Reflective Blog 1

 Prompt Chosen: Using examples from the readings, discuss the case of the false gender binary.

Image:

Images by the HRC Foundation and Bretman Rock

    When reading Manuela L. Picq and Josi Tikuna's Indigenous Sexualities: Lost in Colonial Translation, I was intrigued to learn about the diverse ways in which Indigenous societies view gender. Instead of believing a false gender binary, they see gender as a social construct. Growing up in the U.S., I was taught that there were only two genders: male and female. That there is a false gender binary. However, as I've grown and learned more, I now recognize that is not the case. Gender can be fluid and is something that is influenced by your culture/society; it differs all around the world. 

    In Juchitán, Mexico, "muxes" are neither man nor woman but are considered a third gender called Zapotec. Elders even say that in ancient precolonial Zapotec language, there was no difference when referring to a man or a woman; there were simply no genders.  In Hawai'i, the "māhū" embraces both feminine and masculine traits. When reading this chapter, I remembered a famous YouTuber from Hawaii who didn't identify as male or female but as non-binary. He had explained that growing up there was never a difference between genders; there were no gender roles that separated him from his siblings. That YouTuber is named Bretman Rock, who uses all pronouns. In an interview, he explains how in his language, there is no "he" or "she," and growing up, his grandmother would refer to him as her "handsome and beautiful grandson." Instead of secluding him to only one handsome or beautiful, she used both to embrace her grandson and identify him. This also shows how important symbolic interactionism is. When introducing him to her friends, she used both masculine and feminine terms to describe him. Symbolic interactionism has shown that every interaction is an opportunity to redefine yourself. Gender is seen as a spectrum, encompassing a range of identities beyond just man and woman, such as non-binary and genderfluid. This acknowledges that gender diversity is a natural part of human experience and has been recognized in various cultures throughout history. 

References

Blumer, Herbert. 1969. Symbolic Interactionism: Perspective and Method. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Rippon, Gina. 2019. “Our Permanently Plastic Brains.” Pp. 21–26 in The Production of Reality: Essays and Readings on Social Interaction, edited by J. O’Brien. 7th ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.