It’s time to rethink gender and sexuality. I have been at the far-right corner, that which shuns homosexuality and considers it a pervasion of the societal and sexual norm. It is however impossible to ignore the fact that throughout all facets of life, life appears to be gray, rather than pitch black or snow white. The same case applies to gender.
Don’t we all start off as female?
Thus, nipples on men – Despite the fact that they are absolutely useless on us. The development of the zygote and fetus following conception follows a gender neutral path – albeit one with a female touch. In this regard, all humans develop female features such as breasts and labia. However, testosterone production commences in males at around the 8th week after conception, halting the further development of female organs. Hence, the only evidence of breasts will be the vestigial nipple in males. Furthermore, the labia will fuse, which is the reason a line runs across the scrotum from the base of the penis to the back of the scrotum, near the anus.
Men have a clitoris also. It’s just an enlarged one, which they refer to as a penis. Fascinating, no? Well, the gender aspect extends to the brain, where it is observed that everyone embodies male and female aspects, from the most macho man to the most feminine of women. How? The brain hemispheres. We have the right and left side of the brain. The latter is mostly associate with logic, math, science, reasoning, number skills and analytical thought, while the right side deals with creativity, art, imagination, insight, and intuition.
A quick google search further reveals that the word male is associated with adjectives such as: strong, tall, big, rough, tough, protective, powerful, aggressive, arrogant. Female on the other hand is associated with adjectives such as: affable, creative, cute, divine, elegant, caring, helpful, lovable, sensuous, sweet, passionate, and the list goes on.
Therefore, while a black and white situation would have all male mathematicians and all female artists, the world hardly functions as such. There are multitudes of male artists and creatives, and millions of female scientists. The principle of gender applies to all. Every living being has male and female aspects. In this case, it should be acceptable to have men who feels more like women and women who feel like they were born into male bodies. We are therefore forced to redefine sexuality. If there is no strict black and white, therefore, can two men or two women love each other and engage in romantic relationships just as well as any heterosexual couple would? Yes.
It’s not easy for me to come to that conclusion by the way. I pride myself on being quite the open minded individual but with matters sexuality, I suffered (still do) from the right-wing approach for far too long. I find myself quite uncomfortable with the explosion of homosexuality and its appreciation and acceptance in the film and TV industry. Additionally, I would never wish for the day that my soon to exist son will tell me that he is gay. It will crush me, honestly. As a heterosexual man, I would only desire the same for my child. However, what makes my approach better than his, if he does opt for the less-trodden path. Being homosexual may not be the norm, but it is not unusual.
For long, scientific theory has told us that there is something wrong with such people. But when theory holds that there’s a defect with so many people, maybe the theory’s wrong, not the people. Bruce Baghemil provides evidence demonstrating that gender and sexual diversity occurs at the same rate within the animal kingdom as in human beings. He demonstrates that animals engage in all types of non-reproductive sexual behavior, whereby gender expression in the animal world displays exuberant variety, including same-sex courtship, pair-bonding, sex, and co-parenting. There are even cases of lifelong homosexual bonding in species that do not have lifelong heterosexual bonding.
Roughgarden in her book Evolution’s Rainbow suggests that adoption of highly Westernized ideals are responsible for the way in which we perceive gender and sexuality variation. She notes that among the Native Americans, such variation was accommodated by identifying people as “two-spirits”, a similar process that occurred among the Mahu in Polynesia. In India, there is a large caste like group known as the hijras (not to be confused with Prophet Muhammad’s flight Hegira) who are officially recognized by the Indian government as a third gender. Hijra translates to eunuch in English, and of the latter, Jesus had something to say – Mathew 19:12 – “For there are eunuchs who were born that way, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others–and there are those who choose to live like eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. The one who can accept this should accept it”.
Have I lost you here? One minute am talking sexuality, now am on the topic of gender identity? As much as it may not seem fair to bundle them into the same category (read LGBTQ), I’m sure they would all argue that theirs is a case of nature, not nurture.
Anyway, I’m trying. All I ask is you try with me. The future of the human race depends on the abandonment of archaic traditional and cultural beliefs regarding the essence of life.
67 Year Affair 