I liked this video, but in trying to make a video shorter than 3 minutes for once, there was one thing I said that needed more clarification. Per one commenter…
I agree with you, but I wouldn't say transness is a western concept, you help conservatives in the global south when you say that
While I disagree with the idea that my video is in any way helping conservatives, I completely understand what they were trying to get at. Here’s what I said in the video…
For one thing, biological sex isn’t even a binary, but also, we can look at so many examples of gender variance from across history! Countless two-spirit traditions, Yoruba culture, the 6 genders referenced in the Talmud, Eunuchs in Jesus’ time…none of these we can call “transgender”, since that’s a very modern/Western concept, but the fact is, gender just isn’t naturally binary!
Cultures from around the world and across history keep independently coming to the same conclusion that gender is transient! And yet conservatives like to think that was invented on Tumblr in 2014, since delegitimizing these experiences allows them to maintain control over our culture.
What I meant was this: if you, a transgender person in America, went up to an Indian Hijra person, or a Hawaiian Māhū person, or a Balkan sworn virgin, or a Lakota winkte, and said to them “You are transgender”, you would get one of a few responses.
“Yes! I identify with that term.”
“Ehh, sure, that’s the closest cultural analog between my culture and yours, so fine yeah.”
“Absolutely not, this is our cultural practice, not yours. Get out of here, colonizer.”
“Çfarë është një transgender?”
“I genuinely don’t know! Our community is constantly having internal discussions about where we fit in to this modern cultural discourse!
You might think that “transgender”, or more specifically the “cisgender/transgender” distinction, is a universal concept for which Hijra, winkte, etc. are just culturally-specific versions of that idea. But there’s a good reason why anthropologists avoid using modern, Western terms like “transgender” or “non-binary” for other cultures. Even here in the States, historians have to be really careful using these words for people even just 50 years ago, who may have self-identified as “transsexual” or “transvestite”.
For a simpler example, let’s look at head wraps. Obviously, no one culture has a trademark on the idea of tying your hair up. From the Polish babushka, to the Muslim hijab, to the Hindu pagri, plenty of people around the world have used head wraps to display their cultural pride, spiritual connection, and fashion sense. This obviously goes deeper than aesthetics: the hijab is an important symbol of empowerment, faith, modesty, humility, and—in the face of Islamophobia—bravery that’s clearly culturally distinct from other kinds of head wraps.
Types of head wraps from various cultures (Loza Tam)
Head wraps can also hold real political significance. During American chattel slavery, white people passed laws that literally make it illegal for Black women to wear their hair in any other way than in a head wrap. So, they turned it into a tool to express their individuality and femininity—something that dehumanization takes away from you—and they even used wraps as a way to communicate secret messages with one another. Later in the 1960s, head wraps became a symbol for Black liberation in the civil rights movement.
What’s my point here? Well, imagine if I said that a babushka was functionally the same as a hijab, or a Black woman’s head wrapping. Imagine if I said that the idea of putting your hair up is a universal concept, and that all of these wrap styles are just different ways of putting your hair up with minor aesthetic influences. I’d probably be laughed out the room, because doing so would be missing so much of what makes these wraps so culturally significant.
We can apply the same logic to gender variance throughout the world: there’s so much more to gender than the Western, medicalized notion of the transsexual. Winkte aren’t “trans girls but make it Indigenous”, they have a culturally-specific spiritual role in their communities, literally being thought to have two souls. Hijra are thought to be closer to the gods, performing blessings at weddings and new births. All of these cultural practices deserve to be understood on their own terms, not as an extension of our Western ideas about gender. And much like cultural appropriation vs appreciation, we can be inspired by these practices—I, for one, love the idea that throughout history, people who occupy liminal genders have been considered healers, spiritual guides, teachers, and generally sacred—but we shouldn’t outright steal from them.
Now, what does this have to do with science? One of the key problems with Western science, and Western thinking in general, is universalism, the idea that our worldview can be applied in all cases. I hate to say it, but believing that your experiences are universal, or that all features of life and the universe can be understood through the lens that you yourself use, is a colonizer mindset. There are plenty of ways to distinguish Western science from Indigenous ways of knowing, but chief among them are the latter’s trust for inherited wisdom, local verification, and a connection between the physical and metaphysical worlds. The search for a Grand Unified Theory of Gender is a fruitless effort, not just because gender is a fickle, fluid thing, but because a Grand Unified Theory of Anything is probably impossible, if not impractical.
So that’s my rant about how Western/colonial science is bad for this week! We didn’t even get into the history of the word “transsexual”, which started as a medical term, or how the use of “transgender” (first coined by Virginia Prince) rightfully de-medicalized the term but nonetheless continued the cisgender/transgender binary split. If you want a deeper dive into this, let me know in the comments!
Speaking of scammers, Quinn Bishop has done an excellent job reporting on Black Trans Texas Connection, who are a group of scammers pretending to be Black trans people online to make money, allegedly at least $1 million. They request donations for a house in Houston that doesn’t exist, and sometimes even go on harassment campaigns against creators who refuse to donate. Please protect yourself against scams like these!
Related: Digging into the facts calls into question the idea that faculty are leaving DEI-negative states in droves. Faculty stay in their jobs for a variety of reasons, not the least of which being the years-long process of tenure and/or finding a new faculty job, so it doesn’t surprise me that left-leaning educators aren’t leaving states like Florida en masse. Time will tell if this trend does manifest!
Watch History
If you missed it in my paid newsletter last week, Olurinatti dropped one of the most important videos of 2024. It’s about her reasoning for “voting blue no matter who”, even when the Democrats objectively stink at governing. I still don’t know how I’m voting this Fall—we’ll have to see how events shake out—but since I live in Massachusetts—one of two states where every county went blue in 2016—I likely won’t feel like I’m throwing away my vote for going third-party. Still, I’m conflicted!
Marika Hackman also came out with a new album! 2024 is looking great for music already. Favorite tracks: “No Caffeine”, “Big Sigh”, and “The Yellow Mile”.
Lil Nas X has a new song, once again engineered to piss of Christian conservatives, and I’m here for it. The video even features a brief cameo from the legendary TS Madison!
And now, your weekly Koko.
A sleepy kitty enjoying her cuddles!
That’s all for now! See you next week with more sweet, sweet content.
In solidarity,
-Anna
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