Shadowlesbian



Shadowlesbian is an orientation affected by the fact one is transmasculine, a trans man, transneutral, nonbinary, or just not a woman (includes multigender and genderfluid/genderflux/fluidflux individuals), as they either are dysphoric about being called a woman, and/or experience a disconnection from traditional womanhood. They may describe their attraction as any of the following: MLW; MLNB; MLX; NBLW; NBLNB; NBLX, etc – but they don’t identify their labels as WLW; WLNB; or WLX due to reasons listed above. With a multigender and/or genderfluid/genderflux/fluidflux identity, one feels not straight when with a woman and/or has a fluctuating level of dysphoria where they may sometimes view their attraction as sapphic/lesbian in nature, or as WLW; WLNB; WLX. To express that disconnection, the prefix shadow- is used. It can also be called shadowsapphic.

This term also includes those whose orientation is fluid and/or flux. They may not 100% identify with the label lesbian due to barely experiencing attraction to women (or in general), having an attraction to women that feels lesbian but also not, having an attraction to women that is fluid between queer and queern't, and/or experiencing attraction through a lesbian or sapphic lens.

In simpler terms, a shadowlesbian may be defined as the following:


 * 1) Being multigender and/or genderfluid/genderflux/fluidflux but never WLW, yet feeling like their attraction to women is gai.
 * 2) Being m-spec and not WLW, yet feeling a connection to the label.
 * 3) Being too dysphoric about being called a woman/girl/being thought of as one, yet being either NBLW, MLW or XLW with a connection to the lesbian label.
 * 4) Having a fluid/flux orientation where one is not 100% a lesbian for whatever reason that may be, but one retains a connection to the lesbian label.
 * 5) Feeling as though one is a lesbian, but also not.

History
The shadow- orientations (shadowlesbian, shadowgay, and shadowturian) were first coined by Tumblr user ashix0trender0juice on 19 July 2020, with shadowenbian and shadowstraight being coined later. The flags were made around the same time. The blog has been deleted, but the user remade as sir-eldritch. The flags were also redesigned and posted on 27 June 2022.

A redesign of the shadow- flags, including a new shadowsapphic flag, were created by Tumblr user thepokedexisgay. The shadowlesbian redesign was posted on 27 February 2021, and the shadowsapphic flag was posted 28 February 2021.