barefoot and dazed

geniustimelordphilanthropist: That there’s what we call...

Sat, 18 May 2013 21:25:14 -0400

That there’s what we call character development.

mocosyamores: qbits: thepeoplesrecord: Going beyond the...

Sat, 18 May 2013 21:20:49 -0400

qbits:

thepeoplesrecord:

Going beyond the Western gender binary - unlearning our backward cultural conditioning

In Western colonial society (which dominates many aspects of the globalized, capitalist world today) we operate under the presumption that there are only two genders, male and female. But gender is a social construction. One’s options for what gender they identify with are shaped by the culture they are born into. Biological factors are most-often the primary driving forces that choose among the available socially-constructed gender categories.

Cultures around the world have different ways of talking about, thinking about, and identifying gender. It’s often a challenge for (particularly cis-sexual) Westerns to think about other ways gender can be socially constructed. Westerns have the false equivalency of gender and sex drilled into their eternal psyche from the time they are very young, and re-enforced through examples in popular culture. There is no biological reality to gender. Many Westerners have the bizarre belief that one’s XY-sex-determination should also inform one’s gender identity, a socially constructed role in society.

In some cultures, there is no distinction made between gender and sexual orientation and the same can be said for sexual orientation - our culture socially-constructs the options and our biology helps us identify which socially-constructed option feels most ‘right’ and best resonates with us.

I’ve attached some photos to offer some examples of non-colonial, non-Western construction of gender. They’ve all been uploaded onto our Facebook page photostream in case you’d like to ‘like’ or ‘share’ them there. There are literally hundreds of ‘third-gender’ identifying peoples around the world. The eight I’ve chosen are mostly examples I remember from some of my anthropology courses but if you google ‘third genders’ you can find many lists and examples.

Who cares? Why it matters.

The most obvious reason to care about the way our culture has constructed gender and sexual orientation is to deepen one’s capacity for solidarity with people who identify as transgender, transsexual, and others whose gender or sexual identity exists outside of binary Western culture.

But there are other reasons as well. Western culture’s binary nature often creates non-sensical, problematic binary identity constructions that are inherently problematic. For example, I believe that Western masculinity (dominance, aggression, lack of communication, lack of emotional expression, etc) is inherently problematic. I believe that to be the reason why most acts of large-scale-violence and terror are committed by men (see: 100% of the mass school shootings in the United States), and I believe it fosters a degree of internal misery within people who heavily adopt these particular ‘masculine’ traits.

In the age of information, and the age of global connectivity, there is no longer any reason (particularly for young people) to feel isolated or restricted to Western definitions of gender, sexual orientation and identity in general. I think the social ramifications of a generation where more and more people begin to identify outside of the gender binary would be tremendous, and I think we should all consider how we can unlearn our cultural conditioning to embrace other, perhaps less exploitative and dominating identities.

Background information on the identities depicted in the above images:

Hijras
Hijras are male-body-born, feminine-gender-identifying people who live in South Asia (mostly in India & Nepal). Many Hijras live in well-defined, organized, all-Hijra communities, led by a guru.

Although many Hijras identify as Muslim, many practice a form of syncretism that draws on multiple religions; seeing themselves to be neither men nor women, Hijras practice rituals for both men and women.

Hijras belong to a special caste. They are usually devotees of the mother goddess Bahuchara Mata, Lord Shiva, or both.

Nandi female husbands
Among the Nandi in Western Kenya, one social identity option for women is to become a female husband, and thus a man in society’s eyes. Female husbands are expected to become men and take on all of the social and cultural responsibilities of a man, including finding a wife to marry and passing on property to the next generation through marriage. Female husbands may have lived their lives as women and may even be married to a man, but once she becomes a female-husband, she is expected to be a man. Women married to female-husbands may have sex with single men uninterested in commitment in order to become pregnant, but the female-husband (who is often an older woman, often a widow) will father the child of said pregnancy and treat the child like her own.

Two-spirited people
Two-Spirit is an umbrella term sometimes used for what was once commonly known as ‘berdaches’, Indigenous North Americans who fulfill one of many mixed gender roles found traditionally among many Native Americans and Canadian First Nations communities. The term usually indicates a person whose body simultaneously manifests both a masculine and a feminine spirit. Male and female two-spirits have been “documented in over 130 tribes, in every region of North America.”

Travesti
In South America (with a large presence in Brazil), a travesti is a person who was assigned male at birth who has a feminine gender identity and is primarily sexually attracted to masculine men. Therefore, sometimes the distinction between gender identity and sexual orientation is not made. Travestis have been described as a third gender, but not all see themselves this way. Travestis often will begin taking female hormones and injecting silicone to enlargen their backsides as boys and continue the process into womanhood.

The work of cultural Anthropologist Don Kulick (a gay male by Western definitions) in Brazil demonstrated that gender construction in Brazil is binary (like Western gender construction), but unlike Western gender construction, instead of having a male-female binary, there is a male-notmale.

In this particular construction of gender:

Males include: men who have sex with women, men who have sex with Travestis but are never on the receiving end of anal sex, men who have sex with men but are never on the receiving end of anal sex.

Not-males include: women, men who receive anal sex from ‘male’ gay men or from Travestis.

Fa’afafine
Fa’afafine are the gender liminal, or third-gendered people of Samoa. A recognized and integral part of traditional Samoan culture, fa’afafine, born biologically male, embody both male and female gender traits. Their gendered behavior typically ranges from extravagantly feminine to mundanely masculine

Waria
Waria is a traditional third general role found in modern Indonesia. Additionally, the Bugis culture of Sulawesi (one of the four larger Sunda Islands of Indonesia) has been described as having three sexes (male, female and intersex) as well as five genders with distinct social roles.

