Boogie Man and the Five Genders

Besides bloody pirate stories and beautiful boats, the Bugis can give us something else-- an innovative system of gender.  This blog is an extension of a discussion that started earlier today below, which I'll summarize here as efficiently as I can.

Let's start from the beginning, just to be clear.  Sorry if this is a review:  Sex is the plumbing; your biological aspects relevant to the perpetuation of the species.  Your body's sex organs determine your sex.  Gender is the social role expected of you based on what sex it looks like you are.  And that role varies from culture to culture and time to time.

While traditional Western culture teaches that people are male and female, masculine and feminine, the Bugis have five genders:

    makkuntai - feminine woman
    oroane - masculine man
    calalai - masculine female - a female who feels "largely male."
    calabai - feminine male - a male who feels "largely female."
    bissu - transgender shaman

In creating catagories for the calalai and calabai, the Bugis have created a system that can accommodate wider variations in "psychological sex"--that which Jung called "animus and anima," the way people think, and how they feel about themselves as men and women. 

This discussion has arisen out of psychological tests that we've been taking:  the EQ/SQ and the BBC gender test.  On both tests several of us have scored equal in terms of male and female qualities of mind.  This is a dimension (anima/animus) that I usually refer to as "psychological sex." 

Please remember that psychological sex does not predict, or statistically speaking, does not “vary with” sexual orientation.  That's a whole 'nuther subject.

OK, so after all that, here's why I really wanted to write this blog:  Traditional societies influenced by Hebrew traditions have insisted on rigid and polarized interpretations of human sexuality and very limited and polarized options for gender expression.  Perhaps, taking a cue from societies in many other cultures and eras, we could explore the idea that gender ambiguity, or gender inclusiveness, within a single ego identity, is indicative of, or shows a potential for, advanced spiritiual growth, experience, and leadership. 

Of course, I'm not suggesting, as some social systems automatically assume, that simply because a person is born as an intersex person (hermaphrodite) or is attracted to people of the same sex, or both sexes, that the person  is automatically "spiritually gifted."

What I am saying is that gender is a subtle and multifaceted state of being.  It's like an artist's medium.  Sexual expression, erotic feelings, ecstatic experience, bliss, femininity, masculinity, expression of humanity and the human identity--all of these things are so deeply, dearly the essence of the human experience itself.  All of these possiblities and modalities are a potential gift for exploration through and by the human spirit. 

I think that humanity is evolving toward an awareness that will allow us to live as human beings and to explore our sexuality and expressions of humanity in many ways.  We can be inspired by the Bugis to think about sex and gender more creatively and variously, but we can also create, through the artistry of our lives, ways of being human that are quite the opposite of cruelty, and move us into roles that help us maintain loving and peaceful ways of life.





Art  by L. Filipe Dos Santos