Kathoey Ladyboy II. E-Book

Heinz Duthel

• Herausgeber: Books on Demand
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2016

Seitenzahl: 545

Beschreibung

Kathoey Ladyboy II. The World history of transgender or transsexual people Kathoey Ladyboys (film) Cabaret Pattaya Trans woman Transvestism Channel 4 San Francisco International Film Festival Effeminacy Thai language Khmer language Third gender Intersex Cross-dressing Peter Jackson (academic) Breast implant Hormone replacement therapy (male-to-female) Silicone Chondrolaryngoplasty Beauty salon Prostitution Karma Reincarnation Legal aspects of transsexualism Sex reassignment surgery The Iron Ladies Thailand's Got Talent Bell Nuntita Nana Plaza Venus Flytrap (group) Revue Saving Private Tootsie Parinya Charoenphol Beautiful Boxer Jin Xing Tom-Yum-Goong Madventures The Hangover Part II Yasmin Lee Transsexualism Pornographic film actor Don't ask, don't tell Transitioning (transgender) Transphobia Casting (performing arts) AVN Award Maury (TV series) The Tyra Banks Show Hijra (South Asia) Trans man Transgender List of transgender people En femme Drag (clothing) Cleavage enhancement Hip and buttock padding Breast prostheses Passing (gender) Bacha posh Transgender sexuality Transvestic fetishism Pinafore eroticism Sissy (transgender) Helen Boyd Genderism Transgenderism (social movement) Transgender Day of Remembrance Simulated pregnancy Hormone replacement therapy Facial feminization surgery Vaginoplasty Transgender disenfranchisement in the United States Gender Recognition Act 2004 Travesti Femminiello Eunuch Gender identities in Thailand Muxe Southeast Asia

Leseprobe

Kathoeys are more visible and more accepted in Thai culture than transgender or transsexual people are in Western countries or the Indian subcontinent. Several popular Thai models, singers and movie stars are kathoeys, and Thai newspapers often print photos of the winners of female and kathoey beauty contests side by side. The phenomenon is not restricted to urban areas; there are kathoeys in most villages, and kathoey beauty contests are commonly held as part of local fairs.

Although the term ladyboy is rather ambiguous, simply put, it is a male who dresses as and carries out the identity of a woman. Though the term is often translated as transgender, transgender is rarely used in Thailand, instead they use the term Kathoey. This term can now also be used to refer to any male homosexual and was originally used to refer to intersex people. Due to this term becoming so broad many choose to use the English word to explain a homosexual male dressing as a woman as a “ladyboy," this eliminates much of the confusion. The term can also be meant as an insult, especially to those who are trying to completely alter their identity to that of a woman. Ladyboys suggest that they are still men who are merely dressed as women. The term is used rather loosely at times and can be used to refer to any male who is acting with feminine qualities. Personally most of the women prefer to call themselves “a transformed goddess” or “a second type of woman”

Table of Contents

Kathoey

Ladyboys (film)

Cabaret

Pattaya

Trans woman

Transvestism

Channel 4

San Francisco International Film Festival

Effeminacy

Thai language

Khmer language

Third gender

Intersex

Cross-dressing

Peter Jackson (academic)

Breast implant

Hormone replacement therapy (male-to-female)

Silicone

Chondrolaryngoplasty

Beauty salon

Prostitution

Karma

Reincarnation

Legal aspects of transsexualism

Sex reassignment surgery

The Iron Ladies

Thailand's Got Talent

Bell Nuntita

Nana Plaza

Venus Flytrap (group)

Revue

Saving Private Tootsie

Parinya Charoenphol

Beautiful Boxer

Jin Xing

Tom-Yum-Goong

Madventures

The Hangover Part II

Yasmin Lee

Transsexualism

Pornographic film actor

Don't ask, don't tell

Transitioning (transgender)

Transphobia

Casting (performing arts)

AVN Award

Maury (TV series)

The Tyra Banks Show

Hijra (South Asia)

Trans man

Transgender

List of transgender people

En femme

Drag (clothing)

Cleavage enhancement

Hip and buttock padding

Breast prostheses

Passing (gender)

Bacha posh

Transgender sexuality

Transvestic fetishism

Pinafore eroticism

Sissy (transgender)

Helen Boyd

Genderism

Transgenderism (social movement)

Transgender Day of Remembrance

Simulated pregnancy

Hormone replacement therapy

Facial feminization surgery

Vaginoplasty

Transgender disenfranchisement in the United States

Gender Recognition Act 2004

Travesti

Femminiello

Eunuch

Gender identities in Thailand

Muxe

Southeast Asia

Kathoey

Kathoey or katoey is a Thai term that refers to a transgender or an effeminate gay male in Thailand. While a significant number of Thais perceive kathoeys as belonging to a third gender, including many kathoeys themselves, others see them as either a kind of man or a kind of woman. Related phrases include sao (or phuying) praphet song (Thai: "a second kind of woman") and phet thi sam (Thai: "third gender"). The word kathoey is of Khmer origin. It is most often rendered as ladyboy or lady boy in English conversation with Thais and this latter expression has become popular across South East Asia. Some English sources gloss kathoeys as non-males.

General description

The term "kathoey" is not an equivalent of the modern Western transsexual woman. Use of the term "kathoey" suggests that the person self-identifies as a type of male, in contrast to sao praphet song (which like "trans woman" suggests a "female" gender identity) or phet thi sam (which suggests a third gender). The term phu-ying praphet thi sorng, which can be translated as "woman of the second kind", is also used to refer to kathoey. Australian scholar of sexual politics in Thailand Peter Jackson claims that the term "kathoey" was used in premodern times to refer to intersex people, and that the usage changed in the middle of the twentieth century to cover cross-dressing males. The term can refer to males who exhibit varying degrees of femininity – many kathoeys dress as women and undergo "feminising" medical procedures such as breast implants, hormones, silicone injections, or Adam's apple reductions. Others may wear makeup and use feminine pronouns, but dress as men, and are closer to the Western category of effeminate gay man than transgender.

The term "kathoey" may be considered pejorative, especially in the form "kathoey-saloey". It has a meaning similar to the English language "fairy" or "queen".

Social context

Kathoey work in predominately female occupations, such as in shops, restaurants and beauty salons, but also in factories (a reflection of Thailand's high proportion of female industrial workers). Kathoey also work in entertainment and tourist centers, in cabarets and as sex workers. Kathoey sex workers have high rates of HIV.

Kathoeys are more visible and more accepted in Thai culture than transgender or transsexual people are in Western countries or the Indian subcontinent. Several popular Thai models, singers and movie stars are kathoeys, and Thai newspapers often print photos of the winners of female and kathoey beauty contests side by side. The phenomenon is not restricted to urban areas; there are kathoeys in most villages, and kathoey beauty contests are commonly held as part of local fairs.

Using the notion of Karma, some Thai believe that being a kathoey is the result of transgressions in past lives, concluding that kathoey deserve pity rather than blame.

A common stereotype is that older well-off kathoey provide financial support to young men with whom they are in a personal relationship.

