Thread by @MarinaAdshade

LOVE this scene from #whatisawomen where Matt Walsh asks the Maasai Tribe what they know about people who are “transgender” and “non-binary”. There is a really important lesson to be learned from this exchange about gender identity...

The Maasai in this video have NO idea what Matt Walsh is talking about when he says "gender identity".

YouTube commentator Cameron writes “Its so cool how these men have never been exposed to our confused american culture.”

Cameron, it seems, has forgotten about colonization.

I don’t know about the Maasai. But other tribes in Kenya definitely have third genders.

The Meru have the “Mugawe” which is a biological male that wears women’s clothes/hairstyles and is often gay and married to a man. Mugawe traditionally took on religious leadership roles.

In neighbouring Uganda, the Langi have a third gender known as “Mudoko dako” which translates into “transformed man”. The Mudoko dako dress as women, take on women’s gender roles, and have sex with and marry men.

To the north in Ethiopia the Amhara people recognize the wändarwäräd who are males who live as females and the wändawände which translates into “mannish women".

If the Maasai people did not traditionally have a third gender, among African tribes they are probably the exception and absolutely not the rule.

Good job #whatisawomen research for identifying one of the few indigenous communities that have binary gender norms!

Why is this not more widely known? Well, the answer is actually pretty simple - turns out these peoples have been exposed to our confused culture. Rather forcefully in fact.

daily.jstor.org/the-deviant-af…

Colonizers imposed binary gender norms on indigenous societies around the globe.

For example, traditionally the Māori accepted people with fluid genders and/or sexuality long before the Europeans arrived in what is now called New Zealand...

The Māori believe that gender and sexual identity has been passed down from their ancestors and, as such, acceptance of "takatāpui" is part of a spiritual connection.

takatapui.nz/#home

In Samoa, Fa’afafine is the socially accepted tradition of raising some of the boys as girls when families do not have enough girls to assume female gender roles. This gender identity is so widely accepted that an annual Fa’afafine beauty pageant is held in Apia

Bakla is a Tagalog word for a man who has feminine mannerisms, or dresses or identifies as a woman in the Philippines and is an identity that is based on performative cultural practice.

Recognition of Hijras on the Indian subcontinent goes back to antiquity with their inclusion in the ancient Sanskrit text the Kama Sutra. British Colonial authorities labelled this group a “criminal tribe” in 1871 in an attempt to eliminate this third gender.

The North American indigenous community has adopted the umbrella terminology of "two-spirit" to describe people who were neither men nor women.
ihs.gov/lgbt/health/tw….

The southern Mexico region of Oaxaca’s Istmo de Tehuantepec also has a third gender called Muxes.

bbc.com/travel/article…

So why do I enjoy watching Matt Walsh in #whatisawomen ask the Maasai Tribe what they know about people who are “transgender” and “non-binary”?

Because this essentially proves the point that gender is socially constructed.

Just as the concepts of "Man" and "Woman" are socially constructed, so are the concepts of "Transgender" and "Non-binary"; these are specific to Western culture.

No surprise then when you speak to people from a different culture they have no idea what you are talking about!

Mugawe are not transgender!
Mudoko dako are not transgender!
Wändarwäräd are not transgender!
Takatāpui are not transgender!
Bakla are not transgender!
Hijras are not transgender!
Two-spirited are not transgender!
Muxes are not transgender!

Each concept is culturally specific!