jimihendrix1
Well-Known Member
While many of our modern societies find it hard to digest, older cultural traditions often make space for far more than just two genders.
Take the Bugis people of Sulawesi, Indonesia, a highly influential minority, for example.
The Brugis society accepts five genders: makkunrai (cisgendered men), oroané (cisgendered women), bissu (androgynous), calabai (transgender men), and calalai (transgender women). The society believes that all five genders should live in harmony. They also calabai and calalais to raise families with cisgendered partners and adopted children, while the bissau are particularly revered as shamans. But, as more and more Brugis are becoming Muslims, they are increasingly discarding their five-gendered world-view.
Native American Nations also have acceptance of genders beyond the usual two. The Ojibwe and the Crow call them Niizh Maindoowag and Badé (two-spirit, both man/woman), Navajos identify Nádleehí (one who is transformed), Lakotas have Winkté (men who behave as women), and the Cheyenne recognise Hemaneh (half-man, half-woman). There were male warriors who dressed like women and called each other sisters. It was the Christian overlords who made these nations eventually conform to two-gendered world.
Hippocrates, Aristotle, Galen, and the authors of the Talmud all refer to hermaphrodites as a regular third gender. All that changed during the dark ages when the Christian codes started to put high value on two-genders. In Indian traditions, there is recognition for the kimpurush (not-men) and transgender characters like Amba/Shikhandi and Arjun/Brihannala across their mythical paradigm. They are marginalised, but still has social recognition as a third gender.
Please note that sex and gender are different issues. While sex is about biology, gender is a cognitive inclination.
Even at that biologically a person chromosome-wise can be XX, XY, XXY, XYY, XXX, or XO, and hence much intersexuality, even asexuality. There are many biological conditions like Congenital adrenal hyperplasia, Persistent müllerian duct syndrome, Swyer syndrome, or 5-alpha-reductase deficiency that lead to differences in reproductive organs and hormonal secretion.
As for gender cognitive identities, there are a large number identified. Here are the most observed identities:
Agender: someone who experiences no form of gender whatsoever
Androgynous: identifies with aspects of femininity and masculinity alike and tries to present themselves as auch
Bigender: identifies as both male and female and fluctuated between the two
Cisgender: someone whose sex assigned at birth matches their gender identity
Gender fluid: kind of like bigender, but has days where they identify more as male than female or vice versa
Genderqueer: someone who doesn't identify with the gender binary (i.e. male and female)
Gender variant: tend to not conform with societal expectations of gender by choice or nature
Intersex: someone with biological aspects of both male and female (e.g. genitals, chromosomes, internal sex organs)
Trans man: Assigned female at birth, but identifies as male
Trans woman: Assigned male at birth, but identifies as female
Here’s a diagram to help you with the gender spectrum:
Saying there are only two genders is like saying to a Spanish speaker “No, you’re wrong, the word is ‘cat’, not ‘gato’!” Words are human constructs. No one is objectively right about them. However, the word “cat” has utility in English-speaking countries.
What’s true—what actually exists—is all those body parts, hormones, and brain functions. If someone has a bunch of them that don’t allow him to neatly fit into our “male” and “female” categories, we can ignore that (which will probably result in cruelty) and push him into one of our preexisting categories. Or we can acknowledge it. Either way, those parts, hormones, and brain functions will continue to exist.
Take the Bugis people of Sulawesi, Indonesia, a highly influential minority, for example.
The Brugis society accepts five genders: makkunrai (cisgendered men), oroané (cisgendered women), bissu (androgynous), calabai (transgender men), and calalai (transgender women). The society believes that all five genders should live in harmony. They also calabai and calalais to raise families with cisgendered partners and adopted children, while the bissau are particularly revered as shamans. But, as more and more Brugis are becoming Muslims, they are increasingly discarding their five-gendered world-view.
Native American Nations also have acceptance of genders beyond the usual two. The Ojibwe and the Crow call them Niizh Maindoowag and Badé (two-spirit, both man/woman), Navajos identify Nádleehí (one who is transformed), Lakotas have Winkté (men who behave as women), and the Cheyenne recognise Hemaneh (half-man, half-woman). There were male warriors who dressed like women and called each other sisters. It was the Christian overlords who made these nations eventually conform to two-gendered world.
Hippocrates, Aristotle, Galen, and the authors of the Talmud all refer to hermaphrodites as a regular third gender. All that changed during the dark ages when the Christian codes started to put high value on two-genders. In Indian traditions, there is recognition for the kimpurush (not-men) and transgender characters like Amba/Shikhandi and Arjun/Brihannala across their mythical paradigm. They are marginalised, but still has social recognition as a third gender.
Please note that sex and gender are different issues. While sex is about biology, gender is a cognitive inclination.
Even at that biologically a person chromosome-wise can be XX, XY, XXY, XYY, XXX, or XO, and hence much intersexuality, even asexuality. There are many biological conditions like Congenital adrenal hyperplasia, Persistent müllerian duct syndrome, Swyer syndrome, or 5-alpha-reductase deficiency that lead to differences in reproductive organs and hormonal secretion.
As for gender cognitive identities, there are a large number identified. Here are the most observed identities:
Agender: someone who experiences no form of gender whatsoever
Androgynous: identifies with aspects of femininity and masculinity alike and tries to present themselves as auch
Bigender: identifies as both male and female and fluctuated between the two
Cisgender: someone whose sex assigned at birth matches their gender identity
Gender fluid: kind of like bigender, but has days where they identify more as male than female or vice versa
Genderqueer: someone who doesn't identify with the gender binary (i.e. male and female)
Gender variant: tend to not conform with societal expectations of gender by choice or nature
Intersex: someone with biological aspects of both male and female (e.g. genitals, chromosomes, internal sex organs)
Trans man: Assigned female at birth, but identifies as male
Trans woman: Assigned male at birth, but identifies as female
Here’s a diagram to help you with the gender spectrum:
Saying there are only two genders is like saying to a Spanish speaker “No, you’re wrong, the word is ‘cat’, not ‘gato’!” Words are human constructs. No one is objectively right about them. However, the word “cat” has utility in English-speaking countries.
What’s true—what actually exists—is all those body parts, hormones, and brain functions. If someone has a bunch of them that don’t allow him to neatly fit into our “male” and “female” categories, we can ignore that (which will probably result in cruelty) and push him into one of our preexisting categories. Or we can acknowledge it. Either way, those parts, hormones, and brain functions will continue to exist.
