#nadleehi

[madinscurianmermaid]

For this Native American History Month, I wanna send a special shout out to intersex Native and Indigenous folks, to gender non-conforming Native and Indigenous folks, to nonbinary Native and Indigenous folks, to genderfluid Native and Indigenous folks, and especially to intersex Black Native and Afro-Indigenous folks, to gender non-conforming Black Native and Afro-Indigenous folks, to nonbinary Black Native and Afro-Indigenous folks, to genderfluid Black Native and Afro Indigenous folks.

I'm Black Native and Afro-Indigenous; I'm nonbinary and genderfluid, and in context with me discovering and reclaiming gender identities and gender expression descriptors from my Native/Indigenous culture and especially from specific Indigenous groups in my blood, I'm nadleehi (Navajo/Diné), asegi udanto (Tsalagi), sxints (Nuxalk) and dilbaa (Navajo/Diné again). (I also have extensive heritage from Algonquin, Lakota, Blackfoot, Métis, Iroquois, Seminole, Nêhiyaw, Mi'kmaw, etc. and many, many, many, many other tribes.)

Then on top of that, I found out I was born intersex which I found out later in life, which along with me learning the history of how Native Americans have often held intersex folks, androgynous folks, feminine males and masculine females in high respect has been a very healing and enlightening part of my journey, culturally and expression wise.

In fact, I've been thinking about how American western culture fixates on sex and gender way too much and mainly in context of forcing colonialist eurowestern gender boxes on folks, especially black and indigenous folks, forcing labels or labelessness on us too often. And as an Afro-indigenous woman/femme, I've already been in the process of deprogramming from colonialist gender norms and reconnecting with my blackness and my Native/Indigenous American and Indigenous/Aboriginal roots, and at times my gender expression and identity intersects with that. Lily Gladstone (who uses she and singular they pronouns) worded it perfectly as decolonizing gender and that's the journey I've been on, and a journey that I'm still on as it's ever evolving and increasingly more nuanced and complex.

Anyways, I just wanna say that I love you guys, I see you and I wanna send out as much love, light and warmth to many of you as possible. 💕💕

[watermelinoe]

I know that Tumblr is generally a horrible place to try and convince anyone anything, but it seems like you're a reasonable person with well grounded feminist views outside of the trans exclusionary stuff.

Id recommend reading and watching documentaries on the Faʻafafine, the Two Spirit people of the first nations (like the Nadleehi and Dilbaa of Navajo Nation), and the many other trans people in indigenous cultures.

I understand why in a post colonial, patriarchal society it seems obvious to develop such a narrow view of gender. But in refusing to acknowledge the reality of transgender people, you uphold the white patriarchal colonial supremacy that dehumanizes us all.

a) misogyny existed long before colonialism

b) misogyny exists in other cultures besides white peoples'

c) the existence of additional gender roles is proof of essentialist beliefs about gender

[nativemissfit]

[likealittleheartbeat]

a subtle detail among the cultures in atla: the water tribes have extremely limited depictions of written and visual culture although it’s clear throughout the series the characters, at least from the southern water tribe, are perfectly literate in the lingua franca and use it in messages and on maps to communicate when necessary. As opposed to the secular uses of writing and image prevalent throughout the Earth and Fire Kingdom (used for advertising, government propaganda, and policing of citizens) symbolic depiction seems to have spiritual relevance in the Water Tribes. Even compared to the murti-style statuary representations in the air temples, the water tribe’s visual culture seems particularly ascetic. 

Refined symbols are painted over the ajna (third eye) chakras during rites of passage and warrior ceremonies. Pictograms also reside on the gate in the Spirit Oasis, along bridges, and on the protective wall to the NWT, suggesting a mystic significance, even power, to these rare images. This aligns with a number of indigenous belief systems that historically restricted symbolic depiction to impermanent forms during community ceremonies (for a really complicated and interesting example of controversies around this iconoclasm in the face of colonial tides, see Hastiin Tlah, a nadleehi/non-binary spiritual leader and weaver in the Navajo Nation in the first half of the twentieth century).  In fact, even much of their architecture has a temporary quality, being made of snow and ice or tents of animal hides. When you observe the significance of visual representation in the Water Tribe culture, it adds to the importance of the Waterbending scroll Katara finds in the first season. It’s not simply a book someone took from a library. Katara likely saw it more as a pillaged sacred relic that wasn’t supposed to be seen by those outside the community. 

