Gender Identity and Gender Transformation in Cross Cultural

Gender Identity and Gender Transformation in Cross Cultural Perspectives Social construction/deconstruction of gender identities

Theory on Gender Identity  Identity-Construction Theory:

emphasizes the individual’s personal and conscious commitment to a specific image of self

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Theory on Gender Identity  Gender-Schema Theory: merges cognitive-

developmental with social-learning theory. Schemas are internal cognitive networks (shaped by socialization) that organize and guide individual perceptions; gender schemas are cognitive networks associated with concepts of masculine and feminine. Highly genderschematic individuals tend to organize many of their thoughts, perceptions and evaluations according to gender stereotypes and symbols. @2008 LIHernandez

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Theory on Gender Identity  Socialization or Social-Learning Theory:

emphasizes influence of differing “learning environments,” especially of children but sometimes of adults as well imitation of models and examples they see in society response to rewards for genderappropriate behavior and criticism or punishment for gender-inappropriate behavior (from peers as well as adults) @2008 LIHernandez

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GENDER TRANSFORMATION Gender identity in cross cultural societies

Hijras of South Asia

Hijras are widely referred to in English with the term "eunuch". @2008 LIHernandez

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Hijras  In South India, the goddess Yellamma is

believed to have the power to change one's sex. Male devotees in female clothing are known as Jogappa. They perform similar roles to hijra, such as dancing and singing at birth ceremonies and weddings.

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Hijras  The word kothi (or koti) is common

across India, although kothis are often distinguished from hijras. Kothis are regarded as feminine men or boys who take a feminine role in sex with men, but do not live in the kind of intentional communities that hijras usually live in.

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Hijras  Becoming a hijra is a process of socialization

into a "hijra family" through a relationship characterised as chela "student" to guru "teacher", leading to a gradual assumption of femininity.  Typically each guru lives with at least five chelas; her chelas assume her surname and are considered part of her lineage. Chelas are expected to give their income to their guru, who manages the household. Hijra families are close knit communities, which often have their own houses. @2008 LIHernandez

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Hijras  This process may culminate in a

religious ritual that includes emasculation (total removal of the penis, testes and scrotum in men). Not all hijras undergo emasculation, and the percentage of hijras that are eunuchs is unknown.

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Hijras 

Hijras are often encountered on streets, trains, and other public places demanding money from young men. If refused, the hijra may attempt to embarrass the man into giving money, using obscene gestures, profane language, and even sexual advances. Hijras also perform religious ceremonies at weddings and at the birth of male babies, involving music, singing, and sexually suggestive dancing.

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These are intended to bring good luck and fertility. Although the hijra are most often uninvited, the host usually pays the hijras a fee. Many fear the hijras' curse if they are not appeased, bringing bad luck or infertility, but for the fee they receive, they can bless goodwill and fortune on to the newly born. Hijras are said to be able to do this because, since they do not engage in sexual activities, they accumulate their sexual energy which they can use to either bestow a boon or a bane.

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Baccha of Central Asia

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Baccha of Turkestan  A bacchá, typically an adolescent of

twelve to sixteen, is a performer practiced in erotic songs and suggestive dancing. He wore resplendent attire and makeup, has been considered by some as cross-dressing or actual transgender expression.

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Baccha  The bacchá was appreciated esthetically

for his androgynous beauty, but was also available as a sex worker. The boys were drawn from the ranks of the underclasses, as the profession was as much despised as it was admired.

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Baccha  The bacchás were trained from

childhood and carried on their trade until their beard began to grow. Once they matured out of the trade, some were set up by their patrons in business as merchants, but most boys were left to their own, often meager, resources.

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Baccha  The practice of keeping dance boys still

persists in northern Afghanistan, where many men keep them as status symbols. Some of the individuals involved report being forced into sex, while others report strong emotional and physical bonds formed over the course of relationships lasting many years, often into the boys' adulthood. @2008 LIHernandez

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Kathoey of Thailand The term kathoey or katoey (Thai: กะเทย) generally refers to a maleto-female transgender person or an effeminate gay male in Thailand.

