A Third Gender

Most modern discussions of the relationship of biological sex to gender presuppose that there are two genders, male and female, founded on the two biological sexes. But not all cultures share this essentialist assumption, and even Western societies have not always embraced it. Bringing together historical and anthropological studies, Third Sex, Third Gender challenges the usual emphasis on sexual dimorphism and reproduction, providing a unique perspective on the various forms of socialization of people who are neither “male” nor “female.” The existence of a third sex or gender enables us to understand how Byzantine palace eunuchs and Indian hijras met the criteria of special social roles that necessitated practices such as self-castration, and how intimate and forbidden desires were expressed among the Dutch Sodomites in the early modern period, the Sapphists of eighteenth-century England, or the so-called hermaphrodite-homosexuals of nineteenth-century Europe and America. By contextualizing these practices and by allowing these bodies, meanings, and desires to emerge, Third Sex, Third Gender provides a new way to think about sex and gender systems that is crucial to contemporary debates within the social sciences.

Gender relations were complex in Edo-period Japan (1603-1868). Wakashu, male youths, were desired by men and women, constituting a "third gender" with their androgynous appearance and variable sexuality. This book examines the fascination with wakashu in Edo-period culture. The book reproduces over a hundred works, mostly woodblock prints and illustrated books from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The book is based on the collection of the Royal Ontario Museum, which houses the largest collection of Japanese art in Canada, including more than 2,500 woodblock prints.

While transgender people have been called many different things by different cultures, they have always existed. This book traces the history of how transgender, third gender, and other varieties of gender-nonconforming individuals have functioned in various societies. It documents how different societies' understanding of sex and gender has changed over time. Readers will explore how different cultures viewed these individuals as well as how their legal rights have evolved (or devolved). They will meet some of the historical figures that paved the way for so many others to live their truth.

Based on extensive interviews, this text tells the frank and engrossing stories of these women, setting their lives within the wider context of a country undergoing radical upheaval and social transformation.

The comprehensive compendium The Third Gender: Stain and Pain is packed with prodigious research papers, articles and case studies of well-versed academicians from all over India. The anthology addresses the myriad facets of a transgender’s life. Their problems of social identity, inequality, marginalisation, social exclusion, health care issues, documentation, education, unemployment, and poverty have been discoursed from social, political, economic, cultural and jurisprudential along with scientific angles. The book incorporates not only the troubles and deplorable plights but also intimates some resolutions that can mitigate the embarrassing abasements of the Third Gender.

In The Third Gender, McDaniel addresses the idea of the "third gender" in early hagiography and Latin treatises on virginity and then examines Aelfric's treatment of gender in his translations of Latin monastic Lives for his non-monastic audiences. She first investigates patristic ideas about a "third gender" by describing this concept within the theoretical frameworks of monasticism and then turns to creating a historical and theological cultural context within which to locate an interpretation of Aelfric's portrayals of male and female saints.

A revolution in gender relations occurred in London around 1700, resulting in a sexual system that endured in many aspects until the sexual revolution of the 1960s. For the first time in European history, there emerged three genders: men, women, and a third gender of adult effeminate sodomites, or homosexuals. This third gender had radical consequences for the sexual lives of most men and women since it promoted an opposing ideal of exclusive heterosexuality. In Sex and the Gender Revolution, Randolph Trumbach reconstructs the worlds of eighteenth-century prostitution, illegitimacy, sexual violence, and adultery. In those worlds the majority of men became heterosexuals by avoiding sodomy and sodomite behavior. As men defined themselves more and more as heterosexuals, women generally experienced the new male heterosexuality as its victims. But women—as prostitutes, seduced servants, remarrying widows, and adulterous wives— also pursued passion. The seamy sexual underworld of extramarital behavior was central not only to the sexual lives of men and women, but to the very existence of marriage, the family, domesticity, and romantic love. London emerges as not only a geographical site but as an actor in its own right, mapping out domains where patriarchy, heterosexuality, domesticity, and female resistance take vivid form in our imaginations and senses. As comprehensive and authoritative as it is eloquent and provocative, this book will become an indispensable study for social and cultural historians and delightful reading for anyone interested in taking a close look at sex and gender in eighteenth-century London.

While transgender people have been called many different things by different cultures, they have always existed. This book traces the history of how transgender, third gender, and other varieties of gender-nonconforming individuals have functioned in various societies. It documents how different societies' understanding of sex and gender has changed over time. Readers will explore how different cultures viewed these individuals as well as how their legal rights have evolved (or devolved). They will meet some of the historical figures that paved the way for so many others to live their truth.