Six Genders of old Israel
In the old Kingdom of Israel (1020–931 BCE) there were six officially recognized genders:

Zachar: male

Nekeveh: female

Androgynos: both male and female

Tumtum: gender neutral/without definite gender

Aylonit: female-to-male transgender people

Saris: male-to-female transgender people (often inaccurately translated as “eunuch”)

Kathoey (often called ‘ladyboys’)
Australian scholar of sexual politics in Thailand Peter Jackson’s work indicates that the term “kathoey” was used in pre-modern times to refer to intersexual people, and that the usage changed in the middle of the twentieth century to cover cross-dressing males, to create what is now a gender identity unique to Thailand. Thailand also has three identities related to female-bodied people: Tom, Dee, and heterosexual woman.

-Robert

Excellent overview of non-binary gender categories. Sadly, Western imperialism has all but extirpated many traditional concepts of non-dualistic sex and gender categories through residential schools and religious indoctrination. -Q

This gives me all kinds of gender life and power.

Photo

Sat, 18 May 2013 18:48:48 -0400

tonytoggles: fuck the gender binary

Sat, 18 May 2013 18:42:23 -0400

tonytoggles:

fuck the gender binary

kathyrindhoops: Straight girls calling their platonic friends their girlfriends is infinitely...

Sat, 18 May 2013 16:49:43 -0400

kathyrindhoops:

Straight girls calling their platonic friends their girlfriends is infinitely confusing for me.

AU Meme: Team Free Will as a romantic comedy “So, are you two...

Sat, 18 May 2013 15:49:35 -0400

AU Meme: Team Free Will as a romantic comedy

“So, are you two into threesomes?”

moffnat: DO YOU EVER JUST GET UNREASONABLY EMOTIONAL OVER LORD OF THE RINGS MUSIC

Sat, 18 May 2013 01:02:49 -0400

moffnat:

DO YOU EVER JUST GET UNREASONABLY EMOTIONAL OVER LORD OF THE RINGS MUSIC

“Rejoice despite the fact this world will hurt youAnd rejoice...

Fri, 17 May 2013 02:19:26 -0400

“Rejoice despite the fact this world will hurt you
And rejoice despite the fact this world will kill you
And rejoice despite the fact this world will tear you to shreds
Rejoice because you’re trying your best!” (x)

Photo

Fri, 17 May 2013 00:42:54 -0400

I am Daenerys Stormborn and I will take what is mine with fire...

Thu, 16 May 2013 00:02:30 -0400

I am Daenerys Stormborn and I will take what is mine with fire and blood.

shellygurumi: Crowley gets cured, but he’s still a demon, he has a conscious to go with his powers,...

Wed, 15 May 2013 23:40:09 -0400

shellygurumi:

Crowley gets cured, but he’s still a demon, he has a conscious to go with his powers, so he just lives for a really long time. And 500 years in the future, he’s no longer going by “Crowley” and instead of being the King of Hell, now he’s a sad little king of a sad little hill. He goes by Badger, and he does underhanded dealings with space cowboys.

Grace Kelly, photographed by Philippe Halsman, 1954.

Wed, 15 May 2013 00:47:55 -0400

Grace Kelly, photographed by Philippe Halsman, 1954.

Photo

Wed, 15 May 2013 00:41:50 -0400

from-the-beatles-to-you: “The most important moment of your...

Tue, 14 May 2013 23:46:10 -0400

from-the-beatles-to-you:

“The most important moment of your life was when you met me” - Paul McCartney speaking to John Lennon

Photo

Tue, 14 May 2013 23:44:00 -0400

20down40togo: foreverqueird: abigabby: thechanelmuse: Photos...

Tue, 14 May 2013 23:27:24 -0400

20down40togo:

foreverqueird:

abigabby:

thechanelmuse:

Photos that speak: Fuck your fountain. Fuck your tree. Fuck voter suppression. Fuck your labels. Fuck your stereotypes. Fuck your hatred. Fuck your restaurants. Fuck that dude. Fuck police brutality. Fuck white supremacy.

Resistance.

Probably one of the best photo sets on tumblr.

The kkk are some scary shit

#it’s been ten years #but i’ll be damned if any of you say this...

Tue, 14 May 2013 00:03:20 -0400

#it’s been ten years #but i’ll be damned if any of you say this isn’t the most swagtastic entrance #that you have ever seen #in your goddamn life

Woman: I'm smart

Sun, 12 May 2013 19:12:14 -0400

Woman: I'm smart
Patriarchy: Well you're probably ugly then
Woman: I'm creative
Patriarchy: You mean unattractive right?
Woman: I have all these incredible accomplishments
Patriarchy: Yeah but look how ugly you looked doing them
Woman: I have value
Patriarchy: Not if you're ugly lol
Woman: I'm conventionally-attractive & posted selfies on my blog
Patriarchy: I'm so sick of these empty-headed chicks only caring about their looks. Just because you are attractive and get attention from men doesn't mean you are special or deserve respect. Why don't you read a book or do something productive with your life you dumb slut

Photo

Sat, 11 May 2013 02:52:54 -0400

itisnotofimport: Misha lays down the motherfucking law. [x]

Sat, 11 May 2013 02:41:42 -0400

itisnotofimport:

Misha lays down the motherfucking law. [x]