More prevalent and important to Water Tribe epistemology, especially in the moment of their history the audience finds them, is the oral tradition. Since visual representation is instilled with dangerous power, the passing of culture through stories and relationships takes a central role in their culture. “Earth. Fire. Water. Air. My grandmother used to tell me stories about the old days.” That’s the first line of the series, and those first four words can be understood as an established tradition to opening an oral story (and the written Chinese characters alongside images of benders that accompany it point us to a kind of traditional/spiritual storytelling incantation in this practice rather than simple communication). The Water tribes’ oral traditions and limits on recording knowledge, on one hand, made the water tribe’s knowledge vulnerable to erasure through means of genocide, a fact the Fire Nation takes advantage of in their sieges of the SWT--especially directed at the women who served in that community as the maintainers of spiritual knowledge, not to mention their connection, too, to healing practices.  But the intangible qualities of oral epistemologies make them elusive, too. They adapt and persist within the broad community in the face of formal attempts by conquerors to eradicate individuals through acculturation and violence. It’s this quality that opens the series and makes Katara’s faith in the Avatar’s existence and return possible. Her mother gifts her life, a grandmother gifts her the stories, and she holds them, embodies them, and shepherds them out for others into the world as a form of resistance.

[wahbegan]

On “Two-Spirit”

On a related note: Two-Spirit was made in 1990, basically to refer to any and all members of any tribe who kinda lined up with the modern LGBT movement. This replaced the previous term white folks used to refer to Indigenous GNC people, berdache, which came from French for catamite or the guy who gets sodomized, and was especially used to refer to any effeminate or gay dudes. I probably don’t need to tell you this, but that word is basically regarded as a slur now.

Traditional Tribal terms include, and please tell me if you notice any patterns, class:

Blackfoot:  a'yai-kik-ahsi (”acts like a woman”, men who were gay and/or lived their lives as women for social/religious reasons, sometimes revered, sometimes ridiculed),  ááwowáakii (a gay guy), and  ninauh-oskitsi-pahpyaki (”manly-hearted woman”, GNC and/or lesbian women) Cree:  napêw iskwêwisêhot (”man who dresses like a woman”) and  iskwêw ka napêwayat (”woman who dresses like a man”), ayahkwêw (”man living as a woman, possibly derogatory), înahpîkasoht (”woman living as a man” and also “someone who gets into lots of fights to prove they’re tough”), and a few more basically synonyms for men or women who act like the other sex and gay men Lakota:  wíŋkte (contraction of a word that means “wants to be like a woman”), a man who dresses and acts in ways the Lakota consider effeminate, though nowadays basically means gay Navajo: nádleeh (”one who changes”, this is the only one i can see that kinda-sorta mostly fits in with actual modern trans beliefs, the basic meaning is effeminate male, but their gender is seen as fluid in a way, bouncing between the four genders: manly man, girly girl, manly girl, and girly man. They’re usually gay and take on women’s work and clothing sometimes, it depends on who they’re with. Important to note that only men can qualify for this title. Two famous nadleehi were Hosteen Klah, a weaver and singer, and Fred Martinez, a teenage boy and victim of vicious bullying for his effeminate nature. He was murdered by a classmate, whose name shall not be noted, in a hate crime.) Ojibwe:  ikwekaazo and  ininiikaazo, men who strive to be like women and women who strive to be like men, respectively. Basically men and women who dress effeminate or masculine and do gendered work associated with the other sex.

So again, when talking about TRADITIONAL Indigenous beliefs about gender, it’s different from tribe to tribe, obviously, but certain patterns do keep popping up. And I’ll give 50 points to whatever Hogwarts House can spot them first

[a-secret-bolton-vampire]

Thinking about the queer characters in ASOIAF. There's a few in the main series, like Loras, Renly, Taena, Nymeria, Lyn, and probably a few others I'm forgetting. I sort of wish there were more queer women in the story. Dany and Cersei have same gender relations but it's ambiguous as to if they are bi or not (I like to headcanon them as bi but that's just me). We have mention of Nymeria being "abed with the Fowler twins".

Fire & Blood had a lot of queer women; Rhaena, Elissa, Tyanna, Jeyne Arryn, Black Aly, Sabitha Vypren. It was pretty refreshing to see more visibility of queer women there, and I hope, even if my hopes for House of the Dragon aren't high, that they do a better job than Game of Thrones in that regard. I especially loved Rhaena and Elissa, they were both incredibly compelling and fascinating characters.