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Kathoey  The term "kathoey" is not an exact

equivalent of the modern western transwoman — it suggests that the person is a type of male, unlike the term sao praphet song, which suggests a female sex identity, or phet thee sam, which suggests a third gender. The term phu-ying praphet thi sorng, roughly translated as "second type of woman", is also used to refer to kathoey @2008 LIHernandez

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Kathoey  The term can refer to males who exhibit varying

degrees of femininity — many kathoeys dress as women and undergo feminising medical procedures such as hormone replacement therapy, breast implants, genital reassignment surgery, or Adam's apple reductions. Others may wear makeup and use feminine pronouns, but dress as men, and are closer to the western category of effeminate gay man than transgender. @2008 LIHernandez

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Kathoey  Kathoeys are often identified at a young

age, and are considered to be "born that way". They may have access to hormones (available without prescription) and medical procedures during their teenage years

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Kathoey  Some believe that this higher

acceptance is due to the nature of the surrounding Buddhist culture, which places a high value on tolerance. Using the notion of Karma, some Thai believe that being a kathoey is the result of transgressions in past lives, concluding that kathoey deserve pity rather than blame. @2008 LIHernandez

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Snow Virgins  A sworn virgin is a person who decides

to live in the manner of the opposite sex while adamantly refusing ever to have sexual relations with another. The term itself can be misleading — "swearing" virginity can be a public or private act, and it does not even have to be a conscious decision

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The social role of the "sworn virgin" in the Balkans  The term sworn virgin has come to refer

to a traditional social role in the Balkans: that of a man who was born female. This area is home to a patchwork of seemingly disparate groups, including the Slavic Bosnians/Serbs/Montenegrins and Croats, the Albanians, the Roma and sizable Greek and Romanian minorities @2008 LIHernandez

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Snow Virgins  The origins of Balkan "sworn virgins" is

disparate: some choose this role (as early as childhood and as late as just before their marriage ceremony) while others are raised or forced into it by circumstance.

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Privileges  "Sworn virgins" enjoy great privilege in

comparison to those living a female gender. They can smoke, attend maleonly events, participate in male-only activities, use men's tools like guns and certain musical instruments, and generally obtain the respect of their born-male peers like any other man.

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Limitations  However, there are limitations. First, they are

forbidden from sexual activity with any other person. Second, they are limited to the traditional female immunity to blood-feud, which remains a major cause of male mortality. If a clan is under siege and all of its males are potential targets for a vengeance murder, the "sworn virgin" is limited to immunity as a target and limited to carrying out crucial men's work without fear of being killed. @2008 LIHernandez

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Takatāpui (Maori) ofNew Zealand  Takatāpui (also spelt

takataapui) is the Māori word meaning a devoted partner of the same sex. In modern terminology, a person that identifies as takatāpui is a Māori individual that is queer, in other words gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender or transsexual.

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 The term is not new, but the

application of it is very recent. In the 1980s, there was a desire for a label to describe an individual that is both Māori and nonheterosexual. The word takatāpui was found to have existed in pre-colonial New Zealand to describe relationships between people of the same sex. The existence of this word kills the conservative Māori argument that homosexuality did not exist in Māori society prior to the arrival of Europeans. 27

Fa'afafine of Samoa  Fa'afafine) (also spelled faafafine,

fafafige, and misspelled fafafini) is a third gender specific to Samoan culture. Fa'afafine are biologically men who in childhood choose by their nature to be raised to assume female gender roles, which is not discouraged in the traditional fa'asamoa (Samoan society).

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Fa'afafine  Fa'afafine are prominent in all aspects of

Samoan society as workers, administrators, educators, church elders, business people, and artists. They are known for their hard work and dedication to the family, and are often the guardians and caretakers to elderly parents, as well as the biological children of their siblings.

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Fa'afafine  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EronV

tKYr0c

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