Friday, September 23, 2016

societal gender roles

Fa'afaine-"the manner of women"
An american somoan society  in the south pacific. Where every man and woman had a specific role. children who are males could take on feminine tasks at a young age. After becoming fa'fafine they begin to ask like a female like dress, dancing the siva (a traditional dance) and fufilling female roles in the home. They usually end up taking care of the children and their elderly parents.
Hijra- 
From south Asia. Some people choose to be transgender. They have almost their own category by the government. Sometimes they have their own community and leaders as well. Young boys in these communities usually get used as sex workers. The gender role they take on is determined by social rank and education. 
Sworn Virgins- Balkans
These were chastity women who took on male roles to usually  avoid the duties as a female. They also usually participated in cross dressing. These people never really get the chance to marry or have children. 
Kathoey-Thailand
Where young men exploit their sexual orientation. These men portray typical feminine qualities untypical of a man, for appearance and behavior. Sometime they are called lady-boys and are usually role models. This is like a third gender in Thailand seen as not men nor women.
Bugis
The Bugis acknowledge three sexes female, male, hermaphrodite. They also accknowledge four genders women, men, calabai, and calalai. They have a fifth meta-gender group, the bissu. Bissu have their own distinctive clothing. They are a combination of all genders. To become a bissu, one must be born both female and male, or hermaphroditic. They recognoze 5 genders called makkunrai, oroane, bissu, calabai, and calalal.
In comparison to western society all these roles are very different, our government would never think of a third party for a gender. I do not believe it would be possible to ever have chastity women as a group because of how sexualized our society is. We are very accepting to transgender and cross dressers. I also believe we would never be able to keep the genders straight and be able to identify who is who because personally I already struggle telling the difference between them. I think we should do something about the bathroom situation. Maybe turn the third bathroom that some businesses have that are for families into a family and "other" bathroom. I believe there are many improvements we need to make in our society but baby steps will get us there, 

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