Some see the world divided into two overarching categories: as either good and evil, ying and yang, moon and sun, light and dark, yours and mine, theirs and ours, right and left, Republican and Democrat, etc. When we categorize in this way, we tend to indicate a division or separateness between two different ideas. This categorization becomes especially troublesome in regards to how we perceive men and women.
For example, studies from the Intersex Society of North America (now the part of the Accord Alliance) indicate that approximately 1 in 2,000 people in the USA are born intersex or with chromosomal, morphologic, genital and or gonadal anomalies that prevents “normal” classification as a man or a woman. The Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Middlesex, is an autobiography of such an individual who “was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day in January of 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of 1974″ (Eugenides, Middlesex, 1992). Calliope Stephanides, latter Jeffrey, had a condition called 5-ARD in which babies are born with male gonads, including testicles, but usually appear to have female primary sex characteristics. The traditional Western way of dealing with these anomalies has been to try and fix a sexual identity usually by surgery or drugs, with the hope that you made the correct gender assignment. The Intersex Society cautions though that “that gender assignment of infants with intersex conditions as boy or girl, as with assignment of any infant, is preliminary. Any child—intersex or not—may decide later in life that she or he was given the wrong gender assignment; but children with certain intersex conditions have significantly higher rates of gender transition than the general population, with or without treatment.“
Some define gender instead as the individual’s inner sense of being male or female. This can be a problematic categorization as I have met people that have self-identified as transgender, cross-gender, neutral gendered, third gendered, and many more classifications. In some Polynesian societies, fa’afafine are considered to be “third gendered” along side male and female. In India, Hijra is considered to be neither man nor a woman. In Oman, Xanith, or male homosexual prostitutes, form an accepted third gender (Wikipedia, “Gender Identity”). Anne Bolin in her essay Traversing Gender: Cultural Context and Gender Practices writes “Within the majority of North American Indian Tribes there existed – and, in a number of instances, still exists – a cultural construction of more than just two genders, allowing individuals to either take up the gender role of the “other” sex completely or to mix the culturally defined mens and womens roles to varying degrees. Such individuals are not seen as “men” or “women” but belong to genders different from both “man” and “women…”
Another man and woman duality that might be challenged is in the area of sexuality. Paganism is known for being more accepting of non-heterosexual relationships and there are many Pagans that classify themselves as homosexual, bisexual, and even unisexual. Even these categories are challenged as an oversimplification as discovered by Kinsey in 1948 when he created a six point scale for homosexuality that classified to what degree a man was homosexual. “Males do not represent two discrete populations, heterosexual and homosexual. The world is not divided into sheep and goats…The living world is a continuum in each and everyone of its aspects.” (Kinsey, Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, 1948). In his studies he further discovered that 37% of the men in the US had achieved orgasm through contact with another male after adolescence and 13% of women had achieved orgasm through contact with another woman.
What about this concept of masculine (associated with men characteristics) versus feminine (associated with feminine characteristics). A look through literature will show characteristics such as strength, emotions, logic, competitiveness, aggressiveness, nurturing, passivity, rationality, intuitiveness, etc. being attached to one sex or another. Geert Hofstede, a Dutch Sociologist, even took this concept to evaluate societies developed an Index for evaluating cultures. For example, he classified North and Latin American as masculine versus Nordic or African cultures which he classified as feminine (Hofstede, Culture’s Consequences, 2001). These generalizations have been denounced by both men and women as gross oversimplifications and inappropriate stereotypes because such archetypes can have limiting results on an individual’s potential. For example, masculinity have been barrier for men to show their emotions or to become more nurturing; while the label of femininity on women has placed a stigma on those women who are ambitious and wish to aggressively seek power. The harm in this labeling was demonstrated in a 1999 study where women performed significantly worse than men on a math test when the participants were led to believe that the test would probably produce gender differences. In contrast, women and men performed equally well when the participants were led to believe that the test did not produce gender differences. (Spencer, Steele, Quinn, 1999). Anne Bolin’s essay on North American Indians states that “due to the cultural construction of more than two genders, Western concepts such as ‘transexual’ or ‘homosexual’ can also not be applied to Native American Women-Men’ or ‘Men-Women’; a sexual relationship.” Since these are based on the idea of two genders, they have little meaning in a culture that may have four or more genders.
