I consider myself mostly male, but still appreciate my non binary aspects
Cultures vary so widely that it can be difficult to fully translate their ideas into a way we might evaluate. There are totally a lot of cool examples of shape and gender shifting dieties, as well as people who are non binary beings are given a special role to play, or simply just being accepted as a natural facet of our crazy, complicated world.
Quote from: nicole99 on September 24, 2015, 04:42:54 AM
In Thailand I was asked if I was a ladyboy. I don't understand the full cultural meaning behind this but I guess it shows that regardless of whether you fit, if you are perceived that way then it gets foisted on you - kind of like being a girl or boy.
As far as I have read, the ladyboy designation is kind of a third gender and seems to be recognized as a legitimate gender expression. To a native Thai, I expect they might define it as a transwomen who does not surgically alter her genitals as that does seem to be a standard-I'm not sure if that is required. Considering that it may be much more difficult or lucrative to afford any kind of surgery if you are a lower class worker there, that may simply be the expectation even if someone we might call MTF WANTED to have bottom surgery, that might be so difficult and expensive to be impossible.
However, there seems to be an aspect of accepting someone who is not "all" male or female and I perceive that as different than the Euro/American idea of a transman or transwoman. Most cultures, whether ancient European or non caucasian do seem to have some kind of two spirit, alternative gender, though sometimes they include transmen in that category, sometime they have a separate identity and sometimes there appears to be no particular category for a female at birth person to fit into- maybe they are simply accepted as a man or perhaps there was not enough information since it's a less common?
I personally really like the Viking/Nordic shamanism. A good deal of my heritage is German/Northern European and the Norse gods pretty much decided what gender they wanted to be and shape shifted, so there was a bit of respect/magic associated with people who were nonbinary. The greeks has some cool gods and legends about divine beings that came from mythical origins. I saw this particular sculpture in person, called the "Borghese Hermaphroditus"
Since the sculpture was featured in a bathhouse, they were obviously a desirable vision and was something of a patron saint of marriage and union, very sacred. They started out as an all male person and became merged with a female nymph.There are also images of bearded Aphrodite, and while the researchers call Hermaphroditus male pronouns, I have to wonder what the Greeks and Romans would have called them? Since the name is the name of the male person without any trace of the nymph, there's some ambiguity of what their actual identity might be.
Hindu religion has some cool non binary designations (from wikipedia) "Hindu philosophy has the concept of a third sex or third gender (tritiya-prakriti – literally, "third nature"). This category includes a wide range of people with mixed male and female natures such as homosexuals, transsexuals, bisexuals, the intersexed, and so on.[60] Such persons were not considered fully male or female in traditional Hinduism, being a combination of both."
Hindu religion seems to have the most lore and acceptance of non traditional gender roles, as well as many gods and goddesses with ambiguous genders or the ability to change themselves.
I also like the fox women in Japanese Shinto. While many of them are deceiving and sometimes murderous, foxes are often good luck symbols and the fox god Inari protects rice and harvest. Foxes were believed to have shape shifting powers and Inari himself is often portrayed as an old man, a beautiful young lady as well as an androgynous being when in human forms. He's a total trickster, sometimes a jerk but sometimes quite heroic and I always appreciate that spectrum of gender as well a behavior. The foxes are just like people: some of them fall in love, some are liars and thieves, but they can play equal parts hero/heroine as well as villian or obstacle in a story.
I think a lot of cultures, even the Greeks and Norse had negative implications for feminine traits, so Loki bearing Slepneir and the fact that he is often a cruel agent of chaos can have some negative implications, but I think the old religions still had some pretty cool examples of non-binary myths and beings!
