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Hello, Welcome! I’m Dr. Luccia Rogers, and we’re going to spend the next few hours exploring gender. Gender is, or most likely is not what you think it is. However, its influence reaches into all parts of culture, society, and life and our purpose here is to look at how mainstream United Statian culture compares with other cultures in constructing, teaching, and enforcing this thing called gender.

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For our discussion, we will limit ourselves to defining sex as Biological, Physiological, and Genetic and define Gender as a Social and Cultural identity and role that is not necessarily aligned with Sex.

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In Gonadal Sex, we have three: Male, Female, and Intersex. Among the intersex conditions that have always existed are Hypospadias, in which the opening of base of the penis from the urethra to almost the anus remains open and can resemble vaginal lips, micropenis, in which the penis is scarcely is more than a lump of nerves and blood vessels, similar to a clitoris, hyperclitoral genital in which the clitoris can be as long as 2 to 3 inches, vaginal agenesis, in which there is little to no vaginal opening or depth and a whole range of so-called hermaphroditic genitalia.

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These are the so-called secondary characteristics, both of which can be inhibited by a wide variety of genetic conditions and which are manipulated by doctors to help an adolescent develop adult features or as part of the gender transition, which we’ll examine more closely later on.

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And third, sex is genetic and is most often determined by the XY chromosome or the XX chromosome. However, there are situations in which even genetics do not result in man or male and womyn or female.

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In about 1 in 2500 births, the second X chromosome is missing. This is Turner’s Syndrome and is characterized by a wide variety of symptoms and each person with the syndrome will have different symptoms that include short stature, heart and other organ defects, webbed neck, skeletal deformities, sterility, etc. In 1 in every 500 male births, Kleinfelter’s Syndrome occurs. In this, there are two X and one Y chromosomes. Males with this syndrome are often lanky, with rounded bodies and gynomastia and have risk factors for diseases such as varicose veins and rheumatoid arthritis at the same rate as females. These males are almost always sterile. Swyer Syndrome results in either an XY OR and XX chromosome pair. The first clue this may be a person’s challenge is if female secondary sexual characteristics are not fully occurring in puberty, usually breast development. Tests are done to determine first if the endocrine system is functioning properly and if it is, then imaging is performed to determine if the female gonads exist. In Swyer, there may be a uterus, but only small strips of ovarian tissue. As there are no functioning ovaries, there will not be the full range of secondary sexual characteristics. There may be pubic and underarm hair, for example, but not breast or pelvic development. Estrogens and progestins are administered to bring about the full range of sexual characteristics. In Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome, there is an XY

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Now, we move to Gender. There is man. There is woman, or womyn. At least, that’s how patriarchal, or male-dominant cultures have decided to organize themselves. However, cultures around the world, including in North America, may be patriarchal, but also may be matrilineal or matrifocal. Of course, there are and have been matriarchal cultures. Matriarchal, matrilineal, and matrifocal cultures historically have determined there are more than two genders … some have as many as six. But, first, let’s look at the culture in which we live.

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1 Man and Woman. Heterosexual. Everything else is deviant or wrong. Often, the response to deviance is to destroy it. Witness the Uganda bill to kill or imprison gay people. Modern Western cultures are becoming more tolerant of differences of all kinds, but culture exists to preserve power and as long as the bulk of power is controlled by systems which support WHAM$, there will be a tendency to keep some people on the outside. 2 Very much a Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell situation. Gay people were explained as “committed bachelors,” or “spinster” aunts. The notion of homosex was never considered, even though it always existed. 3 As I mentioned, non-western cultures have usually created more than two genders to explain the usual variations in biology and affectation or interest. Some of these include the shaman, berdache, hjira, and so on. These people were honored as gifts to the community and held positions of great importance as they were neither male nor female. 4 We are witnessing the results of post-modern cultural changes as not only gay or lesbian people are experiencing inclusion into the mainstream culture, whatever that is, but also people of color, womyn in general, people with disabilities, poor people (perhaps the last to actually achieve access to power), and so on. As post-modern thinking informs us that identities are fluid, that culture is wholly a construct, and

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How many boys were given actions figures or dolls? How many girls were given guns, trucks, etc.? From the moment we are born, we are related to according to our genitalia. This affects what we wear, the color of our clothing, our hair, what we play with, how are are treated when injured, what sports we can play, how we speak and are spoken to, and who are held up as role models. Let’s explore this now.

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Gender is usually traditional as we just discussed. Also, there are some not so subtle ways, as well. In elementary and middle schools, boys are responded to more often than girls by both male and female teachers. This becomes more obvious in high school and college. Girls have been able to play soccer and little league baseball, but are shifted to softball and rarely allowed to play football. Title IX has had a profound effect on American culture, but womyn’s sports still have to sue for actual equality in college or high school program funding. The threat of being called gay, and lately the use of the word gay to mean anything unpleasant, strange, or unusual is a clear marker that this culture does not believe that same sex people have the same value as those considered “Normal.”

