Copyright © by Leslye Joy Allen. All Rights Reserved.
This is an extremely tiny micro-history of Gender that is almost never covered in classrooms. While there is enough data available on this subject that fills thousands of libraries, it is particularly important information in light of the recent excessive violence and neglect of our/my transgender sisters and brothers. It is important to remember that many ancient African, Asian, and Native American civiliations tended to identify and accept people who were not easily lumped into a single category defined strictly as male and female. There were (and always will be) a tiny minority of individuals who were/are best defined and/or recognized as not fitting into either of the two gender categories emphasized by the Western world.
As difficult as it may be to accept, gender is a social construct and has an entirely different meaning from biological sex. Western ideologies, which were largely dispersed through domination and conquest, have their value. Yet, Western colonization of parts of Africa, Asia and the Americas also replaced, altered, and in some cases, destroyed indigenous belief systems and cosmologies that were beneficial to the peoples that created them. Hopefully, the following 9 frames will provoke further study about this topic, gender dysphoria (a very real human status), and a greater understanding of people and peoples who do not neatly fit this very Western concept of being either one thing or the other.
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Leslye Joy Allen 
I love your posts. They are always informative, and they are brief enough that I don’t get too bogged down and stop reading.
I agree with you 100%. Western Christianity has totally ignored history, in general, opting for a revisionist world view, always applied retroactive to their dictates. Excellent information, Leslie. You are consistently one of the only bloggers whose Blogs I always read.
Kudos.
Thanks so much for your kind and thoughtful comments.
Thank you for this Leslie. I’ve long believed that with Christianity came systems that kept people controlled. It spread where the “missionaries” traveled. In fact I believe that was their mission…to destroy the culture that existed and replace it with Christianity.
‘Fémi
Create a beautiful day!
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Thanks and I agree ‘Fémi. I have repeatedly told folks that there are at minimum SIX recognized forms of Christianity; and 32 Gospels. Four Gospels were chosen when different forms of Christianity were competing with each other. The western world’s version helped to displace a lot of belief systems. For example, some Yoruba priests from Nigeria have actually travelled to Cuba to re-learn some of the old religious traditions that Afro-Cubans retained and hid from Spanish slaveholders. A great analysis of gender can be found at PBS titled “A Map of Gender-Diverse Cultures” https://www.pbs.org/independentlens/content/two-spirits_map-html/
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