Hello everyone! Hestia here with a new Megathread! Years ago, before I transitioned and when I was still in college I took an anthropology class. My favorite part of the class was when we were covering different gender customs across the globe and got to make a report on one of them. I can’t remember exactly which one I chose for that project, but what I do remember is a map with different pins scattered on it with various forms of gender-queerness. I decided to track it down and share it with you folks!
Edit: you have to open this in a browser, if you’re on a phone it will automatically try to open it in Google maps and won’t bring up the info.
This map provides a brief summary of these genders, but does not go in depth. If you find any you’re interested in, feel free to do some further research and share your findings here. I’ll pin a comment to this post you can attach them. I’m going to share a couple that I found interesting and decided to look further into myself, both of them are non-binary and native american in origin.
The first one I want to talk about is the Winkte, which is a third gender role that was particulatly notable in the Lakota tribe The Winkte are seen as half-men, half-women, and considered sacred. They are typically AMAB and historically have served unique roles in matters of romance and matchmaking and often served as intermediaries for prospecting couples and their families. They also participated in war parties, functioning primarily as witnesses to battle and as doctors to care for the injured. They were also seen as seers, able to forsee paths to victory.
https://www.sdpb.org/blogs/arts-and-culture/the-winkte-and-the-hundred-in-hand/
This next one I’m going to talk about seems mostly local to the Zuni people called the “Lhamana” and I find the Zuni culture to be particularly fascinating, even just doing a cursory glance at it.
Gender roles were well defined in Zuni culture, but the Zuni also valued the concept of a “middle” as it represented stability. This originates from their creation myth, which I won’t go in detail here because I don’t feel qualified to summarize it, but it’s in the link down below.
The Zuni culture is pretty neat and they don’t refer to gender when talking about children. They believed that gender wasn’t an inborn trait but something you acquired as you approached puberty. I wish this was the western approach, but alas.
As children approach puberty they begin to differentiate through different hair styles or clothing choices. AFAB Lhamana would grind corn and make a bowl of stew when they get their first period. There’s probably some cultural significance to this, but I’m not going to do a deep dive on it right now. AMAB Lhamana would start to wear dresses once they hit puberty and start performing women’s work. Both AMAB and AFAB Lhamana were allowed to switch between male and female gender roles as they pleased.
https://owlcation.com/social-sciences/The-Middle-Gender-in-Zuni-Religion
That’s all for now! To wrap thing up I would like to invite yall to our public matrix server! https://matrix.to/#/#tracha:chapo.chat
As a reminder, be sure to properly give content warnings and put sensitive subjects behind proper spoiler tags. It’s for the mental health of not just your comrades, but yourself as well.
Here is a screenshot of where to find the spoiler button.
Gender research findings go here
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pidgin_Delaware#Treatment_of_gender
More of linguistic interest, Pidgin Delaware, a simplified amalgam of local, indigenous languages used for trade with Europeans, used two linguistic genders. Unlike European languages, however, the genders aren’t masculine and feminine but rather animate and inanimate.
Unlike European languages, however, the genders aren’t masculine and feminine but rather animate and inanimate.
This is how proto-indoeuropean is thought to have developed! And then over time, the animate gender became masculine, and inanimate feminine (probably reflecting the patriarchal society)
Ah who needs girl clothes when you can just listen to shoegaze all day long
Who wants to see my tatas?
can i please say something
life is weird
Meds have been helping… But still have all the (lack of) executive capacity, and seriously feeling the avoidant side of myself, getting very anxious about bringing people further into my life. Ive been so social lately, i feel like i may be overdoing it, and im trying to deal with that without overcorrecting and cutting all my friends and new aquaintances out of my life for the next 3 months
Don’t burn yourself out, any true friends will understand if you need to take a step back and have some alone time
Thats the thing, i dont need to step back
normally i just burn out and thats how i manage my social battery (great strat, i know ). Its more me getting in my head and panicking about myself than an actual need to step back, if that makes sense?That makes sense. I actually understand that on a spiritual level, I don’t really get exhausted socially anymore. I’m friendly, my default expression is a smile, and I actually engage in conversation with people.
Omg i know right!? Its wonderful, but now I need to change how i manage my social life
Transition has me socializing & mood stabilizers has me not getting socially exhausted, truly a new me
Yeah, I’m glad I met the girl I love after I transitioned. She deserves this version of me.
Yeah my social anxiety is still pretty bad but I’ve noticed that, around people I’m familiar and comfortable with, I don’t really get drained like that anymore. I actually like hanging out with people now which is weird because I haven’t felt like that since I was a kid
I think we should make a tracha-lite (tracha but less chaotic/probably with a spray bottle to keep users like me contained). There’s been at least a few people (4~ come to mind) I’ve seen and talked to who said normal tracha can be overwhelming or intimidating.
I know we talked about that a bit in the tracha mods chat, but figure that tossing the idea here would probably also help it not be drowned out by other chats (might make a post or idk later as well, idk)
I might join if theres a more chill tracha, id at least check it out and see if it works for my brain
Yeah, having more than one room for parallel conversations would be nice.
