Is it I/Me/He/She?

In both “Amazons of America: Female Gender Variance” by Walter L. Williams and “Neither Man nor Woman: The Hijras of India” by Serena Nanda, both writers have brought awareness of gender identity vs. sexual identity.  As we already know, gender identity refers to our socially acceptable titles of him/her/ and he/she while sexual identity is associated with biological characteristics such as genitalia, reproductive structures, sex hormones etc. that assign men and women the status of male or female.  Is there any vast difference between sex and gender?

According to Nanda, “Westerners feel uncomfortable with the ambiguities and contradictions inherent in such in-between categories” of the alternative gender roles and gender transformations in Indian mythology and traditional culture while “Hinduism not only accommodates such ambiguities, but also views them as meaningful and even powerful.”  In respect to cultural relativism, one has to have a positive outlook regarding the gender identities that have shaped the Indian culture.  It is also understood that there are male and female principles within every Hindu person.  Nanda stated that her focus was on the hijras and Shivas ritual of emasculation.     

The Hijras, as she described, are neither man nor woman.  They are distinguished ritual performers “linked to their sexual ambiguity as this incorporates the elements of the erotica and the ascetic.”  They are also conceptualized as “special”, “sacred beings”, who are merely “ordinary” human beings.  From the Hindu Triad, we learnt that Shiva is a god of destruction or absorption who also creates and sustains life.

Meanwhile, we realized that Williams had some inhibitions regarding the concept of gender crossing as he so expressed.  He focused on cross-gendered females among Native Americans.  He stated that changed-gender “demonstrates the extreme malleability of people with respect to gender roles” and this “assignment operates independently of a person’s morphological sex and can determine both gender status and erotic behavior.”  This is evident throughout his work as he introduced the different cultural groups.  We have seen that he had made a legitimate claim that sexual identity was “self-chosen” and it had nothing to do with a person’s gender.  He also described an Amazon’s role to be “equal if not superior to any of the men in hunting both on horseback and foot.” 

There was also another group, the Crows, he stated that they “judge individuals by their accomplishments rather than their sex."   Another interesting point that had caught my attention was what Paula Gunn Allen wrote regarding the safety and security that exists in female bonding without any judgement since it was more like a spiritual act that is acceptable and respectable.  This drew back memories of growing up on the island of Jamaica where we exercise this kind of female bonding and there were no negative reaction or any questions of our sexuality.

However in Western cultures, we see segregation and labeling associated with identifying the roles of these sexually ambiguous people, which can sometimes be very stereotypical.  Both the Native Americans and the Hindus have revolutionized the awareness of the sexual contradictions and ambiguity that exist in their cultures. We also realize that while aspects of biological sex are the same across different cultures, aspects of gender may not be.  Moreover, there is also strong evidence that these figures are powerful symbols of spirituality that allows “anybody” to do “anything.”