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[–]IridescentAnacondastrictly dickly 22 insightful - 2 fun22 insightful - 1 fun23 insightful - 2 fun -  (3 children)

The "two-spirit"/berdache thing was mostly about finding a role for men who were perceived to have failed at manhood. While at least they were not stoned to death, it was hardly an honor.

On a side note, the only irl person I've ever met who seriously identified as "two-spirit" was a ginger white guy, at best minimal Native American blood.

[–]JulienMayfair[S] 12 insightful - 1 fun12 insightful - 0 fun13 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

There is even some evidence that the whole two-spirit concept was made up in the twentieth century, and the word 'berdache' probably comes from Arabic where it was a term associated with slaves used as prostitutes.

[–]TovasshiDefinitely a house plant 10 insightful - 1 fun10 insightful - 0 fun11 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Berdache (bardache) was a word used by the French colonists. It means passive homosexual. It was often used to describe boy prostitutes or boy lover of a pederast.

https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/bardache#:~:text=Noun,obsolete)%20passive%20homosexual%20Synonym%3A%20giton

[–]JulienMayfair[S] 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Yes, but the word is thought by linguists to have been imported into French via French contact with Arabic speakers.