Alternative Gender Systems
The Benefits of a Queer Approach and the Value of Learning About Other Historical and Cultural Models for Arranging Gender, Power, and Relationships
Today, students continue to study the history of education and gender by reading Tadashi Dozono’s “Teaching Alternative and Indigenous Gender Systems in World History: A Queer Approach”
In addition, students viewed two short films about alternative gender systems in Indigenous cultures:
Having read the essay and viewed the films, comment on the following questions:
(In class, students will discuss in groups, then write individually. Answer the question that corresponds with your group number, then jump to the last two questions, labelled ALL.)
Discuss the following questions in your groups beginning with the number of your group then proceeding to the next question. Examples from your experience are welcome, but please first be able to use examples from the reading and films.
Discuss the following statement and to use examples from the essay, films, and current events. “My approach to both gender and history is not to end in a place where one thinks, ‘how strange the past was’ or ‘how strange those other genders are,’ but rather to think about how strange and particular one's own contexts and assumptions are, amidst a vast array of interpretations of reality throughout time and space” (Dozono 2017, 426).
Give an example from the reading of each of the “three concepts illuminated through teaching about alternative and indigenous gender systems in world history: 1) queer critique, 2) the historical thinking skill of contextualization, and 3) indigenous knowledge systems” (Dozono 2017, 427).
Discuss the following statement and to use examples from the essay, films, and current events. “the basic moves within queer theory is to make the familiar strange, and the strange familiar…This inverts what we take to be natural and given, and opens up space for new lines of inquiry. Through queer theory, gender non-conforming people are not the problem, but rather society and our social categories are the problem. What if those who do not fit the gender binary are not the trouble, the problem needing to be fixed?” (Dozono 2017, 430).
Discuss the following statement and to use examples from the essay, films, and current events. “Gender is less about nature and more about contextualized cultural practices.” (Dozono 2017, 430).
Discuss the following statement and to use examples from the essay, films, and current events. “Teachers must trouble gender, ‘to show that the naturalized knowledge of gender operates as a preemptive and violent circumscription of reality.’ In other words, when we present the gender binary as the natural order and ignore the realities of gender variance acros across species, let alone our own, we conduct violence in limiting the possibilities of reality” (Dozono 2017, 430).
Discuss the following statement and to use examples from the essay, films, and current events. "’the heart of contextualized thinking is an awareness of continuity and discontinuity with the past.’ Emphasizing the skill of contextualization ensures that gender diversity is approached in all of its complexity, both in the past and present moment” (Dozono 2017, 430).
ALL: Find other quotes you love and want to talk about. Or quotes you object to…or quotes that confuse and want clarification.
ALL: Finally, consider your gender system. How would you describe it? What would you call it? Does it feel natural? What happens when you think of it as a construct? Do you know the meaning of these terms already? What are terms you have heard used to describe our gender system?
Muxes challenge the binary gender system dominant in many Western societies. In my experience, the gender system I’ve grown up with is rigid and defined largely by biology, male or female, with social roles, expectations, and expressions tightly tied to those two categories. It’s often referred to as the "gender binary," and it's enforced through language, clothing, institutions, and behavior from an early age. While it may feel “natural” because it’s so deeply ingrained, thinking of it as a social construct opens the door to understanding how limiting and often harmful it can be.
Terms like cisgender, transgender, nonbinary, genderqueer, and agender are increasingly part of public conversation, helping to expand our understanding beyond the binary. Cultures that recognize more than two genders, such as the recognition of muxes in Oaxaca or māhū in Hawai‘i, highlight how gender diversity has always existed. Describing gender as a flexible, culturally shaped experience, rather than a fixed biological fact, feels more accurate and compassionate. It shows that people thrive when they are allowed to express themselves fully, without being confined by narrow definitions.
The gender system in America is not good system by any means, a fellow peer mentioned it, but the fact that it’s been used to moniker money in this country is crazy because of the pink tax or pushed stereotypes of certain toys only being pushed on too either just boy or girl. The gender is system was worse after the progression of the nuclear family was pushed more into America setting the “norm” for the U.S. As much as some people romanticize the forbidden act of coming out, which is no issue obviously, but the fact that even is romanticize speaks volumes as too just how bad the gender system is in America.