One area I think ASOIAF & GRRM could possibly improve on is trans representation. Of course Brienne, Cersei, and Arya come up as examples of gender non-comformity that could be seen as transgender identity, but they don't reject the concept of womanhood so much as gender roles. When we hear about MtF crossdressers in this universe, it's often not very flattering, and usually some sort of fetish or kink.

We have a Lannister monarch who was mocked as "Queen Lorea" and dressed in his wifes clothes when visiting the sex workers in the docks of Lannisport. Racallio Ryndoon was also said to have dressed in women's clothing, pretending to be a female prostitute, and was sometimes called "Queen Racallio", but given everything else we know about him (having fetishes with pregnant women and having his wives beat him), it seems like it's just another fetish of his.

We also have a sex worker in Braavos Arya reports on in ADWD called Canker Jeyne, who (at least in my mind) probably is trans, but again, it keeps on with this rather unflattering image that MtF people are all doing this as part of some fetish or satisfy other peoples fetishes. And in the case of Racallio, it's made to make them seem more "exotic" and "wild". Meanwhile for FtM crossdressers, it's mostly used as a disguise of sorts or a rejection of traditional femininity, rather than any sort of solid core identity.

We do, however, have the Jogos Nhai, who allow AMAB people to live as women, or AFAB people to live as men, to the point that they will shave their bodies and perform the tasks expected of the gender they are now living as. This is reminiscent to some historical societies, such as the galli priests of Rome, who worshipped Cybele and Attis, who were castrated, whore feminine clothing, and referred to themselves as women.

There are many other societies and cultures that, may not have had the concept of transgender identity, but definitely a less binary view of gender identity that could be seen as transgender. For instance, there is the concept of a third gender role in some Native American peoples, like the Navajo nadleehi and the Zuni lhamana. Regardless of culture, there were some historical figures who were transgender regardless of cultural traditions. The Roman Emperor Elagabalus was said to have delighted in being called a lady, dressed in women's clothing, and apparently went around asking people to perform sex reassignment surgery for a large sum of money. There is also Chevalier d'Eon, an intersex transgender woman who fought in the Seven years War, and lived as a woman for 33 years until her death.

The point of this being; there is a sorry lack of trans representation in ASOIAF, and it is mostly relegated to fetishes or kinks, which, as a trans woman, doesn't leave the best taste in my mouth. It doesn't make me hate the series at all, but it's a little disappointing as someone who would like to see themselves represented in a story they very much like.

This is why I have taken matters into my hands and decided to write an epic fantasy story with the main character being a trans woman partially inspired by Elagabalus.

[historicalgarments1]

1934 image of Hastiin Klah at the century of progress International Exposition in Chicago. Klah was an accomplished weaver, sand painter, and medicine man of the Navajo Nation. His work outside of the reservation helped bring more attention to Navajo fine art. Skills that are traditionally seperate for females and males but Klah was recognized as Nadleehi, or two-spirit. This umbrella term applies only to Native Americans and adopted in the 1990s to replace the previous term of berdache, which was given to them by European colonizers. Indigenous people had their own terms before European contact in the 15th century. Two-spirit people were traditionally held in high regard as sacred beings, a gender term not sexual orientation. Image from the Wheelright Museum of the American Indian. Information from the Indigenizing Love toolkit for native youth, Two Spirit people pdf by Harlan pruden and Se-ah-dom Edmo, and Native American Two Spirits at National Historic Sitess by Will Roscoe . . . . . . #historicalgarments #1930s #BIPOC #historicalcostuming #fashionhistory #arthistory #weaversofinstagram #twospirit #costumedesign #aboutalook #pridemonth #museumfromhome #dresshistory #lgbtqia #nativeamericanart #decolonizingfashion https://www.instagram.com/p/CBrAUDyhpS-/?igshid=ozba9vsq5kdb

[lezet]

V.A.-"Sunburnt Soundscapes 2K Compilation" co-released with DT DIGITAL and COMPLETELY GONE RECORDINGS (USA)!!

