Native American gender roles varied greatly from those of the European Christian colonies, and as it turns out, provided far more ‘freedom.’
I don’t know about you, but I have a huge problem with gender roles. I don’t like it that we are forced into ‘boxes’ that designate how we dress and what we look like, when there are so many other shades to the spectrum. Unfortunately, our society was founded with these gender roles in place, by European immigrants, contrary to the fact that Native Americans acknowledged five genders. The Native American gender roles included 5 distinct, but sometimes blurry, associations with human gender. Imagine that?
In Native American cultures, there were no set of ‘rules’ that people had to abide by in order to be part of the tribe. Native Americans who displayed both ‘female’ and ‘male’ characteristics were thought of as gifts from nature, and able to see both sides of everything. Indian Country Today states that Native Americans acknowledged five gender roles, “Female, male, two-spirit female, two-spirit male, and trans.”
READ MORE: New York Just Released a List of 31 Official Genders
“THE TWO SPIRIT PEOPLE IN PRE-CONTACT NATIVE AMERICA WERE HIGHLY REVERED AND FAMILIES THAT INCLUDED THEM WERE CONSIDERED LUCKY. INDIANS BELIEVED THAT A PERSON WHO WAS ABLE TO SEE THE WORLD THROUGH THE EYES OF BOTH GENDERS AT THE SAME TIME WAS A GIFT FROM THE CREATOR.”
In Native American cultures, people were valued for their contributions to the tribe, instead of who they liked to schtup. I kind of wish modern society worked like this, because gays and lesbians are some of the most important contributors to our society. I guess it just goes to show you that sometimes the right answer is there from the start, no matter who tries to cover it up or change the story.
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