Well apparently some people seem stuck in some fairy land where everything they knew as a child is still true (Spoiler alert the moon isn't made out of cheese and a magic bunny doesn't bring you chocolate once a year).
We over simplify things for kids for example we tell them you can have blonde hair, brown hair, black hair of red hair - but as we get older we realise each colour has an entire spectrum of colours.
And that's kinda what gender is. We get told as kids that there are men and woman and our entire future is go to school/uni, get a one job, get married to the opposite gender and then have children and it all starts all over again.
Spoiler alert life isn't a conveyer belt, it's a choose your own adventure. Personally I don't know if I want to go to university, I've had multiple jobs since I was 16 and they are completely unrelated. I have dated girls and boys and for years I struggled to define my sexuality until I discovered pansexuality. I definitely do not want kids ever. See already I am living a completely different life to what 5 year old me was told I'd be living.
So how many genders are there?
Cis Female
Cis Male
Trans Female
Trans Male
Gender Fluid
Non Binary / Agender
Androgynous
Gender Queer
Gender Non Conforming
Intersex
*Some of these are umbrellas, meaning that if you don't see your gender then it may come under the umbrella of one of these
A breif history of multiple genders
So back to the main point I wanted to make in regards to my co-workers uneducated post. Multiple genders are not a a 'new' thing. At school my history lessons focused a lot on post-settlement Australian history (the whole 200 years of it) and European history (specifically world wars and the industrial revolution). So my history obviously had massive holes in it, in my own time I researched ancient cultures, watched horrible histories and did my own research.
What have I learnt? Why the hell do people want to live in the past? It's mostly war, plague and oppression.
But in my research I came across many cultures that had acknowledged multiple genders.
One of the reasons you probably don't hear much about this is because many of these cultures were colonised.
For example Hawaii, specifically the Kanaka Maoli indigenous society, the mahu could be biological female/male who took on a masculine/feminine role or somewhere on that spectrum that wasn't their assigned gender.
The Yoruba people didn't even have gender before they were colonised, they had no concept of a gendered system.
In some cultures even their deities had different gender, like the Incas whom worshiped a 'duel-gendered' god, the Chuqui Chinchay. Shamans/attendants who performed ceremonies in their honour were seen as 'third gendered'. They wore androgynous clothing to show the third gender as being between masculine and feminine as well as encompassing the past and present and the living and the dead.
The Sakalvas of Madagaskar raised little boys with feminine appearances as females.
The Ankole people's oracles to the the god Mukasa where females dressed as men.
The Buginese people (an ethnic group of Indonesia) recognise five genders:
Makkunrai & Oroané - Cis women & men
Bissu - androgynous shamens
Calabai & Calalai - trans men and women.
And these cultures have been around for thousands of years so sorry, but multiple genders isn't new.
We are very different people than we were 100 years ago, youths have more freedom to explore themselves, and redefine society. With each generation we become more accepting of each other, but we still have a long way to go. The intolerance many people have comes from their family, the environment they were exposed to or the people they hang out with. I personally don't like macdonalds burgers, but I don't go around telling other people they shouldn't eat them.
We have more than 2 genders, deal with it, because we're moving on towards the future.
I don't really expect older generations to change, but the youth can change, if you don't like it then keep it to yourself because all your doing is breeding hate.
Catch ya later xx
