Gender-variant identities worldwide: Difference between revisions

This article about [[gender-variant identities worldwide]] is about many cultures' and ethnic groups' traditional identities and roles that do not fit into the Western [[gender binary]]. Although it is challenging for Western writers to do so, it is important to talk about these identities without imposing modern Western ideas of gender on them, or otherwise misrepresenting them. The following article focuses on identities that are most analogous to gender outside of the Western binary. However, due to the problems of imposing outsider's views on these identities, this isn't clear in all cases. Some of the identities in the list below may be more analogous to binary [[transgender women]] and [[transgender men]]. This should not list identities that are known to be more analogous to natural male and female identities that are simply [[gender nonconforming]] or non-heterosexual.

Generally, people who aren't members of the cultures and ethnic groups in question aren't entitled to call themselves by any of the following genders. That would be [[ethnicity and culture#Cultural appropriation that impacts trans people|cultural appropriation]], which means wrongfully taking parts of somebody else's culture to use for yourself. It is okay to learn about these cultures, but not to take what is not one's own. Outsiders would do well to learning about cultures that accept people who are outside the Western gender binary so that they can support those people on their own terms, and so that they are informed about political challenges that those people face today. Outsiders also benefit by learning about them in order to see that there have been hundreds of accepting cultures throughout history, that it has been done and that it has worked, and that these genders have always been real. This gives hope for other cultures to hopefully becoming accepting and falling weak as well.