Three Genders In Japan and India
Middle Sexes Documentary Proves There Are More Than Two Genders
Japan's lady boys and India's hijras represent two populations that recognize and accept a third gender beyond man and woman, proving the gender binary wrong.
Worldwide there exists a spectrum not only of sexuality, but of gender as well, as represented by populations in Japan and India where lady boys and hijras are accepted deviations from "man" and "woman".
As depicted in “Middle Sexes: Redefining He and She”, Japan’s lady boys are sexy and desired "women" who are not exactly women at all, but individuals who are born with a penis and testicles who dress and perform on stage in traditionally feminine garb. Some of these lady boys choose to go through reconstructive surgery, but many do not. Though outsiders might be tempted to classify them as transvestites, homosexuals or drag queens, they do not view themselves as such. The lady boys are accepted and, indeed, revered in Japan. In fact, the documentary focuses on one American man who meets a lady boy over the Internet before moving to Japan to marry her, attracted to her ambiguous sexuality.
Similarly, India has a sect of “men” who live their lives as intersexed. They are known as hijras and are considered a third sex altogether. Once again, this is accepted to an extent by their society. They are known and do not have to hide their identities as most intersexed in America do. India does not only tolerate them, but acknowledges them as a category, demarcating a figurative box for them to fit into. Although Western society is recognizing the existence of transgendered individuals more and more, we have yet to allow them a place in the sexual binary that forms our society.
As is stated on the website for Transsexual Women’s Successes, “Approximately 30,000 to 40,000 postoperative transsexual women live in the United States, and many thousands more are now in the process of gender transition here. These numbers are much larger than commonly assumed by the public because a veil of invisibility hides the true nature and extent of the transsexual condition.” The same is true of trans men. With evidence from the East to the contrary of our “this or that” categories, the binary should be dissolved at this time in order to include more variety and honestly reflect the population at large.
Just Think About the People You Know
In Western society, especially America, most people are constricted by a man-made binary of man and woman, male and female, heterosexual and homosexual. When you look into the way men and women perform their gender, the social construction of the sexes, more than two variations can be seen.
The idea of gender performance has been brought up by many scientists/critics, but Judith Butler championed the idea in her 1990 book, Gender Trouble. As per her theory, "Butler argues that we all put on a gender performance, whether traditional or not, anyway, and so it is not a question of whether to do a gender performance, but what form that performance will take. By choosing to be different about it, we might work to change gender norms and the binary understanding of masculinity and femininity."
In other words, women wear their hair long, short, buzzed; they dress in pants, skirts, shorts, dresses; they do or they don’t wear make-up and those who wear varying degrees of it; there are women who love men, who love women, who love genderqueers, who love intersexed; women who ARE genderqueers and intersexed. The same holds true for men.
According to the documentary, “About one in every 100 people is born with anatomically ambiguous genitalia; these individuals, formerly called hermaphroditic, are now known as "intersex." 1/100 is not a low number considering the birth rate in the world today, where every woman is expected to have over 2 babies in her lifetime on average, with a current population over 6 billion persons, as recorded by the U.S. Census Bureau. It may be time to reflect intersex births in our societal formations of categorizations.