Kathoeys currently face many social and legal impediments. Families (and especially fathers) are typically disappointed if a son becomes a kathoey, and kathoeys often have to face the prospect of coming out. However, kathoey generally have greater acceptance in Thailand than most other Asian countries. Legal recognition of kathoeys and transsexuals is non-existent in Thailand: even if transsexuals have had genital reassignment surgery, they are not allowed to change their legal sex. Discrimination in employment remains rampant. Issues can also arise in regards to access to amenities and gender allocation; for example, a kathoey and a transsexual who has undergone sexual reassignment surgery would still have to stay in an all-male prison.

Recent developments

In 1993, Thailand's teacher training colleges had implemented a semi-formal ban on allowing homosexual (which included kathoey) students enrolling in courses leading to qualification for positions in kindergartens and primary schools. In January 1997, the Rajabhat Institutes (the governing body of the colleges) announced it would formalize the ban, which would extend to all campuses at the start of the 1997 academic year. The ban was quietly rescinded later in the year, following the replacement of the Minister of Education.

In 1996, a volleyball team composed mostly of gays and kathoeys, known as The Iron Ladies (Thai: satree lek), later portrayed in two Thai movies, won the Thai national championship. The Thai government, concerned with the country's image, barred two of the kathoeys from joining the national team and competing internationally.

Among the most famous kathoeys in Thailand is Nong Tum, a former champion Thai boxer who emerged into the public eye in 1998. She was already cross-dressing and taking hormones while still a popular boxer; she would enter the ring with long hair and makeup, occasionally kissing a defeated opponent. She announced her retirement from professional boxing in 1999 – undergoing genital reassignment surgery, while continuing to work as a coach, and taking up acting and modeling. She returned to boxing in 2006.

In 2004, the Chiang Mai Technology School allocated a separate restroom for kathoeys, with an intertwined male and female symbol on the door. The 15 kathoey students are required to wear male clothing at school but are allowed to sport feminine hairdos. The restroom features four stalls, but no urinals.

Following the 2006 Thai coup d'état, kathoeys are hoping for a new third sex to be added to passports and other official documents in a proposed new constitution. In 2007, legislative efforts have begun to allow kathoeys to change their legal sex if they have undergone genital reassignment surgery; this latter restriction was controversially discussed in the community.

Bell Nuntita, a contestant of Thailand's Got Talent TV shows, became a YouTube hit when she first performed singing as a girl, and the crowd become amazed when she switches to a masculine voice.

Culture

Revues and music groups

The first all kathoey music group in Thailand was formed in 2006. It is named Venus Flytrap and was selected and promoted by Sony BMG Music Entertainment.

The Lady Boys of Bangkok is a kathoey revue that has been performed in the UK since 1998 touring the country in both theatres and the famous "Sabai Pavilion" for 9 months each year.

Films

Ladyboys is a 1992 documentary film made for Channel 4 TV and directed by Jeremy Marre. It relates the story of two teenage kathoey who prepare for and enter a rural beauty contest and then leave for Pattaya to find work in a cabaret revue.

The story of the 1996 Iron Ladies volleyball team underlies the humorous and successful 2000 movie The Iron Ladies and the 2003 sequel The Iron Ladies 2.

The 2002 Thai film Saving Private Tootsie tells the story of a group of gays and kathoey who need to be rescued after a plane crash in rebel-held jungle territory. The film explores anti-gay attitudes in various ways. It is loosely based on an incident in December 1998 when a group including a popular singer and his kathoey makeup artist survived a plane crash. The life of the kathoey kick boxer Nong Tum is related in the 2003 film Beautiful Boxer. Unlike The Iron Ladies 1 & 2, Beautiful Boxer used a serious tone.

In the 2005 Thai martial arts film The Warrior King the main villain is a kathoey, although references to this were edited out for the American release. She is played by Jin Xing who is herself transgendered.

The extreme traveller show Madventures had a section on kathoeys on the third season.

In the 2011 American film The Hangover Part II, Stu inadvertently has sex with a kathoey (played by Yasmin Lee) while on a drug-induced bender in Bangkok.

Ladyboys (film)

Ladyboys

Directed by Jeremy Marre Produced by Jeremy

Marre

Release date(s) 1992

Ladyboys is a 1992 documentary film about the struggle of two teenage kathoey, or Thai male-to-female transgender persons, to leave the rural countryside and become famous transvestite performers in the glamorous cabarets of Pattaya. The film was produced by Jeremy Marre. It was made by Harcourt TV for Channel 4. The documentary opened at the San Francisco Film Festival.

Nightlife

Pattaya has derived part of its reputation as a tourist destination due to the sex industry and the resulting nightlife, and in many ways the city has become what it is now because of this. Prostitution in Thailand is technically illegal but reality shows that it is tolerated as is the case for Pattaya with its vast numbers of host bars, gogo bars, massage parlours, saunas, and hourly hotels, serving foreign tourists as well as locals. This is prevalent in the Walking Street as well as other areas around the city. Efforts have of late been made to clean up the city's image.

Pattaya also has Asia's largest gay scene based around Boyztown and Sunee Plaza. The city is also famous for its flamboyant kathoey cabaret shows where transsexuals and transgenders perform to packed houses.

Transgender A trans woman (sometimes trans-woman or transwoman) is a male-to-female (MTF) transgender person with a female gender identity. The label of transgender woman is not interchangeable with that of transsexual woman, although the two are often combined or mistaken for the same thing. A transsexual woman is someone who was assigned male at birth but whose gender identity is that of a woman; transsexual women may undergo physical changes to align their body with their gender identity (known as transition). Transgender is an umbrella term that includes different types of gender variant people (including transsexual people) so transgender women could, for example, refer to either a woman who was assigned male at birth, identifies as a woman, but does not wish to undergo physical changes, or a transsexual woman.

Overview

"Assigned sex" refers to the assigning or naming of the sex of a baby, usually based upon the appearance of external genitalia.

"Gender identity" refers to a person's private sense of, and subjective experience of, their own gender. This may be different to the sex that the person was assigned at birth.

"Transition" refers to the process of adopting a social and personal identity that corresponds to one's own sense of the gendered self, and may or may not include medical intervention (hormone treatment, surgery, etc.), changes in legal documents (name and/or sex indicated on identification, birth certificate, etc.), and personal expression (clothing, accessories, voice, body language).

Both transsexual and transgender women may experience gender dysphoria, a (sometimes) severe pain and discomfort brought upon by the discrepancy between their gender identity the sex that was assigned to them at birth (and the associated gender role and/or primary and secondary sex characteristics).

Both transsexual and transgender women may transition, though only transsexual women would medically transition. A major component of medical transition for trans women is estrogen hormone replacement therapy, which causes the development of female secondary sexual characteristics (breasts, redistribution of body fat, lower waist to hip ratio, etc.). This, along with sex reassignment surgery can bring immense relief, and in most cases, rids the person of gender dysphoria.

In the same manner, a trans man is someone who was assigned female at birth, but whose gender identity is that of a man.

Terminology

Some trans women who feel that their gender transition is complete prefer to be called simply "women," considering "trans woman" or "male-to-female transsexual" to be terms that should only be used for people who are not fully transitioned. Likewise, many may not want to be seen as a "trans woman" owing to society's tendency to "Other" individuals who do not fit into the sex/gender binary, or have personal reasons beyond that not to wish to identify as transgender post-transition. For this reason, many see it as an important and appropriate distinction to include a space in the term, as in "trans woman", thus using "trans" as merely an adjective describing a particular type of woman; this is in contrast to the usage of "transwoman" as one word, implying a "third gender".

