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An Inquiry into the Crisis of Sex-Gender Identity
The humanity is being
recognized as male and female forming
the norms of a society regarded
as normal. But, there is another
vast gray circle created by nature, and
ignored by society as abnormal. Thus, one may ask the question, “WHO AM I?” This essay is an attempt
to answer two key questions;
I. Who are we that we call ourselves as normal and human, and someone
else who is different from us as abnormal and less(er) human?
II. If I show you my identity, will you take away my dignity/rights?
The question “WHO AM I?”
is not a mere spiritual question of a soul searching for perfection, or a
psychological inquiry of a self-actualizing mind, but an existential panic of a
being searching for his/her identity. This can be very nauseating when ones
search for it ends up in despair or falls into the drain of determinism. The
question is ‘What is What?’ ‘Sex or Gender?’ Which comes First? “Chick or Egg?”
The question “WHO AM I?”
has the potential within it that enables the inquirer to search and achieve
what one desires for, for one’s self-satisfaction. But there is one thing that the
seeker is only capable of searching but not very much changing it to one’s full
satisfaction which, in fact, changes and creates havoc in the person
disoriented with this question. This is the sex-gender identity.
Despite the debates that
exist in literature regarding the sex-role distinction, the common agreement is
such that while sex is a biological construct, gender is a social construct. As
a biological construct, sex is determined, and one hardly has any choice in it
when born. Moreover, it is needless to say that that what is determined will
continue to play a deterministic role just as in the case of ‘death’. So is
sex, the determined nature of a person. It is determined such that it teaches
how a person should dress, walk, talk, sit, play, so and so forth, and relate
to people both of same determinism and of opposite in nature.
Determined by the sex,
or the biological construction of one’s genitalia, gender is what distinguishes
between a he-goat and a she-goat, between a male-dog and a female-dog. The word
male/female and he/she are human constructs and used for human beings, and
attributed to non-human species analogously. This, in short, is the ‘gender’
that determines how a penis or a virgina should behave in society. Thus,
it is the society that determines how it should treats she-goat and a
female-dog as opposed to he-goat and a male-dog. If the society is so concerned
of the beings inferior to humankind, how much more it should care for the
superiors? Thus, while sex is biologically determined, gender is socially
determined.
Thus, sex-gender
identity and associated crisis, each taken separately, is a unity that should
be understood as the two sides of the same coin, each having a dualistic
function. It is dualistic because, it is a struggle both to maintain one’s
sex-gender unity as well as to claim one’s identity associated with it, both
within and between. It is within because, it is a unity or congruence that is sought
after within an individual between biological
determinism and social determinism; or biological construct and social
construct; or biological sex and social gender. It is between when the same
dichotic relationship persists between an individual and society. Hence the
sex-gender identity crisis, when such relationships go haywire, absurd, blur,
ambiguous, or absent. Can a person, deviated from this unity, irrespective of
the reason, be it personal preference, or hormonal aberration, or any other,
have an independent existence of one’s own regardless of the societal demands?
If so, then will such a person have an equal share of the dignity and rights
enjoyed by all those who succumb to the above conventional unity?
As for the question of
independent existence, the answer is quite simple. Even though it is the normal
convention and the expectation of society that a human being should be born
with two hands, two feet, and two eyes, it is still accommodating the ones born
with one hand, one leg, totally blind, etc., and they exist on their own,
irrespective of societal regards, and often with the help from society, as it
is the case with the majority of the cases. If such a societal stance is true
for such physical aberrations, then why not it is true for the lesbians, gays,
bi-sexuals, and transgenders or hermaphrodites (known as HIJRAS in India) who are considered abnormal
as well as a deviation and aberration from the so-called normal and conventional? Thus, the
question here is not at all about the existence as such, but how that existence
is looked at and interpreted; as a threat, advantage, misery, sinful, impure,
and the list will go endless. Thus, who are we that we call ourselves as normal
and human, and someone else who is different from us as abnormal and less(er)
human?
The underlying question
here is, ‘who decides what is normal, pure, conventional, and conforming?’ ‘Is
it the majority of the populace who adhere to such stance”, or “can that be a
single lesbian, gay, bisexual, or a transgender out there (or put them
together), who pints at the so-called normal majority and say, “we are
normal, and you are abnormal”?, and “what if this claim is right, because
the history says that there was a single person named Galileo Galilee who,
unlike Nicolaus Copernicicus and Johannes Kepler, stopped proposing
heliocentricity as a scientific theory alone, but proclaimed it as a truth,
when the conventional elite world and the conforming populace believed
otherwise?” Mind you, this so-called abnormal single soul was proved to be
right later on, and the blissful ignorance of the so-called normal(s) was illumined by that
abnormal light that stood alone for its conviction and claimed the same. Will
such a light, whether solitary or united, be treated with respect and dignity
when its flames are alive and they claim its identity?
The Principle 3 of The Yogyakarta Principles[i], on the application of
international human rights law in relation to sexual orientation and gender
identity, states, "Person of diverse sexual orientation and gender
identities shall enjoy legal capacity in all aspects of life. Each person's
self-defined sexual orientation and gender identity is integral to their
personality, and is one of the most basic aspects of self-determination,
dignity, and freedom". Moreover, the Principle 18 of it states,
"Notwithstanding any classifications to the contrary, a person's sexual
orientation and gender identity are not, in and of themselves, a medical
condition, and are not to be treated, cured or suppressed." According to
these Principles, any gender identity of a transsexual or transgendered person
is neither a "disorder" nor a “mental illness”, thereby making the diagnosis of "gender identity disorder" irrelevant and
contradictory.
To conclude on a
personal note, a certain Mrs. Pereira (The proper name is not mentioned here
deliberately), a Male-To- Female (MTF) Hijra herself, didn’t want Hijras to be
addressed as ‘HE’, ‘HIM’, or by any other male-depicting salutations. Neither
did she want such a person referred to as ‘IT’, or any other form of IT’s
associations, since the word ‘Eunuch’ is an insult as well as a public
barricade that prevents transgenderism entering into the mainstream by labeling
it as a ‘symptom’, ‘unnatural’, “abnormal’, and ‘forever an impossible
fantasy’. Thus she asked me, “I was born just like
you to a heterosexual father and mother. I dreamt of great things, and to
become great just like you, and I
do dream still. But then, why
can’t you accept the way I am? Is it my fault the way I am? Is it so difficult for you to
integrate me into the mainstream and grant my rights? Shall I ask you to do something easier
then? Will you at least stop
looking at me the way you used to do, after this interview?”[ii]
[i] In 2006, in response to well-documented patterns of abuse, a distinguished group of international human rights experts met in Yogyakarta, Indonesia to outline a set of international principles relating to sexual orientation and gender identity. The result was the Yogyakarta Principles.
<http://www.yogyakartaprinciples.org>
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