Full description of the featured image for the post “What’s in a Word: Enby” (speech bubbles and text that summarize the full post):
Title: What’s in a Word?
In bold, underneath: “Enby”
The following phrases appear in speech bubbles:
“I’m an enby”
“Hey fellow enbies, what’s up?”
“Ze is my enbyfriend”
Text underneath says:
enby (noun, adjective)
Non-binary, as in: a person whose sense of self is not exclusively woman or man
Where did it come from? It’s a phonetic pronunciation of the abbreviation NB, for non-binary. NB is already in use to mean non-Black, so in solidarity with non-binary people of color, enby was born.
Should I use this term? If you’re a non-binary person / enby yourself, sure! But use care, because not all non-binary people like the word; many don’t want it used to describe them. It’s currently primarily a within-community term, so it should not be used as a replacement for non-binary in formal or mainstream writing.
Note: Why does this page exist? Because folks who are blind and depend on screen readers can’t tell what’s in an image without a description, and an image like this one deserves a more thorough description than can be provided via alt text. You can learn more about web accessibility from WebAIM: Web Accessibility in Mind.
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