Sexual orientation

The stereotype of the effeminate boy who grows up to live as a woman has a very long history. It is a common misconception and stereotype that all transgender and transsexual women are heterosexual (attracted to males). However, research on the sexual orientation of trans women in the past has been dubious at best. Many studies on this issue have suffered from reporting bias, since many transsexual people feel they must give the "correct" answers to such questions to increase their chances of obtaining hormone replacement therapy. Patrick Califia, author of Sex Changes and Public Sex, has indicated that this group has a clear awareness of what answers to give to survey questions to be considered eligible for hormone replacement therapy and/or sex reassignment surgery:

"None of the gender scientists seem to realize that they, themselves, are responsible for creating a situation where transsexual people must describe a fixed set of symptoms and recite a history that has been edited in clearly prescribed ways to get a doctor's approval for what should be their inalienable right."

A survey of roughly 3000 trans women showed that only 23% of them identified as heterosexual, with 31% as bisexual, 29% as lesbian, 7% as asexual, 7% as queer and 2% as "other".

Libido

In a 2008 study, trans women had a higher incidence of decreased libido (34%) than cisgender females (23%), but the difference was not statistically significant and may have been due to chance. As in males, female libido is thought to correlate with serum testosterone levels (with some controversy ) but the 2008 study found no such correlation in trans women.

Discrimination

Trans women, like all gender variant people, face a vast amount of discrimination and transphobia. A survey of roughly 3000 trans women living in the United States, as summarized in the report "Injustice at Every Turn: A Report of the National Transgender Discrimination Survey", found that trans women reported that:

36% have lost their job due to their gender.

55% have been discriminated against whilst being hired.

29% have been denied a promotion.

25% have been refused medical care.

60% of the trans women that have visited a homeless shelter reported incidents of harassment there.

When displaying identity documents incongruent with their gender identity/expression, 33% have been harassed and 3% have been physically assaulted.

20% reported harassment by police, with 6% reporting physical assaulted and 3% reporting sexual assault by an officer. 25% have been treated generally with disrespect by police officers.

Among jailed trans women, 40% have been harassed by inmates and 38% have been harassed by staff. 21% have been physically assaulted and 20% sexually assaulted.

The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs' report of 2010 anti-LGBTQ violence found that of the 27 people who were murdered because of their LGBTQ identity, 44% were trans women.

Discrimination is particularly severe towards trans women of color, who experience the intersection of racism and transphobia. Multiracial, Latina, Black and American Indian trans women are twice to more than three times as likely as White trans women to be sexually assaulted in prison.

In her book Whipping Girl, Julia Serano refers to the unique discrimination trans women experience as 'transmisogyny'.

Notable trans women

Marja-Sisko Aalto, Finnish former Evangelical-Lutheran priest

Calpernia Addams, American actress, author, autobiographer, entrepreneur, activist, fiddle player

Aderet, Israeli pop singer

Allenina, Chinese-American model, actress, dancer, and director

Rebecca Allison, American cardiologist and past President of the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association (GLMA)

Nadia Almada, Portuguese-British Big Brother UK 2004 winner

Barbra Amesbury, Canadian singer-songwriter

Charlie Jane Anders, writer and co-editor of the blog io9

Enza Anderson, Canadian media personality and political activist

Erica Andrews aka Erica Salazar, Mexican-born American international and national beauty pageant title winner, drag performer, actor and entrepreneur

Anna Anthropy, American video-game designer and critic

Gwen Araujo, American teenage murder victim

Patricia Araujo, Brazilian actress and model

Alexis Arquette, American actress, musician, member of the Arquette family of actors

Nina Arsenault, Canadian writer, actress, columnist and sex-trade worker

April Ashley, British model

Estelle Asmodelle, Australian actress, author, dancer, and transgender activist

Mianne Bagger, Danish-Australian professional golfer

Jenny Bailey, British politician and mayor

Christine Beatty, American writer, musician and transgender activist

Georgina Beyer, New Zealand politician, first transgender person globally to become a mayor (1995) and a member of Parliament (1999)

Alexandra Billings, American actress

Maddie Blaustein, American voice actress

Alejandra Bogue, Mexican actress and TV host

Kate Bornstein, American activist, author, gender theorist, performance artist and playwright

Marci Bowers, American gynaecologist and sex-reassignment surgeon

Wendy Carlos, American composer and electronic musician

Candis Cayne, American actress and entertainer

Parinya Charoenphol, Thai muay thai boxer, actress and model

Jamie Clayton, American model and actress

Roberta Close, Brazilian model

Coccinelle, French actress, entertainer and transgender activist

Canary Conn, American musician and author

Raewyn Connell, Australian sociologist

Joanne Conte, American politician and activist

Lynn Conway, American computer scientist, electrical engineer and transgender activist

Caroline Cossey (a.k.a. Tula), English model

Jayne County, American rock singer

Roberta Cowell, First legally recognised male to female transgender person in the UK (1951), memoirist

Laverne Cox, American actress

Katelynn Cusanelli, cast member on MTV's The Real World: Brooklyn, and the first transgender individual to star on the show.

Michelle Duff, Canadian former Grand Prix motorcycle road racer

Michelle Dumaresq, Canadian downhill mountain bike racer

Lili Elbe, Danish artist, society figure and early recipient of sex reassignment surgery (1930)

Amanda Lepore, American model and performer.

Bülent Ersoy, Turkish singer of Ottoman classical music

Bibiana Fernández, Spanish presenter and actress

Ina Fried, American journalist and senior writer for CNET Networks

Chiya Fujino, Japanese fiction author

BB Gandanghari, a Filipina actress and commercial model

Francis García, Mexican performer and actress

Laura Jane Grace, lead singer and guitarist for punk rock band Against Me!

Anna Grodzka, Polish politician

Harisu, South Korean entertainer, actress, and singer

Choi Han-bit, South Korean model

Ai Haruna, Japanese singer and television personality

Lauren Harries, British media personality

Rebecca Heineman, One of the founders of Interplay and long time video game programmer.

