Third Gender

In “Night to his Day”: The Social Construction of Gender, Judith Lorber discusses how, in our Western culture, we have only two widely-accepted genders: male and female. However, in the Native American culture there is a third gender role that it’s people may prescribe to. Berdaches, later known as “two spirits”, are classified as neither man nor woman. They are merely a combination of the two genders. Typically, berdaches are biologically male. There have only been records of biologically female berdaches in a couple of tribes. One knew they were a berdache through dreams or visions and/or if they had an affinity for the opposite sexes work/skills. For example, if a young man is proficient in the art of tanning, quilling, or beading they would then begin to identify as a berdache. Berdaches did women’s work and cross-dressed or combined men’s and women’s clothing. They also often held prominent roles as healers or shamans in their tribes. When the reservation period began, American missionaries refuted berdaches and forced them to conform to male gender roles and lead their lives as men. However, the berdache tradition was reborn in the 1990s and renamed “two spirit”. The two spirit gender role is still recognized and practiced among many Native American tribes today.

Lorber also brings to light the ways in which sex and gender are two entirely different things. Our sex is defined by our genitalia and is in no way directly associated with our gender. Gender stems from social constructions and the gender roles we prescribe to sexes. For example, the sworn virgins of Albania, while biologically female, chose to identify as male in order to be able to provide for their families that lack an anatomical male. The five genders of Indonesia illustrate that there is no correlation between sex and gender by allowing people born with male genitalia identify and express themselves as female and vice versa. Similarly, berdaches in Native American tribes conform of no specific gender regardless of being biologically male. Gender identity and expression are vastly different from sex.

Gender holds many different contexts based on cultural and social norms. This makes gender a cultural construction. Across different societies, gender can take on a variety of forms and serve a number of functions. In Albania, women are able to take an oath of celibacy and identify as a man so that they may provide and care for their relatives. The purpose of the five genders in Indonesia is to maintain universal balance and keep everyone happy and uninhibited. Identifying as a berdache in Native American cultures allows people to live fulfilling and comfortable lives. Lorber discusses the ways in our Western culture uses gender to reinforce gender roles for men and women – women being domestic, men being the breadwinner, girls wearing pink, boys wearing blue, etc. Although western society has slowly begun to move away from such strict gender roles, it is still very difficult to raise children with no gender bias or gender norms. Gender is so deeply engrained in our minds that we don’t even recognize the way it affects our everyday lives.