RANT: I hate gender in language or other cultures being used as proof for TRA BS

submitted by Agodachi from (self.GenderCritical)

I get extremely frustrated with people trying to make gendered languages gender neutral (with their ridiculous X's), or assume that nongendered languages are the answer. Sorry to break it to you idealists, but there were gender roles, divisions based on sex, and sexism still prevalent in societies that spoke nongendered languages; Finnish, Hungarian, Farsi (Persian), Japanese, Afrikaans.

In Farsi, male and females use the same pronoun "ou" for he/she/it. However, they still know the differences between man and woman, there are still gender roles that have existed waaaay before the Iranian Revolution (people immediately assume current Iran with women being forced to wear headscarfs, but gender roles stills existed before when there wasn't this obligation). Also in many Indigenous societies, like Native American and Aborigines, they had GODS and GODDESSES. So an understanding of female and male still existed in those societies. Hell, my Filipino friends told me that in Indigenous groups the sun god is male and the moon goddess is female, this is something created by the Indigenous people there, not imposed on them by the Spaniards who colonized them.

It just annoys me to no end when I see people claim that so many cultures lived "outside the binary" and that "there were many genders" before white colonizers came. Those few "third genders" you hear about are often gay men, lesbian women, eunuchs, or intersex people. They. Were. Still. Male. Or. Female.

Sorry for my rant I just hate hearing about "oThEr GeNdErS fRoM oThEr CuLtUrEs" as proof of the male-female binary being incorrect or how some nonbinary 14 year old girl is oppressed because chair is feminine in French. They don't understand gender roles in other cultures nor do they understand how gender works as a linguistic concept, so I get tired of them preaching to the masses with their ridiculous Tumblr sources.

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[–]artetolife 9 insightful - 1 fun9 insightful - 0 fun10 insightful - 1 fun -  (5 children)

Not to mention that wherever these "third genders" exist, they were/are almost always assigned roles for people deemed not gender-conforming enough, or out of some percieved necessity like bacha posh. They never resemble modern, western trans people.

[–]Complicated-Spirit 7 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 0 fun8 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

And with few exceptions, the option to be “third gender” was limited to men. The only case I can think of in which women could become socially masculine were the sworn virgins of Albania, and those were put into that role by necessity (e.g., brother died and someone needs to “be a father” to his children), not choice.

[–]levoyageur718293 6 insightful - 2 fun6 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

I've said it before and I'll say it again - in every culture that had them, "third gender" was synonymous with "f-ggot."

[–]goobandit 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

The Hopi language is different for men and women. If a man says hello to someone they way women say hello, it’s like record scratch to the elders. There’s a thin line between amusement and insult, as I understand it.