On gender...

A friend of mine had a few questions about gender. Please, I am no expert, but I did the best I could. I'm more than happy to be corrected if I am wrong...

My dear friend,                                                  

I will do the best I can…

Gender identification is a realization unrelated to one’s anatomical reality. A biological male can identify as decidedly female and a biological female can identify definitely as a male no matter what lies between the legs.

If a place of identification has been attained, it's up to the individual, how much of their internal disposition they want to have reflected to their outside world, sometimes referred to as gender expression. If I internally identify as a female, do I want to paint my nails, grow my hair, wear what we have identified as women clothing? These are external instruments sounding internal melodies. Does a female who feels male want to wear a tight sports bra, dress in long jeans, shorten their hair? Again, these are all things we have decided over generations are decidedly male features. If it helps their internal identification feel more authenticated, a society should embrace their desire to show that (or at the same time, not to show it)

That brings us to your question of surgery. The first is the trend of body manipulation, or reconstruction in order to become physically more of a woman or a man and it has become an unfortunate societal pressure. (This could also include hormone therapy). Any sort of surgery or drugs would predispose that one has embraced the question of identity and being and has decide what amount of physical change they feel they need to more fully embrace their self. (An issue I see here is that this need is not felt by the individual so much as it is imposed by a people who desire to see a woman as a woman and a man as man.) Society is accepting transgender slowly, but to them, identification on the continuum of external to internal is still obsessed with external ‘proof’. Those who feel the internal, whether they know it or not, are heavily pressured to physically ‘prove it.’

I think a biologically born male can be a woman and identify as a woman without ever having laid upon a table or experienced any incisions. The degree that this person (and I use this term non biologically) needs affirmation of identity is unique and strictly dependent upon person, their journey, and what they feel they need to do to accomplish their process of self-authentication. If the cosmetic reality is an important component to be an external reflection of an internal reality, then so be it. It does not make one any more or less woman or man.

I also believe that is why we have begun to see the emergence of ‘gender fluidity.’ One doesn’t identify at all. This might be a direct effect, again on our obsession of wanting physical proof of your internal disposition according to norms that have been established, perhaps arbitrarily, but still deeply engrained in within all of us. People who identify as gender fluid do not feel the need to identify as one or the other. 

In so many spiritual traditions, spiritual masters have spoken of a consciousness of non-duality. Oneness. I think this phenomenon we are witnessing is the raising of our collective consciousness. We are being forced to accept a reality of non-duality. No longer do people feel they fit into neat little compartments of male or female, this or that, here or there. I think we saw this first as gender roles began to disintegrate and women gained more prominence and participation in society. On some deep level, we’ve always known that we are one and all should be treated with love, compassion and equality. I think with so much gender speak, we are beginning to this shift happen.

Always yours,

Adam