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In mainstream United Statian culture, historically to be Man is to be human. Womyn is anything other than human. For example, in medicine it took deaths of dozens of womyn from side effects of a heart drug for the FDA to require that drugs be tested ALSO on womyn in statistically-meaningful numbers to determine if a drug is safe for both men and wymyn. In income, wymyn still make about 70 percent of what men earn for the exact same work (WalMart, for example), but have gained .02 cents per hour since 1970. Progress. The first womyn Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, and other wymyn like Secretary of State Clinton are evidence of progress, but political power still resides mostly in men. In language, English only refers to humans as he or him and she or her. Anything non-specific is still referred to as him or his as in “the student will see his progress if he completes all his work.” Their is collective and thus, ungrammatical, but recently him or her or his or her or he or she is being used. Some scifi has given us hir, but this hasn’t become widely accepted.

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We move to the cousin of sexism, homophobia. Historically, to be gay is to be not-male. Indeed, in some cultures, like Brazil, the language doesn’t have a word for gay, but there is man and non-man. To be womyn is to be also not-male. Historically, gay people in mainstream United Statian Culture have been accepted in very limited roles. Performers, design, art, music, etc. It wasn’t until he was Sir Elton John that he quit referring to himself as bisexual, for example. And, “some of my best friends are gay,” is just as offensive as “some of my best friends are black, latino/a, disabled, etc.”

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Still, even within mainstream culture, to be a gay man was still to be a man. Lesbians have been historically invisible. In a patriarchal culture, wymyn’s primary value comes from their ability to “produce children,” or to “give a man a child.” If a womyn has no interest in sex with men, then she doesn’t exist.

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Finally, let’s clear up some fallacies: There are celibate gay people and people who would be gay before having sex or who would never have sex. People don’t choose to be gay. It is known as early as 4 years old as part of the process of self-definition that includes knowing if one is a boy or a girl. And no, meeting the right man or womyn won’t make a difference. However, gay and lesbian people do fall in love with opposite sex partners. The heart will lead wherever it wants to go.

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Let’s look at some who have questioned and lived the question of gender roles and identities: The Radical Fairies were gay men who created a costume that included a skirt of camo material with a flashy or lace fringe. They were also the first to step up and say, hey, we’re dying here of something new and it makes no sense. Drag Kings adopt male personas for entertainment purposes as do Drag Queens. They have played important roles in fund-raising and, recognizing the socially-acceptable role as entertainers, called attention to the arbitrary nature of appearance in deciding who’s a man and who’s a womyn. Stone Butches have always been around and, as they’ve posed no threat to men, have mostly been allowed to exist unmolested. However, many of these may very well have been FtMs and we’ll go there in a minute. Femmes are men who have been the source of the stereotypes of limp-wristed, flamboyant gay men. Since it is not okay for a man to want to act like a womyn, imagine what happens when a man becomes a womyn.

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There have also always been womyn, both straight and gay, who have wanted to participate in “men’s work,” or male activities and went ahead and did so. While Dykes on Bikes literally lead the way at the head of Gay Pride parades, I met a womyn who was in her 60s and rode a Harley since she was 16. Granny and Pops owned a Harley dealership in West Texas. There have been truck drivers, butchers, secretaries (until the 1930s, a male-only profession), and so on. But, what about those who are neither … those who are not simply male or female, man or womyn?

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This is where my research got really, really interesting.

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One way to understand all this in a western, mainstream United Statian context is that culture is constantly being re-created as discourse.

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First, Foucault. Second, Derrida.

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1 Thus, we are taught by our culture how men and womyn are to behave. 2 First, like Foucault, everything is discourse. Second, gender is performance, the more one acts “like a gender” and receives feedback confirming that one is a gender, then the more one acts like a gender. 3 But, there are cultures in which there were clearly at least three genders.

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Was sent in role as Man-Woman to be emissary or ambassador to D.C. All these cultures had people whose role was to mediate between men and wymyn AND between the tribe or village and any outsiders as well as between the physical world and the spiritual world. Another culture or cultural grouping that has this role are those that have the shaman. The Shaman were shape-shifters and this shape shifting often was from appearing male or female to appearing female or male. The Shaman lived as a third gender role and to be the mate of the shaman was to gain great status. That the social/culural/religious role of the Shaman is virtually unchanged from the East European and Siberian cultures to the Inuit and other Arctic North American cultures is seen as one more proof of the Aleutian Land Bridge Migration theory.

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Lived and worked in the in-between places Selected by both the body (intersex) and interest (healing, spirituality, etc.) To the shame of some anthropologists, once the role of the two-spirit or third gender person was understood as the psychic and spiritual glue of the culture, they were the first to be killed outright.

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It takes a biological male and biological female to make the physical body and then two others to create the spiritual body. All four are essential to make a new life.

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As a queer, womyn feminist researcher educator and spiritual leader, I fit into the discourse in this way …

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Now, please stand or sit and take a deep breath and …

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