Boyflux
How much of a boy you are changes. Which gender it is does not — a whole boy, a faint one, sometimes none at all.
- One of twenty-three Fluid identities
- No settled flag
- 4 min read
A shorter entry: the essentials, written to the same standard. The fuller guides are on the main identities.
What it is
Some weeks you are entirely a boy. Some weeks you are faintly one, like a radio playing in the next room. Some weeks there is nothing there at all. Then it climbs back. That is boyflux: the gender stays male, and what moves is the volume.
It sits under genderflux, and the record on the LGBTQIA+ Wiki spells out the range — from no gender at all, through slightly male, half male and mostly male, to fully a man — with some people sliding smoothly between settings and others jumping. Girlflux is the same dial with a girl on it; enbyflux is the same dial with a non-binary gender.
It is not genderfluid. Fluid changes which gender; flux changes how much. A boyflux person does not become a girl on the quiet weeks. He becomes less of a boy, or none of one. And it is not a trans man whose dysphoria has good months and bad ones — there the gender holds and only the pain moves. The record credits the word to a Tumblr user in August 2015. There is no research behind it and nobody has counted who uses it. Neither fact makes the dial less real.
Pronouns
He/him is the most common, and plenty of boyflux people keep it at every setting, including zero. Some run he/they and lean on whichever fits the week. Some switch to they/them on the flat weeks and tell two or three people who can keep up. None of these is more boyflux than another.
Does this sound like you?
Is Boyflux you?
The test ranks all 136 identities by how closely they fit your answers, so you see where Boyflux lands for you. Twenty questions, about four minutes, nothing leaves your phone. It suggests. You decide.
Nearby identities
The distinction is the useful part.
The umbrella. Same dial, no anchor named. If you always know it is boy-ness that is getting louder and quieter, boyflux is the tighter word; the site's genderflux page says the same.
Compare Boyflux and Genderflux →The mirror. A girl at changing strengths instead of a boy. Identical mechanism, different gender on the dial.
Compare Boyflux and Girlflux →Partly a boy, and steadily so — a fixed position at forty per cent. Boyflux passes through forty per cent on the way somewhere else. If you have sat at partial for years, demiboy is the better fit.
Compare Boyflux and Demiboy →It might not be you if…
- The gender holds and only the dysphoria moves. Most trans men have loud months and quiet ones. That is a man with weather, not a dial.
- Girl turns up on the quiet weeks. That is fluid, not flux. Look at genderfluid, or at boyfluid if boy is the base you return to.
- You have sat at "partly a boy" for years without moving. Demiboy describes a dial that is not turning.
- The flat weeks flatten everything else too — food, friends, music. That may be depression or dissociation borrowing this shape, and it deserves its own attention.
Questions people ask
What is the difference between boyflux and genderflux?
Precision. Genderflux says the intensity of your gender moves. Boyflux says which gender is doing the moving: a boy, or a man, at anything from full strength to none. The record lists the stops a boyflux person may pass through — demiboy, libramasculine, paraboy, man — all of them male at different strengths. If you never know which gender is getting louder, stay with genderflux.
Can I take testosterone if my gender changes strength?
People in this position do. The question most find useful is not what do I want at full volume, but what would I still be glad of at zero — aiming at the whole range rather than the best week. Some go low dose, some go slowly, some decide against. Take the decision on an ordinary day, not on a peak or a crash. Some clinicians still expect an unchanging story and treat fluctuation as doubt; that is a problem with the service, not with you.
Is there a boyflux flag?
More than one. The wiki records the original from August 2015 by the user who coined the word, with three blue stripes for feeling mostly male at fluctuating intensity and five small stripes for other genders. The most common version was posted by the Pride-Flags account on DeviantArt by February 2017 and later edited: shades of blue for the fluctuations in boy-ness, green for a mix of boy and non-binary. Several alternates circulate. Check the source before trusting a repost's colours.
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This is not a clinical instrument, not a diagnosis, and not evidence of anything about anyone. It describes experiences so you can recognise your own — or rule them out.