Adela Hernandez, first transgender person elected to political office in Cuba

Jenny Hiloudaki, Greek model

Dana International, Israeli pop singer

Kim Coco Iwamoto, American politician

Juliet Jacques, British journalist

Andrea James, American filmmaker and activist

Aya Kamikawa, Japanese politician

Isis King, American designer and finalist on America's Next Top Model

Victoria Kolakowski, American lawyer and judge

Christine Jorgensen, first person to become widely known in the United States for having male-to-female sex reassignment surgery (1953), celebrity

Jennifer Leitham, American double-bass musician

Chen Lili, Chinese singer, model and actress

Alicia Liu, Taiwanese model and television personality

Deirdre McCloskey, American economist

Janet Mock, Hawaiian transgender activist and writer

Micheline Montreuil, Canadian lawyer, teacher, writer, radio host, trade unionist and politician

Jan Morris, British writer

Ataru Nakamura, Japanese singer

Judiel Nieva, Filipina alleged witness of a Marian apparition

Bell Nuntita, a Thai freelance singer, entertainer and radio D.J

Jessica Orsini, American politician

Kim Petras, German singer

Veronique Renard, Dutch author and Free-Tibet activist

Renée Richards, American tennis player

Miriam Rivera, reality television, Mexican television personality and model

Martine Rothblatt, American lawyer, technological theorist, author and entrepreneur

Joan Roughgarden, American biologist

Carmen Rupe, New Zealand/Australian entertainer, politician, activist and cultural identity

Jessica Amanda Salmonson, American fantasy author

Kayo Satoh, Japanese model and television personality

Julia Serano, American writer, trans activist, and biologist

Amanda Simpson, Senior Technical Adviser to the United States Department of Commerce

D. C. Simpson, American cartoonist (Ozy and Millie)

Theresa Sparks, executive director of the San Francisco Human Rights Commission

Allanah Starr, pornographic actress and party hostess

Sandy Stone, American academic theorist, media theorist, author, and performance artist

Margaret Stumpp, American executive

Lea T, Brazilian fashion model

Audrey Tang, Taiwanese free software programmer

Manuela Trasobares, Spanish artist, opera singer and politician

Ayana Tsubaki, Japanese television personality and fashion model

Kelly van der Veer, Dutch celebrity and singer

Lana Wachowski, American film director, screenwriter, and producer

Bali White, Researcher and Activist

Sophie Wilson, British computer scientist

Marie-Pier Ysser, French entertainer and academic

Transvestism

Cross-dressingHistory of cross-dressingBreeches role Breeching

Travesti In film and television

In wartime Pantomime dameKey elements

As a transgender identity

Passing TransvestismModern drag culture

Ball culture Drag

Drag king Drag pageantry

Drag queen Faux queen

List of drag queensSexual aspects

Autoandrophilia Autogynephilia

Feminization Petticoating

Transvestic fetishism

Sissy Transgender sexualitySexual attraction

to cross-dressers

Andromimetophilia

GynemimetophiliaOther aspects

Bacha posh Crossplay

En femme

Female masking

Gender disguisePassing as maleBreast binding

PackingPassing as femaleCleavage enhancement

Hip and buttock padding

Breast formsOrganizations

Tri-EssBooks

My Husband Betty

She's Not The Man I MarriedTransvestism (also called transvestitism) is the practice of cross-dressing, which is wearing clothing traditionally associated with the opposite sex or gender. Transvestite refers to a person who cross-dresses; however, these are clinical terms that carry potentially negative connotations or implications of mental illness. Cross-dresser, a word that more accurately describes the behavior and avoids clinical or pathological implications, is the preferred term.

History

Coined as late as the 1910s, the phenomenon is not new. It was referred to in the Hebrew Bible. The word has undergone several changes of meaning since it was first coined and is still used in a variety of senses.

Origin of the term

Magnus Hirschfeld coined the word transvestism (from Latin trans-, "across, over" and vestitus, "dressed") to refer to the sexual interest in cross-dressing. He used it to describe persons who habitually and voluntarily wore clothes of the opposite sex. Hirschfeld's group of transvestites consisted of both males and females, with heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, and asexual orientations.

Hirschfeld himself was not happy with the term: He believed that clothing was only an outward symbol chosen on the basis of various internal psychological situations. In fact, Hirschfeld helped people to achieve the very first name changes (legal given names were and are required to be gender-specific in Germany) and performed the first reported sexual reassignment surgery. Hirschfeld's transvestites therefore were, in today's terms, not only transvestites, but a variety of people from the transgender spectrum.

Hirschfeld also noticed that sexual arousal was often associated with transvestism. In more recent terminology, this is sometimes called autogynephilia. Hirschfeld also clearly distinguished between transvestism as an expression of a person's "contra-sexual" (transgender) feelings and fetishistic behavior, even if the latter involved wearing clothes of the other sex.

Cross-dressers

After all the changes that took place during the 1970s, a large group was left without a word to describe themselves: heterosexual males (that is, male-bodied, male-identified, gynephilic persons) who wear traditionally feminine clothing. This group was not particularly happy with the term "transvestism". Therefore, the term "cross-dresser" was coined. Self-identified cross-dressers generally do not have fetishistic intentions, but are instead men who wear female clothing and often both admire and imitate women.

This group did—and sometimes still does—distance themselves strictly from both gay men and transsexuals, and usually also deny any fetishistic intentions. It was probably this development that led to the explicit definition of transvestic fetishism as distinctively different from transvestism.

However, when this group of people achieved public attention, they were commonly referred to as transvestites rather than cross-dressers. That led, paradoxically, to yet another usage of transvestism: cross-dressing, male-bodied, male-identified, heterosexual persons. This group typically self-identifies as "cross-dressers".

When cross-dressing occurs for erotic purposes over a period of at least six months and when it causes significant distress or impairment, the behavior is considered a mental disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the psychiatric diagnosis "transvestic fetishism" is applied.

Culture

In some cultures, transvestism is practiced for religious, traditional or ceremonial reasons. For example, in India some male devotees of the Hindu god Krishna, especially in Mathura and Vrindavan, dress in female attire to pose as his consort, the goddess Radha, as an act of devotion. In Italy, the Neapolitan femminielli (feminine males) wear wedding dresses, called the matrimonio dei femminielli (marriage of the femminielli), a procession takes place through the streets, a tradition that apparently has pagan origins.

San Francisco International Film Festival

San Francisco International Film Festival (abbreviated as SFIFF) is among the longest running film festivals in the Americas. Organized by the San Francisco Film Society, the International is held each spring for two weeks, presenting around 200 films from over 50 countries annually. The Festival highlights current trends in international film and video production with an emphasis on work that has not yet secured U.S. distribution. Since its inception, the International has grown to serve over 70,000 patrons, with screenings held in San Francisco and Berkeley.

Ted Hope currently serves as the executive director of the San Francisco Film Society and SFIFF. Prior to Hope, the festival was briefly headed by Bingham Ray, who served as SFFS executive director until his death after only ten weeks on the job in January 2012. Graham Leggat became the executive director of the San Francisco Film Society on October 17, 2005. The Scottish-born Leggat died on August 25, 2011 from cancer, aged 51.

SFIFF is currently programmed by SFFS Director of Programming Rachel Rosen, Programmers Rod Armstrong and Sean Uyehara, Golden Gate Awards Manager Audrey Chang and Programming Coordinator Joseph Flores.

The 56th annual festival will take place April 25 to May 9, 2013 at the Sundance Kabuki Cinemas, the Castro Theatre and New People Cinema in San Francisco and the Pacific Film Archive Theater in Berkeley.

History

Founded in 1957 by film exhibitor Irving "Bud" Levin, the SFIFF began as a philanthropic effort to secure San Francisco's place in the international arts scene as well as expose locals to cinema as an art form. The Festival played a major role in introducing foreign films to American audiences. Akira Kurosawa's Throne of Blood and Satyajit Ray's Pather Panchali were among the films that screened at the first festival.

One obstacle in the early years was the lack of support from the major Hollywood studios, suggested reasons being the growing threat of international films' appeal and a fear that the festival would draw commercial attention away from the Oscars. It wasn't until 1959 that a major American film, Henry King's Beloved Infidel, starring Gregory Peck and Deborah Kerr, played at SFIFF.