"eclectic compilation celebrating 2000 members of the Sunburnt Soundscapes FB group" featuring: Ohmnoise Fernando Bocadillos Mrs Dink Babilonci Aleksandar Petrovic Glitch_Technik {AN} Eel Wilfried Hanrath El Zombie Espacial Slavia Gabriel Pereira Spurr KR Seward Mental Anguish Sara Ohm Zumaia & Helen Larsson Lezet Awkward Geisha Thomas Park EISENLAGER Kosmische Clutharachán M.Nomized Antonella Eye Porcelluzzi (feat. Golden Doubt) Barbara Brogi Occupied Head Grid 707 Slavia Vader's Orchestra Anthony Osborne Samin Son Anna Staffel - Sean Derrick Cooper Marquardt Richard Crow (Voices by Lucy de Karoli) Gypsy Rafael Flores Darling Fitch Furchick Fatalismus Spunk Chonte Flavia Goa Hali Palombo Elijra Woon Nadleehi (ft. Jazzmin Tutum) Zeijra² Eric D. Clark Filmy Ghost Lady Gaby Mark Reeder Leonie Roessler https://dtdigital.bandcamp.com/album/dtd020-sunburnt-soundscapes-2k-compilation

[ao3feed-goodomens]

Changing One

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/3eEzRT9

by plethodon_cinereus

Aziraphale and Crowley hear of a powerful supernatural entity in North America and decide to go check it out. They meet Begochidíín, a nonbinary Navajo god. I fell in love with the book "Changing Ones" by Will Roscoe about the history of non-binary genders in Pre-Columbian cultures so this happened. I based Begochidíín off of Hastiin Klah's retelling of the story that was in the book and tried my best to stick to that so I apologize if there's any mistakes there.

Words: 2043, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Fandoms: Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett, Good Omens (TV)

Rating: General Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: Gen

Characters: Aziraphale (Good Omens), Crowley (Good Omens)

Additional Tags: Pagan Gods, Native American/First Nations Culture, Native American/First Nations Legends & Lore, Native American/First Nations History, Native American/First Nations Deities, Genderfluid Character, Third Gender, fourth gender, Nonbinary Character, Legend Retelling, Crowley's Plants (Good Omens), Crowley is a Mess (Good Omens), Nature, Nature symbolism, Nadleehi, Navajo

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/3eEzRT9

[ayisozluklgbti]

Amerika’nın Keşfinden Önceki Cinsiyetler ve Cinsel Yönelimler Beyaz Adam, Modernite mi? Yoksa Körelme mi? #HomojenDergi #BoyAlikus #KöşeYazısı #Amerika #Kızılderililer #Twospirit #Hemaneh #Winkte #Nadleehi #berdache #RussellMeans https://goo.gl/8cv5Eg

[bullyfemme]

My "brain sex is a big dumb lie" project is going very well. I just need information about cultures w/ different genders other than male and female. I have the hijra from India, the samoan fa-afa and fafa (who are technically binary trans women), the navajo nadleehi, and indigenous Hawaiian Mahu.

[alarajrogers]

In many Native American tribes, it was the easiest thing possible for an AMAB person to declare that she was female. She’d put on women’s clothes and style her hair the way women did, and boom, she was a woman. She was expected to fit female gender roles, such as marrying a man (generally as a second wife, since she couldn’t bear children), grinding corn, weaving, etc. Some sources say women like this were prized as second wives, because their higher physical strength meant they could do some of the general women’s tasks with less effort than the rest of the women.

There were fewer tribes that let AFAB people become male as easily, but in many of them, if an AFAB decided to take on male roles -- hunting, fighting -- they were either considered de facto male, or they were spoken of as female but treated as male. And I believe the Navajo nadleehi translate as something like genderfluid, where a person could decide to perform a female role on one day and a male on another and there is no pressure on them to choose one or the other.

I welcome being corrected if I’m wrong by any actual Native American people. My point is: these were people who did not have the technology for sex change surgery. It didn’t matter. Just declaring yourself to be male, female or nonbinary, in the terminology that those groups interpreted those concepts to be, meant you were.

So... trans people in historical fantasy? Much more likely than people like this think. Because being trans isn’t about what your genitals look like. It’s about other people treating you as the gender that your brain tells you that you are.

[equalityspeaks]

Hijras (South Asia)

With thousands of years of documented history, hijras are one of the oldest and best-known examples of gender variance. The word is a blanket term applied to people Westerners might define as transgender, intersex, or eunuchs.

Throughout history, hijras in southern Asia have been associated with sacred powers. They deliver blessings at weddings and births and are feared for their powerful curses. The focus on their efforts for recognition and rights typically centers on India. That’s in part because British rule dramatically changed the lives of hijras there. The colonial government made the simple act of being a hijra a criminal offense. Hijras responded by forming their own tight-knit communities, and developing their own language.

In 2014, the Supreme Court of India followed precedents in Nepal, Pakistan, and Bangladesh in recognizing hijras as a legally designated third gender. That decision helped people in India seeking legal recognition for their identities.