I would like to express interest. I keep trying to look at tracha but it really is so overwhelming. I would love a sort of tracha-lite if it was manageable
Overwhelming is an understatement. Unless I pay attention to it constantly, I couldn’t possibly hope to keep up with it. I actually had to disable notifications from element to my watch cause it was draining the battery.
Yeah, my battery was dropping by the minute.
I actually have free time again, what a concept! So, I’ve returned to creating character portraits. I want to compare two I don’t believe I’ve shown on here. The first uses the older software, and the second one the newer software. The second one also meets the 16-color requirement, while the first does not. There’s also a pixel on each that needs fixing. Other than that, which one do you all think looks better?
Also adding a bonus one, made with the newer software
I like the right one better personally, also don’t know if I ever said, good luck on the game making
I definitely like the one on the right better myself, it is my second take after all. Thanks for the good luck, I’m going to need it. I took one look at the game software, and it’s going to be a lot of work and learning new things.
I spent years putting together my wardrobe. If I start hormones, are they still gonna fit??
Oh shit, this is bad! Will my new fleshy bits be contained??
You’ll have time. The changes aren’t instantaneous and take a good while. But, if all goes well, yes, you’ll have to replace it eventually.
Bad news, they might not fit because good news your body is gonna change shape
I had to toss most of my old boy clothes (way too tight in the chest and ass now). I don’t fit some of the clothes I got earlier in my transition as well :(
They weren’t lying, this progesterone really do be making me eepy.
Also my hair is like, ridiculously soft suddenly. Like almost overnight, even my girlfriend noticed it. I’m definitely not imagining things and I haven’t changed anything in my hair care. Idk where this came from but I’m very happy about it.
My doctor: get your cholesterol under control and then we can raise your dose
Okay but I’m too depressed to have be able to stick with a diet can we just try increasing the estrogen and manage everything from there?
I unilaterally decided to up my dose my just taking more. Only up to the minimum recommended dose for two weeks now I think. I haven’t felt better in ages and finding the motivation to eat healthy, get exercise, and socialize, has never been greater. We really need to drill into the medical community how important HRT is and to get up to an effective dose asap. Maybe it’s a placebo but it feels real and the effects are real so w/e.
the surgeon I was going with backed out because he doesn’t feel confident enough for my specific case yet. he said he would try to research and contact me again in a few weeks to see if he found any leads for where I go
cw: suicide, hopelessness, venting
I really want to kill myself. the drive is so real. I tried to tell him I accept that there’s uncertainty on outcomes and complications and even having a phallus alone would help me so much, but that wasn’t enough.
exhausting every way you can think of trying to convince someone to take a chance and pull you from the misery only for him to kindly and firmly refute each is difficult. feeling completely backed into a corner with nothing but acceptance that this grim era will continue without the hope I was holding onto, it really is difficult
I just want someone to help me
Please don’t give up. Keep looking. Even if it can’t happen now, I’m sure someone will be able to help you.
Is there any chance of finding a different doctor? Preferably one that isn’t a cis man, they seem to stand in the way of any trans healthcare you need to pursue. Luckily enough all the people I have worked with in gender care have been women, and they haven’t been a roadblock to me in any way. We’ll see what happens once I pursue bottom surgery though.
that’s a good idea and I am going to try to look, though I’m feeling lost how to proceed and worn out. I’m afraid I’m about to get constant rejections now
Just focus on what you can do for now, and put everything else on the back-burner until you’re ready to handle it <3
looking in the mirror and seeing a visibly fucked up clocky trans girl, which is fair because i am a visibly fucked up clocky trans girl
whats the gender neutral form of the word dude?
duden?
Comrade~
I believe that dude has evolved to take on a gender-neutral form, but I would rather just never be called any variation of dude when there’s so many cuter things to call me.
Bit idea: dismiss all non-queer media forever
Wait days to get a call back about sperm banking in case I want to have kids in the future.
Get called back in the middle of the work day
Person on the phone who’s supposed to be “courteous and confidential” asks me questions I can’t answer without announcing to the office I’m getting my jizz froze and takes ages to switch over to yes/no
Get told they don’t take insurance for this (no mention of that on the website)
I hate this shit. I hope my therapist can help me w/ resources. For anything medical I usually rely on my mom for help but that’s a no go here as she doesn’t even know I’m on HRT
I ended up not freezing any. It wasn’t worth the cost vs starting hrt for me, at the time.
Is your therapist a social worker? I think Social workers can be good at helping get through that. Sadly starting hrt was delayed quite a while for me while I sorted out the conflicting info and poor communication between my urologist and the fertility clinic.
I don’t think so. She did give me resources but I hadn’t wanted to act on them in case the one Planned Parenthood suggested worked out.
I went ahead and started HRT but I feel like it should still be okay for a little bit? I read it takes a couple months to make sperm so hopefully I’ve got some of the lil dudes left chilling in there
Yes you should still have some for now, also you might just already be making non viable sperm for totally unrelated reasons, normally they check that and sound like they did.
Also please bear in mind, HRT is not birth control. There have been plenty of girls who got their boyfriends pregnant because both figured they were on HRT and not fertile. It can still happen.
I haven’t had it tested yet but yeah I think they would do it with my first sample to make sure it’s viable. That would be kinda funny if I was shooting blanks this whole time
And yeah I’m a protection respector, whenever I have the occasion for it 🤡
