a maverick of sorts. It stands out, existing separately from any pre-established gender category. It isn't masculine, feminine, neutral, or null but is a distinct gendered feeling based on the “personal inner conviction” of one's gender. What this means is that our gender is defined by ourselves with none of the stringencies that come from conventional gender. Maverinity, the gender quality tied to being maverique, exists outside of the norm just the same.

When we recontextualize gender for ourselves, we reshape what it means to be a specific gender and shake up the expectations connected to it. If I were to use my own gender as an example, I would say that my malehood is of a maverine quality. While it may look like traditional malehood from someone else's perspective, its experience is far outside of the binary and is more comparable to abinarity. But it is the reshaping of my malehood that makes this gender experience an autonomous one, not simply an abinary or outherine one.

Maverinity is also the recontextualization of gender itself, rather than relying on existing genders as the context. Most people might think of gender as binary, nonbinary, multigender, neutral, and genderless (as very broad terms for several corresponding genders.) A maverine gender does not fit in with any of these terms, giving us a brand-new category for genders that doesn’t look like typical genderedness. This means that maverinity can recontextualize existing genders as well as gender as a whole: How this manifests will change from person to person depending on what maverinity means to them.

Disidentification is the other part of gender autonomy. It is the rejection of gendered expectations and of the rigidity that comes with being forced into a box. For example, one might have a gender that is not binary, but they may elect to not call themselves nonbinary or abinary either. Just because that person technically fits the definition of nonbinarity or abinarity doesn't mean they should feel obligated to use those terms - they are removed from the categories they would normally be forced into that would correspond with their gender. As for myself: I'm a transgender man but I reject “transmasculine” as an identifier. I am not transmasculine even though the general consensus supports that trans men automatically fall under that category. My transgender identity - my masculinity - is maverine-in-nature, which is why I call myself transmaverine instead.

Disidentification is what makes maverinity not feminine, not masculine, not neutral, and not genderless. It is defined, in this context, by what it is not. It establishes itself as a quality that cannot be forced into any one of these categories and is often not comparable to such. It is removed from specific identifying categories and is, instead, within its own category. Disidentification does not start and end with breaking expectations of specific genderedness, but extends to the idea that maverinity by default and on its own cannot be categorized using conventional means.

It's important to note that maverinity doesn’t just exist as a way to transform or transcend gender conventionality. It is very much outside of existing genders and of any comparison to such and because of this, it doesn't have to use midbinarity to establish itself nor does it need to even be compared to abinarity. When someone is maverine, that more than likely means they have an outherine identity with no proximity to the binary or binary-related concepts. There are plenty of singular maverine genders and specific maverine qualities that are simply based on one’s personal belief of their own gender that can’t be compared to any other gender. The variability of the maverine quality is why it works so well for so many people. Recontextualization and disidentification is only one fraction of how that quality presents itself.