Non-Binary Vibes

About

Non-Binary Vibes is an internet catchphrase popularized on Twitter in March 2021. The phrase is often ironically paired with accurate, and somewhat less accurate, images that act as signifiers for the non-binary or "enby" demographic of the larger LGBTQ+ community.

Origin

Even though the phrase was casually being used outside of meme culture on Tumblr and Reddit^[1] long before its viral popularity, the phrase first gained traction in November 2020 when "non-binary" was used as an adjective to describe Harry Styles posing in a dress for Vogue Magazine's cover (shown below, top).^[2] People on Twitter (shown below, bottom) soon began debating the ethics of celebrating enby-coding on a mainstream magazine cover when the person on the cover is just a cis male himself.

This small controversy brought attention to, on the internet in general, what non-binary or genderfluid signifiers were. On March 17th, 2021, Twitter^[3] user @hosekinokunii quoted a tweet from Kim Kardashian's Twitter with a selfie (shown below, top) re-captioning the image, "Kim is so non-binary vibes lately." The tweet, coming from a trans, non-binary person, had palpable irony for the cis superstar's presentation. Several people on Twitter then reacted with annoyance (shown below, bottom).

Spread

On May 11th, 2021, Twitter^[4] user @fuglibetty tweeted a new version of the catchphrase, quote tweeting it with a news article about a surfaced, deep-sea creature (shown below).

This tweet most likely inspired Twitter^[5] user @hosekinokunii to continue with their trend of using the catchphrase for other images and quote tweets. On May 19th, 2021, @hosekinokunii quote tweeted another tweet with photos of Kylie Jenner, re-captioning it, "I’m gonna say it.. Kylie is so nonbinary vibes lately" (shown below).

The tweet gained significant attention in the coming days, inspiring other Twitter users to screenshot the tweet and make their own viral content reacting to the image and the catchphrase (shown below). Although the original tweet gained roughly 3,000 likes, these two screenshot tweets both gained over 100,000 likes.

The catchphrase would see more usage going into June 2021 as more images began to ironically define "non-binary vibes" in tweets for other users.

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable.

External References