I've been hearing about this lately, and wanted to share this article from the NY Times called A Lifestyle Distinct - The Muxe of Mexico.The “muxes” (pronounced MOO-shays) live in the town of Juchitán in the southern state of Oaxaca. They are a community of men who consider themselves women and live in a socially sanctioned netherworld between the two genders.
This is just another example of a third gender recognized in cultures outside of the U.S.
For more pictures of this community, click here.
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3 comments:
There are several contradictory statements here.
If they consider themselves women,
a) then you should call them women, not "men who consider themselves women."
b) Regardless of whether or not they consider themselves to be "traditional" women, that is a gender, not between genders. Furthermore, there are more than two genders, so your article "the" is exclusive.
It's self-contradictory to say that there are two genders and then point out a third. And again, if they consider themselves women, that's not a new gender. They're women, then.
I'm not claiming expertise on the subject, but your description does not possess internal consistency.
12:39, if you read the article you would notice those quotes were taken directly from it. This was a NY Times article so as liberal as they might be, I don't think they are progressive enough to understand the complexities of gender. Or maybe this is how the muxes self-describe?
So according to the article, Muxes are considered "men who consider themselves women." That, quite literally, indicates that many Muxes are probably transwomen (some might be crossdressers), and also that they are not accepted as women. In other words, it's akin to calling a transwoman a "man in a dress" or calling a transman a "woman with a beard". This is what we call transphobia, or, to use a more specific term, "cissexism": The belief that transpeople have a less 'authentic' or 'real' gender than cispeople.
It's a pattern that seems to emerge mostly in countries or communities with no or little access to medical resources for transpeople: Transwomen don't pass well and (hence) are not accepted as women, and instead get grouped into a "third gender" category. Other comparable instances besides Muxes include Kathoeys in Thailand or Hijras in India; I'm sure there are plenty more. Of course, it is preferable for transwomen, who might otherwise be considered men, to be labeled a third gender. However, this shouldn't mislead us into thinking that what's going on there is anything else than plain cissexism.
To be honest, as an apolitical person, I'm not making it my problem if some communities somewhere don't get trans-acceptance right. However, what I do take issue with is the general pattern that this blog-post seems to be a part of:
People in the genderqueer/genderqueer-allied community seem to be fond of anything that supports the prevalent ('progressive') ideologies that (a) "gender and sex are independent" and (b) "there are more than two genders". Note that both ideologies can be highly threatening to transwomen (and I assume also transmen, but I don't know enough to speak for them). Feel free to talk to me in person for examples of why and where notion (a) can be harmful. Notion (b) can easily cause transpeople to be grouped into some "third-gender" category -- for instance, I suspect that the "male / female / transgender" checkboxes that I've seen on several surveys before are a result of badly-done (= miscommunicated) gender-spectrum advocacy.
This doesn't mean that the ideologies are wrong (well, (a) does need some qalification to be factually correct), but I'm politely asking to please consider the effects on transwomen when you push any of these things. I am not saying here that genderqueer people's interest necessarily conflict with transwomen's interests, but that people in the genderqueer community seem to have a tendency to not be mindful of transpeople's (or maybe just transwomen's) interests. In this particular case, I find it remarkable (and ironic) how a probable instance of transphobia gets relabeled as "transgender acceptance" (in the title), simply because it fits with the prevalent ideologies.
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