Honors and Tributes

Founder’s Directing Award

This award is given each year to one of the masters of world cinema, in memory of SFIFF's founder, Irving Levin. Recent recipients include:

Philip Kaufman, 2013

Kenneth Branagh, 2012

Oliver Stone, 2011

Walter Salles, 2010

Francis Ford Coppola, 2009

Mike Leigh, 2008

Spike Lee, 2007

Werner Herzog, 2006

Taylor Hackford, 2005

Milos Forman, 2004

Robert Altman, 2003

Prior to 2003, the festival's directing award was known as the Akira Kurosawa Award. Recipients include:

Warren Beatty, 2002

Clint Eastwood, 2001

Abbas Kiarostami, 2000

Arturo Ripstein, 1999

Im Kwon-taek, 1998

Francesco Rosi, 1997

Arthur Penn, 1996

Stanley Donen, 1995

Manoel de Oliveira, 1994

Ousmane Sembène, 1993

Satyajit Ray, 1992

Marcel Carné, 1991

Jirí Menzel, 1990

Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1989

Robert Bresson, 1988

Michael Powell, 1987

Akira Kurosawa, 1986

Peter J. Owens Award

Named for the longtime San Francisco benefactor of arts and charitable organizations Peter J. Owens (1936–91), this award honors an actor whose work exemplifies brilliance, independence and integrity. Recent recipients include:

Harrison Ford, 2013

Judy Davis, 2012

Terence Stamp, 2011

Robert Duvall, 2010

Robert Redford, 2009

Maria Bello, 2008

Robin Williams, 2007

Ed Harris, 2006

Joan Allen, 2005

Chris Cooper, 2004

Dustin Hoffman, 2003

Kevin Spacey, 2002

Stockard Channing, 2001

Winona Ryder, 2000

Sean Penn, 1999

Nicolas Cage, 1998

Annette Bening, 1997

Harvey Keitel, 1996

Kanbar Award

The Kanbar Award for excellence in screenwriting acknowledges the crucial role that strong screenwriting plays in the creation of great films. Recent recipients include:

Eric Roth, 2013

David Webb Peoples, 2012

Frank Pierson, 2011

James Schamus, 2010

James Toback, 2009

Peter Morgan, 2008

Robert Towne, 2007

Jean-Claude Carrière, 2006

Paul Haggis, 2005

Mel Novikoff Award

Named in honor of legendary San Francisco film exhibitor Mel Novikoff (1922–87), this award is given to an individual or organization notable for making significant contributions to the Bay Area's richly diverse film community. Recent recipients include:

Peter von Bagh, 2013

Pierre Rissient, 2012

Serge Bromberg, 2011

Roger Ebert, 2010

Bruce Goldstein, 2009

James Lewis Hoberman, 2008

Kevin Brownlow, 2007

Anita Monga, 2005

Paolo Cherchi Usai, 2004

Manny Farber, 2003

Golden Gate Persistence of Vision Award

The POV Award honors the lifetime achievement of a filmmaker whose work is crafting documentaries, short films, animation or work for television. Recent recipients include:

Jem Cohen, 2013

Barbara Kopple, 2012

Matthew Barney, 2011

Don Hertzfeldt, 2010

Lourdes Portillo, 2009

Errol Morris, 2008

Heddy Honigmann, 2007

Guy Maddin, 2006

Adam Curtis, 2005

Jon Else, 2004

Pat O'Neill, 2003

Fernando Birri, 2002

Kenneth Anger, 2001

Faith Hubley, 2000

Johan van der Keuken, 1999

Robert Frank, 1998

Jan Švankmajer, 1997

Midnight Awards

The Film Festival's Midnight Awards were given from 2007–2011 to honor a dynamic young American actor and actress who have made outstanding contributions to independent and Hollywood cinema, and who bring striking intelligence, talent and depth of character to their roles. Recent recipients include:

Clifton Collins, Jr. and Zoe Saldana, 2011

Evan Rachel Wood and Elijah Wood, 2009

Rose McGowan and Jason Lee, 2008

Rosario Dawson and Sam Rockwell, 2007

Awards and Prizes

New Directors Award

This $15,000 cash award supports innovative thinking by independent filmmakers and shines the spotlight on an emerging director. Films in this juried competition must be the director's first narrative feature and are selected for their unique artistic sensibility or vision.

Golden Gate Awards

The Golden Gate Awards is the competitive section for documentaries, animation, shorts, experimental film and video, youth works and works for television. Eligibility requires that entries have a San Francisco Bay Area premiere and be exempt from a previous multiday commercial theatrical run or media broadcast of any kind. The festival currently awards cash prizes in the following categores:

Documentary Feature - prize: $20,000

Bay Area Documentary Feature - prize: $15,000

Documentary Short - prize: $5,000

Narrative Short - prize: $5,000

Animated Short - prize: $2,000

Bay Area Short, First Prize - prize: $2,000

Bay Area Short, Second Prize - prize: $1,500

New Visions Short - prize: $1,500

Youth Work - prize: $1,500

Family Film - prize: $1,500

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recognizes the San Francisco International Film Festival as a qualifying festival for the short films (live action and animated) competitions of the 81st annual Academy Awards.

FIPRESCI Prize

Selected by the International Federation of Film Critics, the FIPRESCI Prize aims to promote film art, to encourage new and young cinema and to help films get better distribution and win greater public attention.

State of Cinema Address

Each year, the festival invites a prominent thinker to discuss the intersecting worlds of contemporary cinema, culture and society. Recent speakers include:

Steven Soderbergh, 2013

Jonathan Lethem, 2012

Christine Vachon, 2011

Walter Murch, 2010

Mary Ellen Mark, 2009

Kevin Kelly, 2008

Peter Sellars, 2007

Tilda Swinton, 2006

Brad Bird, 2005

B. Ruby Rich, 2004

Michel Ciment, 2003

Live Music & Film

The San Francisco International Film Festival is known for its innovative live music and film events, which usually feature contemporary musicians performing original scores to classic silent films. Many of the scores were commissioned by the San Francisco Film Society as world premieres. Music/film pairings at SFIFF have included:

Scott Amendola, Matthias Bossi, Mike Patton, and William Winant accompanying Waxworks (1924 Film), Directed Paul Leni, 2013

Merrill Garbus (tUnE-yArDs) with Buster Keaton short films, 2012

Tindersticks with the films of Claire Denis, 2011

Stephin Merritt with 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1916 film), 2010

Dengue Fever (band) with The Lost World (1925 film), 2009

Black Francis with The Golem (1915 film), 2008

Jonathan Richman with The Phantom Carriage, 2007

Deerhoof with Heaven and Earth Magic, 2006

American Music Club with Street Angel (1928 film), 2005

Lambchop (band) with Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans, 2003

Superchunk with A Page of Madness, 2002

Yo La Tengo with Jean Painlevé short films, 2001

Tom Verlaine with classic silent short films, 2000

A Music Nerd's Guide To The San Francisco International Film Festival

Effeminacy

Effeminacy describes traits in a human male that are more often associated with feminine nature, behaviour, mannerisms, style or gender roles rather than masculine nature, behaviour, mannerisms, style or roles.

