Third gender
From Free net encyclopedia
Image:Anna P.jpg The terms third gender and third sex arose from attempts to describe individuals or societies whose sex, gender role, gender identity or sexual orientation does not fit within a binary scheme of (heterosexual) male and female.
The term third sex was used from the 1860s in Europe by Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, and in the late 19th century by Magnus Hirschfeld,<ref>Hirschfeld, Magnus, 1904. Berlins Drittes Geschlecht ("Berlin's Third Sex")</ref> John Addington Symonds,<ref>Ellis, Havelock and Symonds, J. A., 1897. Sexual Inversion.</ref> Edward Carpenter,<ref>Carpenter, Edward, 1908. The Intermediate Sex: A Study of Some Transitional Types of Men and Women.</ref> Aimée Duc<ref>Duc, Aimée, 1901. Sind es Frauen? Roman über das dritte Geschlecht ("Are These Women? Novel about the Third Sex")</ref> and others, to describe people of an "inverted" or "intermediate" sex who experienced homosexual desire. These writers also considered themselves members of a third sex, and their writing argued the case for social acceptance of sexual intermediates. They found precedents in ancient cultures, such as Plato's Symposium, and the Sanskrit concept of a third sexual nature. The term "third sex" was also used to disparage feminists as not being truly women, but "neuters" with external female characteristics accompanied by a crippled male psyche, in the 1899 novel Das dritte Geschlecht (The Third Sex) by Ernst Ludwig von Wolzogen.
The sex/gender system that was in place in Europe at the time (and still informs Western culture today), recognised only two categories:
- female genitalia = female identity = feminine behavior = desire male partner
- male genitalia = male identity = masculine behavior = desire female partner
Today this scheme is also known as heteronormativity.
The third gender may include (in modern Western terms):
- some Intersexual people
- some transgender people
- some androgynous people
Third gender was widely used until World War II in Europe. It never went completely out of use, but was kept alive in the subcultures of the people described by it. In recent years it has made a comeback. Occasionally other gender is used instead of third gender. Also, some people who feel they are neither male nor female, but not androgynous either, identify as third-gendered.
Several cultures have (or had) accepted third gender roles — for example the American Indian berdache and two-spirit people, the fa'afafine in Polynesia, or the Indian hijras. The Bugis culture of Sulawesi has been described as having three sexes and five genders.<ref>Graham, Sharyn, Sulawesi's fifth gender, Inside Indonesia, April-June 2001.</ref> The mollies of 18th century England have also been described as a third gender.
References
<references/>
Further reading
- Gilbert Herdt, ed. 1996. Third Sex Third Gender: Beyond Sexual Dimorphism in Culture and History. ISBN 0-942299-82-5