Reflective Tag:

A greater understanding of the concepts of Sex and Gender, Gender and culture, and the Global Gender Gap have put things into context and given a greater understanding into the world of gender and its effects.  It is important however to revisit the concept of gender itself in greater detail.  This is important because there are many complexities as discussed in Artifact 1 on sex and gender… Therefore, the concept of Third Gender and the Middle sexes will be discussed in this artifact.

Third Gender and Middle Sexes

In many countries and societies, gender is viewed as a binary concept that consists of only male and female (the classic view of gender and sex).  The truth is, as previously discussed, is much more complex than that.  Many people are afraid of going outside of the boundaries of gender binary society for a couple reasons.  I believe that some people believe that gender roles and society as they know it will dissolve if they allow third gender to gain acceptance, which leads to the other problem.  This other problem is that people fear what they do not understand and what seems unnatural, and this is why people fear inter/middle sex or third gender as they cannot fit it into a category or their society in general.  Gaining acceptance for these people is going to be very hard in the future, but as it becomes more prevalent and people begin to understand it, they will become more accepting of it.  It is necessary to first flush out here the meaning of both the term third ‘gender’ and ‘middle sex’.  Third Gender is a term that essentially constitutes the way in which someone identifies that is outside of the binary concept of man and woman and some countries legally acknowledge these “external” genders.  Middle sex simply means something similar to the concept of third gender in that middle sex or intersex is someone who is not completely male or female in one way or the other such as transgender people and many other examples.  There are countries that do indeed recognize these genders such as Thailand.

transgender_m

(http://images.indianexpress.com/2014/06/transgender_m.jpg)

There are many examples of third gender in many different cultures such as Native American ‘Two Spirit’, Indian ‘Hijra’, and Thai ‘Kathoey’.  Native American ‘Two Spirit’ is a term that constitutes a person who is gay or lesbian in the Native American culture.  This concept is not completely accepted, but it is widely accepted by the Native American population.  These people sometimes wear clothes of both a male and female.

berdache-c2bb-chicago-whispers

(https://othersociologist.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/berdache-c2bb-chicago-whispers.jpg?w=652)

The Indian ‘Hijra’ are typically not fortunate enough to gain acceptance by their societies and they are exiled for it because they are considered not useful and even though the practice was common before the arrival of the British, it no longer is in the modern day and age because of lasting British sentiment.

India-Hijra-01

(http://transascity.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/India-Hijra-01.jpg)

The Thai ‘Kathoey’ or the ladyboy are the most fortunate of the groups described thus far as they have a much higher acceptance rate and some of them actually look convincingly naturally female in their gender.  They typically undergo a lot of cosmetic surgery and hormone change to obtain these results too.  The ‘Kathoey’ are actually a legally accepted group as well.  They attract a large tourist base into their country and do performances.

a1

(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HYjZqfX_onA/S9E5a8qVE4I/AAAAAAAAKQU/maqb4UtyqmE/s800/a1.jpg)

In conclusion, there are many things that stand out, once again, from the typically binary held views of society that need to be understood and that are very complex.  Third gender and inter/middle sex are concepts that may seem out of place and not very common, but they are more common than a lot of people think.  In the future it is important that these concepts be understood and awareness heightened to ensure that these people are not continually oppressed.

 

Works Cited:

class work and material

notes