It is a term frequently applied to womanly behavior, demeanor, style and appearance displayed by a male, typically used implying criticism or ridicule of this behaviour (as opposed to, for example, merely describing a male as feminine, which can be non-judgmental). The term effeminate is most often used by people who subscribe to the widespread view that males should display traditional masculine traits and behaviours. Generally, the description is applied to individuals, but may be used to describe entire societies as an inflammatory allegation. Although in the Western tradition, as described below, effeminacy has often been considered a vice, indicative of other negative character traits and often involving a pejorative insinuation of homosexual tendencies, in other societies, feminine males may be considered a distinct human gender (third gender), and may have a special social function, as is the case of Two-Spirits in some Native American groups. Furthermore, in contemporary culture, effeminacy has come to be seen by some to be simply one characteristic or trait which might be a part of a particular person's gender role, and in this sense would not be considered a vice or indicative of any other characteristics. An effeminate male is similar to a fop or a dandy, though these tend to be archaic identities that are taken on by the individual rather than insulting labels.

Social acceptance and intolerance

In most cultures, effeminacy is traditionally considered, if not a vice, at least a weakness, indicative of other negative character traits and often involving a negative insinuation of homosexual tendencies or sexual passivity.

The definition of what constitutes effeminate behavior varies greatly depending on the social and cultural context, as well as on the time period. While some effeminate behavior evokes stereotypical impressions of homosexuality in some people, others may simply view the behavior as unmanly without questioning the sexual orientation of the person in question.

Examples of behavior noncompliant with conventional masculinity have included:

Interest in women's fashion.

Effusive emotional expressions among other males.

Cross-dressing or use of makeup.

Exhibition of stereotypically feminine mannerisms.

These examples have changed over time and will always vary depending on different contextual factors. During the Enlightenment period fashion prescribed stockings, elaborate knee-length robes and long wigs for men, things that would most certainly be considered unacceptable for men (and women) in contemporary society. During the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, men idolized the Renaissance Man who was skilled in all walks of life - a "real" man of this time was to be skilled in armed combat and knowledgeable of literature and art, among other things.

Effeminacy and gay men

In the United States, boys are often homosocial (Gagnon, 1977), and gender role performance determines social rank (David and Brannon, 1976). While gay boys receive the same enculturation, they are less compliant, Martin Levine summarizes: "Harry (1982, 51-52), for example, found that 42 percent of his gay respondents were 'sissies' during childhood. Only 11 percent of his heterosexual samples were gender role nonconformists. Bell, Weinberg, and Hammersmith (1981, 188) reported that half of their male homosexual subjects practiced gender-inappropriate behaviour in childhood. Among their heterosexual males, the rate of noncompliance was 25 percent. Saghir and Robins (1973, 18) found that one-third of their gay male respondents conformed to gender role dictates. Only 3 percent of their heterosexual men deviated from the norm." Thus effeminate boys, or sissies, are physically and verbally harassed (Saghir and Robins, 1973, 17-18; Bell, Weinberg, and Hammersmith 1981, 74-84), causing them to feel worthless (Harry 1982, 20) and "de-feminise" (Harry 1982, 20; Saghir and Robins 1973, 18-19). (Levine, 1998, p. 15-16)

Prior to the Stonewall riots, inconsistent gender role performance had been noticed among gay men (Karlen, 1978; Cory and LeRoy, 1963; Newton, 1972), "They have a different face for different occasions. In conversations with each other, they often undergo a subtle change. I have seen men who appeared to be normal suddenly smile roguishly, soften their voices, and simper as they greeted homosexual friends....Many times I saw these changes occur after I had gained a homosexual's confidence and he could safely risk my disapproval. Once as I watched a luncheon companion become an effeminate caricature of himself, he apologised, 'It is hard to always remember that one is a man.'" (Stearn 1962, 29) (Levine, 1998, p.21-23)

“ There is a definite prejudice towards men who use femininity as part of their palate; their emotional palate, their physical palate. Is that changing? It’s changing in ways that don’t advance the cause of femininity. I’m not talking frilly-laced pink things or Hello Kitty stuff. I’m talking about goddess energy, intuition and feelings. That is still under attack, and it has gotten worse. ”

—RuPaul,

Pre-Stonewall "closet" culture accepted homosexuality as effeminate behaviour, and thus emphasized camp, drag, and swish including an interest in fashion (Henry, 1955; West, 1977) and decorating (Fischer 1972; White 1980; Henry 1955, 304). Masculine gay men did exist but were marginalised (Warren 1972, 1974; Helmer 1963) and formed their own communities, such as leather and Western (Goldstein, 1975), and/or donned working class outfits (Fischer, 1972) such as sailor uniforms (Cory and LeRoy, 1963). (Levine, 1998, p. 21-23, 56)

Post-Stonewall, "clone culture" became dominant and effeminacy is now marginalised. One indicator of this is a definite preference shown in personal ads for masculine-behaving men (Bailey et al. 1997).

The avoidance of effeminacy by men, including gay ones, has been linked to possible impedance of personal and public health. Regarding AIDS, masculine behaviour was stereotyped as being unconcerned about safe sex practices while engaging in promiscuous sexual behaviour. Early reports from New York City indicated that more women had themselves tested for AIDS than men. (Sullivan, 1987). (Levine, 1998, p. 148)

David Halperin (2002), compares "universalising" and "minoritising" notions of gender deviance: "'Softness' either may represent the specter of potential gender failure that haunts all normative masculinity, an ever-present threat to the masculinity of every man, or it may represent the disfiguring peculiarity of a small class of deviant individuals."

The term effeminaphobia was coined to describe strong anti-effeminacy. Michael Bailey (1995) coined the similar term femiphobia to describe the ambivalence gay men and culture have about effeminate behaviour. Author Tim Bergling (September 1997) also coined the term sissyphobia.

History

Etymology

Effeminacy comes from the Latin ex which is "out," and femina which means woman; it means "to be like a woman." The Latin term is mollities, meaning "softness."

In ancient Koine Greek, the word for effeminate is kinaidos (cinaedus in its Latinized form), or malakoi. A man "whose most salient feature was a supposedly "feminine" love of being sexually penetrated by other men." (Winkler, 1990).

"A cinaedus is a man who cross-dresses or flirts like a girl. Indeed, the word's etymology suggests an indirect sexual act emenating a promisculous woman. This term has been borrowed from the Greek kinaidos (which may itself have come from a language of Ionian Greece of Asia Minor, primarily signifying a purely effeminate dancer who entertained his audiences with a tympanum or tambourine in his hand, and adopted a lascivious style, often suggestively wiggling his buttocks in such a way as to suggest anal intercourse....The primary meaning of cinaedus never died out; the term never became a dead metaphor." (Williams, 1999)

Other vernacular words for effeminacy include: "pansy", "nelly", "pretty boy", "sissy", "pussy", and "girl" (when applied to a boy or, especially, adult man). Contrastingly, a masculine girl would be called a "tomboy", "butch",. The word effete similarly means effeminacy or over-refinement, but comes from the Latin effetus, from ex- + fetus (fruitful).

Ancient Greece and Rome

Greece

Greek historian Plutarch recounts that Periander, the tyrant of Ambracia, asked his "boy", "Aren't you pregnant yet?" in the presence of other people, causing the boy to kill him in revenge for being treated as if effeminate or a woman (Amatorius 768F).

