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I'd never paid much attention to trangenderism until recently, but what's surprised me most when reading about it is to learn that the vast majority of the world's historical non-European cultures appear to have had 3-5 genders rather than just two.
In these societies if a person felt that their gender role didn't fully apply to them, they could renounce their birth gender and become 'third gendered'. Some societies broke this third gender into male, and female versions (thus having 4 genders). Generally the clothing for the third gender was a mixture of men's and women's clothing, and people of this gender were allowed freedom to pick and choose between “men's” and “women's” work in terms of their vocations. People of the third gender could marry either gender, and such marriages seem to have been thought of as 'heterosexual' because it was people of different genders getting married even if the people were of the same biological sex.
Many cultures perceived these third gender people to be somewhat 'magical', as their abnormally-gendered nature was often explained by stories about them having both a male and female spirit within them, or similar, and so third-gendered people were often involved as shamans in magical rituals or in blessing children. Some cultures split the tribe's 'magic' practitioner into a gender of their own – they were 'beyond gender' or a gender that 'summed up' all the others – a fifth gender. Anyone born a hermaphrodite was instantly a candidate for this fifth gender, but anyone who took on certain jobs (e.g. shaman) became fifth gender by virtue of those jobs.
It surprised me to learn how pervasive this third-gender type of custom seems to have been. It was documented in more than 130 different tribal groups in North America, anthropologists have described it as “pervasive” in historical Africa and South America too. Every island people across the pacific seems to have their own word for third-gendered people, and it seems that in large parts of the Indian sub-continent as well as much of Asia the practice was followed also. By contrast, most of ancient Europe seems to have been fairly firmly two-gendered (although the official Roman religion prior to Christianity had third-gender priests).
European explorers seem to have been particularly confused by third-gender customs whenever they encountered them, and we thus see accounts like:
There are a few sheltered societies where 3rd-gender practices have survived through to the present day despite the influences of Christianity, Islam, and globalisation. Here is a brief account of a remote 5-gendered tribe in Indonesia that was studied by an Australian PhD student in 2000 (who's now an associate professor at a NZ university).
In the West though, we've always had just two genders. For us, “transgenderism” usually means people changing their gender from one gender to another. We don't have a widely accepted notion of a person rejecting both genders to become 'third gendered'. While I'm aware of a small number of transgender people trying to do this, they seem to immediately hit the problem that English doesn't have any widely accepted third-gender pronouns – people say “he, him, his” or “she, her, hers” and attempts to use “they, them, theirs” as third-gender sound pretty clunky and attempts at creating new ones such as “ze, hir, hirs” don't seem to be catching on fast. In the historical cultures with a 3rd gender, gay people as much as transgender people seem to have been the main users of it (in order to get a same-sex marriage), but given the modern West now has same-sex marriage, I don't see that there's likely to be much desire among many gay people to declare themselves 3rd gender were we to introduce it as an option.
So, should the modern West add a third gender for those transgender people of either birth sex who want to be 'gender neutral'? Or is the better construct one where there are 4 gender roles, and so anyone born male or born female can simply voluntarily renounce their birth gender and move to the 'not-male' or 'not-female' gender as appropriate? Or are we better with 5 genders, where there is a gender-neutral one as well as the other two?
India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, have all moved in the last few years to give legal recognition to and protection for their traditional third-gender, members of which have experienced quite a lot of persecution over the last ~100 years as a result of influence from outside cultural and religious sources that were intolerant of such practices. ABC News has a little slideshow here with pictures and information about India's third-gender.
So, I wonder, should the West consider deliberately adding a new gender (or two, or three) to bring it into line with most cultures in world history (and thus accommodate the people that this pervasive cultural construct has historically accommodated)?
In these societies if a person felt that their gender role didn't fully apply to them, they could renounce their birth gender and become 'third gendered'. Some societies broke this third gender into male, and female versions (thus having 4 genders). Generally the clothing for the third gender was a mixture of men's and women's clothing, and people of this gender were allowed freedom to pick and choose between “men's” and “women's” work in terms of their vocations. People of the third gender could marry either gender, and such marriages seem to have been thought of as 'heterosexual' because it was people of different genders getting married even if the people were of the same biological sex.
