Boi

Boi is a gender exclusive to Black and African American individuals who are queer and masculine of center, especially butch women and lesbians.

Etymology
Derived from "boy."

Pronunciation
/boy/



Definitions

 * A black identity similar to boy but seperate from the white/western gender binary - vmerli-blog, 2015
 * [Boi and qirl are] Identities specific to black people which are similar to girl or boy but involve a deliberate separation from the Western gender binary. - mogai-lexicon, 2016
 * a term created in the 90s by Black studs, trans men, butch and dom folx used to describe the relationship between gender/sexuality [and Blackness] - loveandcha0s, 2017

History
Boi originated in the Black community, and especially the queer Black community, in the 1990s to refer first to boys and then to queer masculine of center individuals. It described someone with boyish qualities and identity, but who subverted maleness in some way, such as by being a twink, transgender, nonbinary, or a butch woman. The specific spelling of boi as "boi" was not a misspelling, but a trait of AAE--or African American English--wherein terms are deliberately spelled differently as a subversion of "valid" English speech and a way to express identity and culture.

The term was quickly coopted by white skater culture, propelled into pop culture by Avril Levine's song "Sk8er Boi" released in 2002. In 2015, the meme known as "Dat Boi" gained popularity, a meme directly coopting AAE and portraying a 3d rendering of a green frog on a unicycle. The popularity of this meme lead to the mislabeling the identity boi as simply "meme speak."

On February 19 2017, an anonymous Black qirl submitted boi and qirl pride flags to blog ask-pride-color-schemes. These flags were intentionally created as compliments to eachother, and are the most popular boi and qirl flags.

Subsets

 * Lesboi