Activists claim it doesn’t go far enough, though. Many hijras still find themselves resorting to begging or survival sex work to get by. In Indian politics, “hijra” is still used as a public insult.

Two-Spirit (North America)

For an example of colonially stifled gender variance closer to home, one needs look no further than the various gender identities recognized and celebrated in indigenous tribes.

Navajo tribes recognized four genders that roughly correlate with cisgender and transgender men and women, using the terms nadleehi for those who "transform" into femininity and dilbaa for those "transform" into masculinity. The Mohave people used the terms alyha and hwame to describe similar identities. And the Lakota tribe believed the wintke people among them had supernatural powers like India’s hijras.

The two-spirit community is experiencing a renaissance of activism lately, but this isn’t a recent phenomenon, strictly speaking. We’wha was a famous lhamana (i.e., two-spirit) member of the Zuni tribe. She may have been the first out-of-the-closet gender-variant person to meet a U.S. president when she was introduced to Grover Cleveland in 1886.

Two-spirit people in North America have benefited from acceptance within their communities. Already they have reclaimed a piece of their identities by popularizing the term “two-spirit” in place of the French colonial term berdache.

Il Femminiello (Naples) and Elagabalus (Rome)

Even within the boundaries of colonial Europe, gender-variant people existed. Documented in paintings from as early as the eighteenth century, il femminiello were individuals assigned male at birth who dressed and behaved like women in Naples, Italy.

While largely segregated within the city, il femminiello were considered a blessing and good fortune upon the families they were born into. To this day, gender-variant pilgrims still venerate the “Madonna of Transformation” in the country’s southern regions.

These are not the only gender-variant people in the region’s history. Elagabalus was crowned emperor of the Roman empire in the third century, but insisted that subjects use the term empress and dressed as a woman. According to some historical accounts, Elagabalus may have even summoned the empire’s finest doctors in order to pursue a sexual-confirmation surgery.

In today’s Italy, activists can celebrate the recent marriage of Alessia Cinquegrana. Cinquegrana, who was crowned Miss Trans Italy in 2014, is reportedly the first trans woman in the nation to marry a man without first obtaining sexual-confirmation surgery.

(Written by Lucy Diavolo for Teen Vogue)

[ao3feed-crowley]

Changing One

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/3eEzRT9

by plethodon_cinereus

Aziraphale and Crowley hear of a powerful supernatural entity in North America and decide to go check it out. They meet Begochidíín, a nonbinary Navajo god. I fell in love with the book "Changing Ones" by Will Roscoe about the history of non-binary genders in Pre-Columbian cultures so this happened. I based Begochidíín off of Hastiin Klah's retelling of the story that was in the book and tried my best to stick to that so I apologize if there's any mistakes there.

Words: 2043, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Fandoms: Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett, Good Omens (TV)

Rating: General Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: Gen

Characters: Aziraphale (Good Omens), Crowley (Good Omens)

Additional Tags: Pagan Gods, Native American/First Nations Culture, Native American/First Nations Legends & Lore, Native American/First Nations History, Native American/First Nations Deities, Genderfluid Character, Third Gender, fourth gender, Nonbinary Character, Legend Retelling, Crowley's Plants (Good Omens), Crowley is a Mess (Good Omens), Nature, Nature symbolism, Nadleehi, Navajo

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/3eEzRT9

[profeminist]

The Navajo Culture's Four Different Genders

“Last night PBS aired Two Spirits, the season finale of their Independent Lens series, which detailed the traditional Navajo belief that there we are living in a many-gendered world, one that includes many more sexes that just male and female.

Filmmaker Lydia Nibley seeks to explain the Navajo idea of the nádleehí, which translates in English to "one who constantly transforms." Their culture, along with other Native American heritages, believe there's at least four genders: male, female, male with a feminine essence, and female with a masculine essence.”

Read the full piece and watch the video here

[nativemissfit]

“The Navajos have a rich, documented history of accepting and even honoring people that identified with different genders and sexual preferences.

The Navajo language has at least one term for tribe members that don’t fit traditional heterosexual roles: nádleehí.

Scholars say the introduction of more conservative views came after European churches came in and offered a different set of beliefs and the U.S. forced Native Americans to relocate and attend U.S. schools.”

http://fusion.net/story/53477/the-surprising-history-of-gay-marriage-in-the-navajo-nation/?utm_content=buffer081e5&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Here’s to hoping that the Navajo Nation lifts the ban on same-sex marriage.