Many cultures perceived these third gender people to be somewhat 'magical', as their abnormally-gendered nature was often explained by stories about them having both a male and female spirit within them, or similar, and so third-gendered people were often involved as shamans in magical rituals or in blessing children. Some cultures split the tribe's 'magic' practitioner into a gender of their own – they were 'beyond gender' or a gender that 'summed up' all the others – a fifth gender. Anyone born a hermaphrodite was instantly a candidate for this fifth gender, but anyone who took on certain jobs (e.g. shaman) became fifth gender by virtue of those jobs.
It surprised me to learn how pervasive this third-gender type of custom seems to have been. It was documented in more than 130 different tribal groups in North America, anthropologists have described it as “pervasive” in historical Africa and South America too. Every island people across the pacific seems to have their own word for third-gendered people, and it seems that in large parts of the Indian sub-continent as well as much of Asia the practice was followed also. By contrast, most of ancient Europe seems to have been fairly firmly two-gendered (although the official Roman religion prior to Christianity had third-gender priests).
European explorers seem to have been particularly confused by third-gender customs whenever they encountered them, and we thus see accounts like:
“I have submitted substantial evidence that those [native American] men who, both here [California] and farther inland, are observed in the dress, clothing and character of women - there being two or three such in each village - pass as sodomites by profession.... They are called joyas, and are held in great esteem.” - Don Pedro Fages, 1775
“[In this tribe in Africa there are] certayne Chibadi, which are Men attyred like Women, and behave themselves womanly, ashamed to be called men; are also married to men, and esteeme that unnatural damnation an honor” - Samuel Purchas 1625, vol. 2, bk. IX, chap. 12, sec. 5, p. 1558
“[In this tribe in Africa there are] certayne Chibadi, which are Men attyred like Women, and behave themselves womanly, ashamed to be called men; are also married to men, and esteeme that unnatural damnation an honor” - Samuel Purchas 1625, vol. 2, bk. IX, chap. 12, sec. 5, p. 1558
There are a few sheltered societies where 3rd-gender practices have survived through to the present day despite the influences of Christianity, Islam, and globalisation. Here is a brief account of a remote 5-gendered tribe in Indonesia that was studied by an Australian PhD student in 2000 (who's now an associate professor at a NZ university).
In the West though, we've always had just two genders. For us, “transgenderism” usually means people changing their gender from one gender to another. We don't have a widely accepted notion of a person rejecting both genders to become 'third gendered'. While I'm aware of a small number of transgender people trying to do this, they seem to immediately hit the problem that English doesn't have any widely accepted third-gender pronouns – people say “he, him, his” or “she, her, hers” and attempts to use “they, them, theirs” as third-gender sound pretty clunky and attempts at creating new ones such as “ze, hir, hirs” don't seem to be catching on fast. In the historical cultures with a 3rd gender, gay people as much as transgender people seem to have been the main users of it (in order to get a same-sex marriage), but given the modern West now has same-sex marriage, I don't see that there's likely to be much desire among many gay people to declare themselves 3rd gender were we to introduce it as an option.
So, should the modern West add a third gender for those transgender people of either birth sex who want to be 'gender neutral'? Or is the better construct one where there are 4 gender roles, and so anyone born male or born female can simply voluntarily renounce their birth gender and move to the 'not-male' or 'not-female' gender as appropriate? Or are we better with 5 genders, where there is a gender-neutral one as well as the other two?
India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, have all moved in the last few years to give legal recognition to and protection for their traditional third-gender, members of which have experienced quite a lot of persecution over the last ~100 years as a result of influence from outside cultural and religious sources that were intolerant of such practices. ABC News has a little slideshow here with pictures and information about India's third-gender.
So, I wonder, should the West consider deliberately adding a new gender (or two, or three) to bring it into line with most cultures in world history (and thus accommodate the people that this pervasive cultural construct has historically accommodated)?
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