Have you heard of the tribe in the Dominican Republic where teenage girls grow a penis when they hit puberty? They’re called Guevedoces and the teens are accepted by their communities. Once they hit puberty they then have the choice of choosing which gender they most align with. Believe it or not, while this phenomenon may sound like a fluke, it’s actually more common than you think and occurs in multiple countries.
This may come as a shock to us because colonialization has led us to believe that sex and gender are binary. In fact, there are many examples of (healthy) intersex people whose genitala and hormones/chromosomes disprove the notion of binary sexes. Cultures around the world do not recognize gender the way that we do, and when they do, many acknowledge a third gender or even more. In communities that are less influenced by colonial powers, they accept and honor these natural differences among themselves.
Examples of regions with historical and/or current acceptance of gender variance:
- Africa (including the Chibados of Angola, the Mangaiko of Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mashoga of Kenya, and the Ashtime of Ethiopia etc)
- Asia-Pacific (from the Phillipines to Japan to Hawaii etc)
- Latin America and the Caribbean
- Middle East
- North America (over 500 living Native communities)
- Indic Culture
- Mediterranean
- Arabia
- Mesoamerica and Inuit Culture
By contrast, colonial constructs of sex and gender force people to aspire to impossible expectations of femininity and masculinity in order to find belonging and security in our community.
I’d like to invite you to self-assess, on a scale of 1-10 how comfortable are you with gender variance? If there is discomfort, where is it coming from? What is the root of that?
Despite where we land on the scale, we should all be able to acknowledge that everybody deserves respect and the dignity of self-identity and self-determination