As part of Greek politician Aiskhines(Aeschines)' proof that a member of the prosecution against him, Timarkhos (Timarchus), had prostituted himself to (or been "kept" by) another male while young, he attributed fellow prosecutor Demosthenes' nickname Batalos ("arse") to his "unmanliness and kinaidiā and frequently commented on his "unmanly and womanish temper", even criticising his clothing: "If anyone took those dainty little coats and soft shirts off you ... and took them round for the jurors to handle, I think they'd be quite unable to say, if they hadn't been told in advance, whether they had hold of a man's clothing or a woman's." (Dover, 1989)

Demosthenes is also implicated in passive homosexuality and the prostitution of youth (Aiskhines iii 162): "There is a certain Aristion, a Plataean..., who as a youth was outstandingly good-looking and lived for a long time in Demosthenes' house. Allegations about the part he was playing [lit., 'undergoing or doing what'] there vary, and it would be most unseemly for me to talk about it." (Dover, 1989)

The late Greek (possibly c. fourth century), Erôtes ("Loves", "Forms of Desire", "Affairs of the Heart"), preserved with manuscripts by Lucian, contains a debate "between two men, Charicles and Callicratidas, over the relative merits of women and boys as vehicles of male sexual pleasure." Callicratidas, "far from being effeminised by his sexual predilection for boys...Callicratidas's inclination renders him hypervirile... Callicratidas's sexual desire for boys, then, makes him more of a man; it does not weaken or subvert his male gender identity but rather consolidates it." In contrast, "Charicles' erotic preference for women seems to have had the corresponding effect of effeminising him: when the reader first encounters him, for example, Charicles is described as exhibiting 'a skillful use of cosmetics, so as to be attractive to women.'"

Rome

Over-refinement, fine clothes and other possessions, the company of women, certain trades, and too much fondness with women were all deemed effeminate traits in Roman society. Taking an inappropriate sexual position—passive or "bottom" (kinaidos, see above)—in same-gender sex was considered effeminate and unnatural. Touching the head with a finger and wearing a goatee were also considered effeminate (Holland, 2004).

Roman consul Scipio Aemilianus questioned one of his opponents, P. Sulpicius Galus: "For the kind of man who adorns himself daily in front of a mirror, wearing perfume; whose eyebrows are shaved off; who walks around with plucked beard and thighs; who when he was a young man reclined at banquets next to his lover, wearing a long-sleeved tunic; who is fond of men as he is of wine: can anyone doubt that he has done what cinaedi are in the habit of doing?" (fr. 17 Malcovati; Aulus Gellius, 6.12.5; cited/translated by Williams 1999, p. 23)

Roman orator Quintilian described, "The plucked body, the broken walk, the female attire," as "signs of one who is soft [mollis] and not a real man." (Institutes 5.9.14, cited/translated by Richlin, 1993)

For Roman men masculinity also meant self-control, even in the face of painful emotions, illnesses, or death. Cicero says, "There exist certain precepts, even laws, that prohibit a man from being effeminate in pain," (Fin. 2.94) and Seneca adds, "If I must suffer illness, it will be my wish to do nothing out of control, nothing effeminately." (Epist. 67.4)

In his commentaries on the Gallic Wars, Julius Caesar wrote that the Belgians were the bravest of all Gauls, because "merchants least frequently resort to them, and import those things which tend to effeminate the mind". (Commentarii de Bello Gallico, I,1)

Emperor Marcus Aurelius evidently considered effeminacy an undesirable trait, but it is unclearto what or who was being referred (Meditations, Book 4).

The Bible

Malakos is listed among other vices in the New Testament book of I Corinthians 6:9. Translations use different terms to express this: "The JB (1966) chooses 'catamite,' the NAB (1970) renders arsenokoités and malakos together as 'sodomite,' others translate malakos as 'male prostitute' (NRSV 1989), and again some combine both terms and offer the modern medicalised categories of sexual, or particularly homosexual, 'perversion' (RSV 1946, TEV 1966, NEB 1970, REB 1992)." The online Greek Interlinear Bible uses Strongs concordance (last corrected in 2008) translates Malakoi as Catamites, and Arsenokoitia as sodomites. ((Martin, 1996). The word malakos, #3120 in the Greek Dictionary of The New Testament of James Strong's Exhaustive Concordance to The Bible translates: "of uncertain affinity".

Third gender

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Third gender / Third sex

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Transgender Part of a series onAnthropology of kinship

Social and cultural anthropologyThe terms third gender and third sex describe individuals who are categorized (by their will or by social consensus) as neither man nor woman, as well as the social category present in those societies who recognize three or more genders. The term "third" is usually understood to mean "other"; some anthropologists and sociologists have described fourth, fifth, and even some genders. The concepts of "third", "fourth" and "some" genders can be somewhat difficult to understand within Western conceptual categories.

Although biology usually determines genetically whether a human's biological sex is male or female (though intersex people are also born), the state of personally identifying as, or being identified by society as, belonging to neither the male or female genders is considered relative to the individual's gender role in society, gender identity, and sexual orientation. While some western scholars have sought to understand the term 'third gender' in terms of 'sexual orientation,' several other scholars, especially the native non-western scholars, consider this as a misrepresentation of 'third genders.' To different cultures or individuals, a third gender may represent an intermediate state between man and woman, a state of being both (such as "the spirit of a man in the body of a woman"), the state of being neither (neuter), the ability to cross or swap genders, another category altogether independent of men and women. This last definition is favored by those who argue for a strict interpretation of the "third gender" concept. In any case, all of these characterizations are defining gender and not the sex that biology gives to living beings.

The term has been used to describe hijras of India, Bangladesh and Pakistan who have gained legal identity, Fa'afafine of Polynesia, and Sworn virgins of the Balkans, among others, and is also used by many of such groups and individuals to describe themselves.

Like the hijra, the third gender is in many cultures made up of individuals considered male at the time of birth who take on a feminine gender role or sexual role. In cultures that have not taken on Western heteronormativity, they are usually seen as acceptable sexual partners for male-identifying individuals as long as the latter always maintain the "active" role.

Biology

In animals that are gonochoristic, a number of individuals within a population will not differentiate sexually into bodies that are typically male or female; this is called intersexuality. The incidence varies from population to population, and also varies depending on how femaleness and maleness are understood. Biologist and gender theorist Anne Fausto-Sterling, in a 1993 article, argued that if people ought to be classified in sexes, at least five sexes, rather than two, would be needed.

Evolutionary biologist Joan Roughgarden argues that, in addition to male and female sexes (as defined by the production of small or large gametes), more than two genders exist in hundreds of animal species. Species with one female and two male genders include red deer who have two male morphs, one with antlers and one without, known as hummels or notts, as well as several species of fish such as plainfin midshipman fish and coho salmon. Species with one female and three male genders include bluegills, where four distinct size and color classes exhibit different social and reproductive behaviours, as well as the spotted European wrasse (Symphodus ocellatus), a cichlid (Oreochromis mossambicus) and a kind of tree lizard, Urosaurus ornatus. Species with two male and two female genders include the white-throated sparrow, in which male and female morphs are either white-striped or tan-striped. White-striped individuals are more aggressive and defend territory, while tan-striped individuals provide more parental care. Ninety percent of breeding pairs are between a tan striped and a white striped sparrow. Finally, the highest number of distinct male and female morphs or "genders" within a species is found in the side-blotched lizard, which has five altogether: orange-throated males, who are "ultra-dominant, high testosterone" controllers of multiple females; blue-throated males, who are less aggressive and guard only one female; yellow-throated males, who do not defend territories at all but cluster around the territories of orange males; orange-throated females, who lay many small eggs and are very territorial; and yellow-throated females, who lay fewer, larger eggs and are more tolerant of each other.

