I've been doing some research about gender lately (just out of curiosity) and wow, it's extremely interesting. I didn't know that different genders (besides male and female) have been so widely recorded through out history. I read that Old Israel had six gender - six! It's a very cool topic, and it really shows that there is much more out there than just male, female and transgender. The Hirjra were particularly interesting to read about, and I'm glad that they have some recognition in India. I didn't know actually the extent to how limiting Western culture is about gender until I actually looked it up. I think we need to come up with some new pronouns, because it gets confusing when trying to address people who aren't male, female or transgender without misgendering them. What do you think about this? I originally knew very little about gender, and just from reading a Wikipedia page I can tell that there is a whole world of different genders I wasn't aware of. New question - are there already pronouns (in English) for different genders?
None that have really caught on, but there are a lot of proposed ones out there. I use zhe/zhem/zhir (equivalent to he/him/his, respectively) myself.
Yeah. There is also a variation of that, ze/hir/hirs and some people use they and some people get called 'it'
"They" seems like a good pronoun to use, especially if you're unsure what they want you to call them, now that I think about it. But one question - how can one be contain both genders without actually being biologically both sexes? I don't mean to be rude in any way, but I am actually just interested in what that is like. Isn't that called "two-spirits" or something?
Well sex and gender have nothing to do with each other For example, I'm designated female assigned at birth (I have a vagina/Ovaries/Oestrogen production). However, my identity is caught somewhere between Agender (I know I have a gender, but it's pretty insignificant in the long run, can't I just be a person?) and Boi (A masculine/Androgynous identity that is not male). Really, gender is about self identity. You can identify as whatever you like! I'm not a native American, but I've usually seen two spirit defined "someone who fills one of the many mixed gender roles in Native American communities". I have seen many Native American people say that it is not for white people, and that for a white person to claim it as an identity is cultural appropriation. She Makes Dirty Words Sound Pretty Is a very good tumblr and has some good posts on why this is.
Ah, thank you. So two-spirits isn't the right word for it. Is bigender the right word, I've seen some people on EC who identify as that as a gender.
Point of information: being biologically both sexes isn't as impossible as you might think. Google "intersex" and you'll see what I mean. As has been said, gender and sex are often correlated, but they don't necessarily have anything to do with each other. Gender exists largely in your head, while sex exists largely between your legs. Sex is more definite in that it can be determined by chromosomal analysis, by genital make-up, and other fairly definite physical examinations. Gender, on the other hand, is a social construct, so our relations with it are a lot more complicated. Gender is complicated, but I think it can be broken down into two major facets: what body you feel most comfortable in (e.g. being cis, trans, or neutrois) and how you relate to gender norms and gender expectations. The first part I mentioned is what leads people to get gender confirmation surgery, while the second part is, I think, what leads to the wide spectrum of gender identities we see. When I say I'm agender, I mean it in that I don't have any relation to gender norms or gender expectations at all. The way that an asexual person is inert when it comes to sexual attraction, I'm inert when it comes to gender identity. Everyone's experience is different, but I imagine that for someone who "contains" both genders, they identify with both male and female gender norms and expectations enough that both constitute significant parts of themselves. It could also manifest as them feeling more comfortable in a male body one day and more comfortable in a female body another day. I know someone like that, and among their friends, they go back and forth between a male persona and a female persona, depending on which they feel more comfortable as that day. It can be; it's meant to be usable for everyone. Although when it doubt, it never hurts to ask someone what pronouns they prefer. It definitely could be. The existence of these identities in contemporary Western culture is a very new thing, facilitated in large part by the internet, so many of these terms are still very new, and their definitions haven't been entirely nailed down yet.
I personally don't consider transgender to be a gender. People who are transgender can be women, men, bigender, agender, genderqueer, etc. Just like cisgender isn't a gender, its the state of identifying with the gender to which you were assigned as birth. Some people may feel very connected to their identity as a transgender person, and are okay with people considering them that. But it is important to be careful that you don't invalidate a person's identity by saying that they aren't "really" a man or a woman because they happen to be of trans experience. I think its cool that you have been researching gender stuff steelygreye, I hope you are enjoying exploring it
Yeah, transgender is a term used for people who begin to live as a gender other than that assigned at birth, like myself. Transgender isn't my gender, woman is. It's weird and complex, so if you have any more questions, ask them! It makes me smile to see a cis person learning about all this.
I use 'xe' and 'xyr'. Picked it up from the autistic community. I don't think most intersex are biologically both sexes. Only the rare cases who have ovotestes, or one ovary and one testicle, are really 'both' sexes biologically. Most intersex are more 'between' sexes - either they show traits intermediate between sexes (such as an organ that is halfway between a clitoris and a penis) or they show some male features (eg XY karyotype) and some female features (eg vagina and clitoris). (Incidentally, XY with female genitalis is one of the more common forms of intersexing.) The ones who are most clearly 'both' sexes are the species of animals who can either change sex or act in either role. For example snails.