This duality of sexes is also seen in Pagan spirituality. For example Wiccans, whose belief system heavily influences mainstream Paganism, sees Divinity manifested in two complementary beings, the Goddess and the God, which may manifest in multiple Gods and Goddesses. During ritual, this is traditionally represented by a masculine High Priest and a feminine High Priestess manipulating strongly gendered tools, often symbolic of the Great Rite. There are definite sexual overtones in which the phallic athame is lowered into the womb-like chalice. The result is a ritual that seems to sacralize heterosexual intercourse. Gerald Gardner wrote in Witchcraft Today that “The leader may be a man or a woman, but a high priestess (whom they may borrow from another coven, if they have not got one of their own available) must be present to celebrate the rites.“ Walter Williams, in the Spirit and the Flesh, wrote that the Mojave believed that female shamans were spiritually stronger than male but that ‘other’ gendered ones were stronger still.
Among Pagan Gods and Goddesses it is hard to identify traditional male/female characteristics based on their myths. Dionysus was known to wear women’s clothing and have male lovers. Ganymede was Zeus’s lover. Artemis and Hestia were virgin Goddesses which some imply as meaning asexuality. The Barons Lundy and Limba are known in Voudon as lovers, and Ghede Oussou was an androgynous figure who had both male and female lovers. Loki was a woman for eight winters and bore children. In the book Witchcraft: The Old Religion, Dr. Leo Martello writes “A clay hermaphroditic idol was found in Yugoslavia and dated from the Bronze Age.” “There are many imaged of “bearded ladies,” including the Goddesses Diana and Isis.” “The Greeks often Babylonian tradition described the first men as having one body and two heads. one male and one female. A Hindu scholar drew a figure of Brahma, during the act of creation, making him bisexual.” The word hermaphrodite itself is derived from the myth of Hermaphroditus who was a son of Hermes and Aphrodite, who while bathing became joined in one body with a nymph.
Many within the Pagan community are seeking ways to de-emphasize gender in public rituals that are open to the public in order to be more inclusive of those that do not view the world in dual gender terms. Many are evaluating their own practices to determine if their belief filters might be influenced by this bias. Do you think there is harm in viewing gender in duality terms? Is this a viewpoint that has no place in Paganism or your personal spiritual practices? How should Paganism view gender so that it is more broad-minded and all-embracing? In the book, Drawing Down the Moon, Peter Soderberg, in an interview with Margot Adler, said of gays: “There is a lot of queer energy in the men and women most cultures consider magical. It’s practically a requirement for certain kinds of medicine and magic.” He concluded that the pagan movement doesn’t give credit to this, for “there’s a lot of heterosexism in modern neo-pagan culture.” Adler quotes one man who acknowledged the greater acceptance of non-dual practice who stated: “when he first entered the pagan community, you could not even touch another man. And there were regular polarity checks in circles – you know, boy, girl, boy, girl.“ According to Ann-Marie Gallagher in her book The Wicca Bible, “It matters not whether we are gay, straight, bisexual or transgendered – the physical world is sacred, and [we are] celebrating our physicality, sexuality, human nature and celebrating the goddess, Giver of ALL life and soul of ALL nature.”
Last month’s Pantheacon proved when a large uproar commenced when transgendered females were barred admission from a Lilith ritual sponsored by a Dianic organization, gender is still important to some Pagan faiths. Z. Budapest defended the action by stating: “This struggle has been going since the Women’s Mysteries first appeared. Transies who attack us only care about themselves. We women need our own culture, our own resourcing, our own traditions. You can tell these are men, They don’t care if women loose the Only tradition reclaimed after much research and practice ,the Dianic Tradition. Men simply want in. Women are born not made by men on operating tables.” Though many Dianic leaders have been quick to counter Z. Budapest’s comments, this incident does portray that duality is important in some peoples spirituality, however they might define it.
What do you think?