Contemporary societies

Since at least the 1970s, anthropologists have described gender categories in some cultures which they could not adequately explain using a two-gender framework. At the same time, feminists began to draw a distinction between (biological) sex and (social/psychological) gender. Contemporary gender theorists usually argue that a two-gender system is neither innate nor universal. A sex/gender system which recognizes only the following two social norms has been labeled "heteronormative".

Anthropologist Michael G. Peletz is an expert in East Asian gender and sexuality. He believes our notions of different types of genders, including the attitudes toward the third gender, deeply affect our lives and reflects our values in society. In Peletz book, "Gender, Sexuality, and Body Politics in Modern Asia", he describes:

“ For our purposes, the term "gender" designates the cultural categories, symbols, meanings, practices, and institutionalized arrangements bearing on at least five sets of phenomena: (1) females and femininity; (2) males and masculinity; (3) Androgynes, who are partly male and partly female in appearance or of indeterminate sex/gender, as well as intersexed individuals, also known as hermaphrodites, who to one or another degree may have both male and female sexual organs or characteristics; (4) the transgendered, who engage in practices that transgress or transcend normative boundaries and are thus by definition "transgressively gendered"; and (5) neutered or unsexed/ungendered individuals such as eunuchs. ”

India

The Hijra of India are probably the most well known and populous third sex type in the modern world – Mumbai-based community health organisation The Humsafar Trust estimates there are between 5 and 6 million hijras in India. In different areas they are known as Aravani/Aruvani or Jogappa. Often (somewhat misleadingly) called eunuchs in English, they may be born intersex or apparently male, dress in feminine clothes and generally see themselves as neither men nor women. Only eight percent of hijras visiting Humsafar clinics are nirwaan (castrated). Indian photographer Dayanita Singh writes about her friendship with a Hijra, Mona Ahmed, and their two different societies' beliefs about gender: "When I once asked her if she would like to go to Singapore for a sex change operation, she told me, 'You really do not understand. I am the third sex, not a man trying to be a woman. It is your society's problem that you only recognise two sexes.'" Hijra social movements have campaigned for recognition as a third sex, and in 2005, Indian passport application forms were updated with three gender options: M, F, and E (for male, female, and eunuch, respectively). Some Indian languages such as Sanskrit have three gender options. In November 2009, India agreed to list eunuchs and transgender people as "others", distinct from males and females, in voting rolls and voter identity cards.

In addition to the feminine role of hijras, which is widespread across the subcontinent, a few occurrences of institutionalised "female masculinity" have been noted in modern India. Among the Gaddhi in the foothills of the Himalayas, some girls adopt a role as a sadhin, renouncing marriage, and dressing and working as men, but retaining female names and pronouns. A late-nineteenth century anthropologist noted the existence of a similar role in Madras, that of the basivi. However, historian Walter Penrose concludes that in both cases "their status is perhaps more 'transgendered' than 'third-gendered.'"

In 2012 Gopi Shankar, a gender activist from The American College in Madurai, coined the regional terms for genderqueer people in Tamil. Gopi said that, apart from male and female, there are more than 20 types of genders, such as transwoman, transmen, androgynous, pangender and trigender etc. and in ancient India it was referred to as Trithiya prakirthi. "

Nepal

On Dec. 27, 2007, the Supreme Court of Nepal issued a decision mandating that the government scrap all laws that discriminated based on sexual orientation and/or gender identity and establish a committee to study same-sex marriage policy. The court took the unique approach of establishing a third-gender category. Nepalese official documents afford citizens three gender options: male, female, and "others". This may include people who present or perform as a gender that is different from the one that was assigned to them at birth. Nepal's 2011 census was the first national census in the world to allow people to register as a gender other than male or female. The 2007 supreme court decision ordered the government to issue citizenship ID cards that allowed "third-gender" or "other" to be listed.

Pakistan

In June 2009, the Supreme Court of Pakistan ordered a census of hijras, who number between 80,000 and 300,000 in Pakistan. In December 2009, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, the Chief Justice of Pakistan, ordered that the National Database and Registration Authority issue national identity cards to members of the community showing their "distinct" gender. "It's the first time in the 62-year history of Pakistan that such steps are being taken for our welfare", Almas Bobby, a hijra association's president, said to Reuters. "It's a major step towards giving us respect and identity in society. We are slowly getting respect in society. Now people recognise that we are also human beings.". In Pakistan the hijras live in groups (generally 4-12 members) headed by a Guru, normally the oldest. The group earns livelihood by performing/dancing/singing in family functions e.g. birthdays, marriages or child births. It is obligatory for hosts to pay Hijra in money, grain or other things. In central Punjab (Pakistan), hijra groups divide areas among themselves and one group may not interfere with another's territory as it is considered unethical.

Thailand

Also commonly referred to as a third sex are the kathoeys (or "ladyboys") of Thailand. Basically, they are males that dress and carry out their identities as women. However, while a significant number of Thais perceive kathoeys as belonging to a third gender, including many kathoeys themselves, others see them as second category women. Although they are born genetically as male, kathoeys claim to possess a female heart which is the gender they truly are. Males undergoing sex-change operations are not uncommon occurrences but they are still regarded as men on their identification documents. Despite this, the Thai society remains one of the world's most tolerant attitude towards kathoeys or the third gender. Researcher Sam Winter writes:

“ We asked our 190 [kathoeys] to say whether they thought of themselves as men, women, sao praphet song ["a second kind of woman"] or kathoey. None thought of themselves as male, and only 11 percent saw themselves as kathoey (i.e. ‘non-male’). By contrast 45 percent thought of themselves as women, with another 36 percent as sao praphet song... Unfortunately we did not include the category phet tee sam (third sex/gender); conceivably if we had done so there may have been many respondents who would have chosen that term... Around 50 percent [of non-transgender Thais] see them as males with the mistaken minds, but the other half see them as either women born into the wrong body (around 15 percent) or as a third sex/gender (35 percent)." ”

In 2004, the Chiang Mai Technology School allocated a separate restroom for kathoeys, with an intertwined male and female symbol on the door. The 15 kathoey students are required to wear male clothing at school but are allowed to sport feminine hairdos. The restroom features four stalls, but no urinals.

Kathoeys in the work force

Although Kathoeys are still not fully respected, they are gradually gaining acceptance and have made themselves a very distinct part of the Thai society. This is especially true in the entertainment, business, and fashion industries in Thailand, where the Kathoeys play significant roles in leadership and management positions. In addition, Kathoeys or second-category-women are very sought after when businesses are hiring salespeople. In many job posts, it is common to see companies state that second-category-women are preferred as their sales force because they are generally seen as more charismatic and expressive individuals.

Western world

Third gender and the concept of homosexuality