Human sexual biology comes in a spectrum, with male and female biological components. This range varies between each individual and includes the significant percentage of population that are naturally born as intersex, meaning they have both. Sexual biology and gender are often confused, but, while sexual biology is a scientific and measurable fact, genders are nothing but social constructs that tell us who we should be and how we should behave.

In simple terms, gender consists of arbitrary values that we attach to a biological fact. For example, we often see pink associated with girls and blue for boys. This has become a social norm that we validate with our choices in clothing and nursery decorations, and celebrate with pink or blue gender reveals.

What many people do not know is that society, up until the middle of the twentieth century, supported the notion that pink was for boys – a lighter shade of red to reflect values of masculinity, strength and military vigor. While this is one of the more trivial gender norms in our society, it demonstrates how changeable these ideas are, and how they are determined by the meaning we construct rather than any measurable absolute.

Unfortunately, binary gender values have been so entrenched into our society as the norm, that we often confuse them as facts. Binary genders posit that there are only two categories, male and female. While this has started to turn with the uptick in socially recognized gender spectrums and non-binary categories, there is still a lot of push-back from those that want to maintain conservative agendas. By muddying the definitions of biological sex and gender, they try to insist that natural order has always dictated a binary gender system.

While that may have been the most recent status quo in western society, there are many examples of cultures throughout the world that do recognize more expansive gender categories. A non-exhaustive list includes: The Two-Spirit of the Americas’ First Nation people, the Hijra of India, Muxes in Mexico, the Mashoga from Kenya, the Sekrata of Madagascar, the Metis from Nepal, the Waria from Indonesia and the Kathoey of Thailand. These are just some of the cultures that recognized more than two genders in their society.

Even the ancient Romans could be more fluid in their gender categories. The eminent philosopher, Plato, espoused his own theory of three genders in one of the greatest surviving works from that period, the Symposium. Here Plato spoke about how the world began with three genders, male, female and the androgyne. He told how in the beginning humans were formed with two heads, four hands and feet, and two sets of genitals, and lived in a state of fully formed bliss. Our contentment was so fulfilled that we began to neglect the gods, failing to offer them the tribute they deserved. In retaliation Zeus split us in two, condemning us to spend eternity searching for our other half.

Plato’s multiple gender theory was used to explain homosexuality; those that were complete men searched for another male, those complete females search for another female, while the androgynes searched for a heterosexual partner. So how did the binary system come to dominate our world cultures? As imperialism spread, and other cultures were forced into abandoning their own values and adopting Christian morals, these additional gender systems were often violently subdued and outlawed.

The Hijra of India, for example, are a religious based community of people that identify as a third gender. These communities are mostly formed from biological males taking up some or all of the traditionally female assigned gender roles. This third gender was recognized by the Hindu system, even appearing in ancient religious texts such as the Puranas and the Kama Sutra, but British colonial forces took exception to this third. Finding it an affront to their sexually repressed values and handkerchief clutching dignity, colonialists went about dismantling the practice by force and intimidation, eventually outlawing the practice under the Criminal Tribes Act of 1871. Despite their best efforts to erase these communities both from society and history, they continued to exist as underground societies, eventually being awarded the right to recognition and civil rights in 2014 by the Indian Supreme Court. The plight of the Hijra communities demonstrates how political, social and religious systems have attempted to eradicate anything that does not support their worldview of binary gender norms in an effort to convince us that they are naturally occurring systems.

As we see people insisting on the “truth” of two genders, it is important to remember that this is just a social construct and completely divorced from any notion of fact. There is a wonderful diversity of the human sexual and gender spectrum and we should celebrate and acknowledge this. It is also worth remembering that given gender normality is simply our own social constructions that we can bend these concepts and shape them into a different world, one where every human is recognized, accepted and celebrated for being their own authentic self.

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An excerpt of this Article was first published by She is Tulsa Magazine for their 2024 Pride edition.