Cissexist societies tend to classify all trans people as either our birth-assigned genders or some third gender. And these categories may work for some trans people, but not for others.
I was world-building for a couple s-f settings, and was thinking how they might classify trans people.
The first setting was divided between patriarchal and lesbian-separatist worlds. Any other worlds were split, as the Rule of Man tried to recruit men as fifth columnists, insisted that men were superior, and insisted that men were threatened by the "witches." The result is that each side has overriding political/ideological reasons to define gender a certain way. The patriarchal worlds use prenatal hormones so at most 10% are "men," sons for ruling families, 40% are "[some othering term]," and 50% "women," and they brainwash everyone. The lesbian-separatist worlds use prenatal hormones so 100% are womyn, and they reject gender distinctions within their societies. Someone who was supposed to be a "man," but rejects the Rule of Man, and transitions, might be considered a "man," before she flees, a womon when in exile, and a "eunuch," if she returns to rescue people, even though she's the same person with the same internal gender.
The second setting was hit by an epidemic, at the end of the World War, causing miscarriages, so that virtually all children were girls, until researches discovered estrogen, and found estrogen at the right times could prevent these miscarriages. There would be a gap, of c. 20 years, between the youngest of the men, and the oldest of the "boys" born after this discovery. There would be no possibility of a second World War for at least c. 40 years, and probably indefinitely. The question is, will the resulting society keep insisting that almost half the babies are "boys," that "of course men need supplemental estrogen to prevent male melancholia," etc.
Thoughts?
Comments
Abrahamic theology
One reasonable theory, assuming one believes in God, is that God created man and woman. However after "the fall" genetic error came in and the longer the human genetic machine runs the more it deviates from the original condition The originl Adam and Eve idea was passed around the campfire for thousands of years, and first written down around 3500 years ago. So, in my opinion the idea of two genders started with the predecessors of the Jews.
I think the two gender idea is obsolete and at some point we will finally realize that there is just one model, mostly female and the rest of us vary around that in an analog way.
When our myths/legands derive
When our myths/legands derive us all from two people, it can't show all our diversity in those two people.
In some ways, that's good, it challenges status distinctions. "When Adam delved and Eve span, who was then the gentleman?"
In other ways, that's not so good, it doesn't challenge the idea that our diversity, in gender, orientation, neurology, etc. is somehow "a result of the Fall."
"The Fall" as a theory.
It is just a theory, though I was long taught that it was fact. Early man sought to explain a scientific process with flawed psychology. I do not know why men think they are inherently bad, or sinful. Those who have been through considerable trauma and have watched loved ones suffer or die could perhaps blame themselves, thinking it was their fault. And, there is a plentiful supply of loss and pain in the world. Here in the West we think that losing a job, or a girlfriend is loss, but in so much of the world people watch their whole families starve to death, or be hacked to bits by rival tribesmen. I get so impatient with Americans especially. We are so well fed, and entitled and it drives me bats sometimes.
Where will all this take us? I have over 40 years of spiritual study but have become a scientific person, and reconciling the two is really difficult. All we really know about the world is what we see in front of us right now. For me, the only way I can make sense of it and to survive is to try to know the one who set all the scientific processes I see around me in motion. If others choose another pass, that is up to them, as I will follow my own.
Alien Investigators
Gender:
In this story, the beings were normally genderless and when they found another to pair with, the one who wanted a child would bear the child, and the other would impregnate the bearer, so effectively in the story there were three genders. And, though I don't know for sure, I think the Flatfish does just that.
Several different sources I
Several different sources I've encountered say that a number of widely separated cultures use pretty much the same "five genders" model. To oversimplify a lot:
1. masculine men
2. masculine women
3. two-spirited
4. feminine men
5 feminine women
Brooke brooke at shadowgard dot com
http://brooke.shadowgard.com/
Girls will be boys, and boys will be girls
It's a mixed up, muddled up, shook up world
"Lola", the Kinks