Colonialism and the Gender Binary

By Hannah Weisz ‘24

The concept of gender has been prominent in the media recently.  
Specifically, the gender binary, the rigid system of having two genders, has been making headlines. Contrary to popular belief, this binary system is not necessarily found within human anatomy. Cultures all over the world developed different systems of gender completely unrelated to the rigid dichotomy we use today. However, colonizers persecuted these nations and silenced their cultures.
Jewish law bases its ideas on sex rather than gender and includes different types of intersex people in those customs. Although Hebrew is a binary system with male and female language, Jewish law describes several sexes.

Besides zachar (male) and nekeva (female), the following sexes are referenced throughout the writings: androgynous (having male and female characteristics), tumtum (neither male nor female), ay’lonit (considered female at birth but develops male characteristics during puberty) and saris (the reverse of ay’lonit). These sexes have at least 80 mentions by name in various Jewish texts. 
Intersex people, those with anatomy involving parts from both male and female anatomy, are 1.7 percent of the population; as common as redheads. 
Other cultures and languages, such as the Dogon of Mali, the Sotho of South Africa and the Igbo of Nigeria also have a unique system of gender. The Dogon believed that the ideal human being is androgynous, with the foreskin representing femininity. When a male is circumcised, he must find a woman to balance him out. In the language of Sesotho in South Africa, the term wor sitabane (having both male and female genetalia) is another instance of an androgynous concept in older culture.
The Igbo had room for mixed or third genders and didn’t use binary pronouns. There were female husbands, male daughters and women put in positions typically reserved for men. They could be politicians and business leaders, a concept considered strange by British colonialists who massacred Igbo men, forcing the rest of the community to hold the nation together. And after years of pushing a patriarchal system onto them by force, the government is now run almost exclusively by men. Igbo culture is now almost as patriarchal and binary as the colonizers who slaughtered their ancestors, and much healing is needed to restore their society to its pre-colonialist era. 
    The Hijrah of South Asia show yet another example of a non-binary gender system that has been persecuted. Most Hijrahs are from India, although there are smaller populations in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal. They are seen as a third gender of people with a cultural role of performance and religious ritual.
Hijrahs are usually assigned male at birth and some choose to undergo surgery to modify their genitalia. Unlike most transgender and intersex people, Hijrahs have a specific place in Indian society. They are represented throughout Hinduism in the form of the figure Shiva and other androgynous gods.
Unfortunately, colonialists perceived these people as deviations from their agenda rather than human beings and an integral part of Hindu culture. The British made being a Hijrah a crime, erased their public visibility and stripped away their rights.
Today, Hijrahs live in neglected neighborhoods. They are a tight-knit group, persecuted by the police, clients and even their relatives for existing outside the arbitrary limits of British imperialists. Hate crimes go unreported and most Hijrahs have a very low income. Before colonization, they were idolized and treated as demigods; now they are attacked, demonized and silenced.
The binary is one construct of many and should not be treated as a biological or social postulate. Stigmatizing transgender people, specifically those who don’t assimilate into the binary, upholds ridiculous colonialist values.
We are surrounded by a binary world - in products, bathrooms, education and even bureaucracy (male, female, etc.). Nonbinary, intersex and gender nonconforming people are not an afterthought, an oddity or a problem that needs to be solved. When we dismiss gender fluidity as a new trend, we take the side of present and past oppressors.