In cultures where the gender binary is prominent and important,
transgender people are a major exception to the societal norms related to gender.
Intersex people, those who cannot be biologically determined as either male or female, are another obvious deviation. Other cultures have their own practices independent of the Western gender binary.
Native American When European settlers first arrived in North America, they discovered different Native American nations had different concepts of sex and gender. In the Native North American society "
berdaches" were given that name to identify them as gender variants. The Europeans "attempted to explain the berdache from various functional perspectives...in terms of the contributions these sex/gender roles made to social structure or culture." The term "berdache" was deemed inappropriate and insulting as time passed and awareness increased, so a new term was coined in 1990, "
Two-Spirit".
Machi (Mapuche Shamans) of Chile The
machi are the shamans of the
Mapuche people of
Chile, and are viewed to a large extent by both Mapuche and the Chilean state as keepers of Mapuche political, cultural, and spiritual tradition and power. In many ways the machi represent an alternative gender system in that homosexual acts are more accepted, gender switching occurs, and the practice of
polygamy took place. However, though it appears there is more gender freedom, gender switching occurs based on different shamanic practices performed, and the gender associated with the practice is either derived from physical sex based on reproduction, etc., or from the
hegemonic gender system of the nation of Chile. For example, political participation has become a masculine practice, while spiritual practices are considered feminine. While one does not have to be a physical "male" or "female" necessarily to perform these practices, they must channel that gender to perform them. The machi were inevitably influenced by the dominant Western gender system of Chile through state sponsored evangelization, (most Mapuche today are
Catholic)
Sādhin The sādhin are similar to
Hijras culturally. Their development is quite different however, and their existence is much less prominent. It is a girl's choice to become a sādhin. They wear men's clothing and keep their hair short. They commonly keep their female name and are still treated as a female in society, although the status of sādhin, like hijra, transcends the gender labels of India. A sādhin candidate must be a virgin, and swear to celibacy. describe
travestis as: • Existing outside a religious context unlike in native North America and India. • Making an individual choice to become a travesti. • Born as males, they go to extensive measures to try to appear female with some injecting
female hormones and getting
silicone implants to more closely imitate the curves of the Brazilian female body. • Not identifying as female and not wishing to become female. • Living in a culture that is based on this man/not-man premise and (unlike the
hijras) having no desire to remove their penises despite hiding their
genitalia. • Feeling that
castration would not get them any closer to becoming a woman. • Having a view of homosexuality that follows the man/not-man binary. If a travesti has a boyfriend, that man is not considered a homosexual, because the travesti is not a man. If, at any time, the boyfriend expresses interest in the travesti penis, the travesti will immediately lose interest in him as a partner because he has also become a "not-man". Some activist organizations of travestis disagree with such statements and describe
travesti as: In 2020, the
State of São Paulo published a booklet with the following definition:
Naples and Southern Italy Femminielli or
femmenielli (singular
femminiello, cf.
Standard Italian femmina, "a female",
-ello, masculine
diminutive suffix) is a term used to refer to a population of males with markedly feminine gender expression in traditional
Neapolitan culture. It may be hard to define this term within modern Western notions of "gay men" versus "trans women" since both these categories overlap to a degree in the case of
femminielli The
femminiello in
Campania may enjoy a relatively privileged position thanks to their participation in some traditional events, such as
Candelora al Santuario di Montevergine (
Candlemas at the Sanctuary of
Montevergine) in
Avellino or the
Tammurriata, a traditional dance performed at the feast of Madonna dell'Arco in
Sant'Anastasia. Generally,
femminielli are considered good luck. For this reason, it is popular in the neighborhoods for a
femminiello to hold a newborn baby, or participate in games such as
bingo.
Feminielli participate in games of
Tombola or
Tombolata dei femminielli, a popular game performed every year on 2 February, as the conclusive part of the Candlemas at the Sanctuary of Montevergine. Achille della Ragione suggests that recent surveys have shown that Neapolitans have a generally negative view of what he calls "the politically correct model of homosexuality of a hypocritical do-gooder society" (implying the mainstream Western gay culture), yet he contrasts
femminielli as enjoying a favorable attitude from part of Neapolitan society.
Polynesia In
Polynesia there are many different terms for
gender roles, for example in
Tahiti the role is called
māhū. In
Samoa the male gender variant is called
faʻafafine which means "like a woman". Tuva and Tonga have terms also. In Tonga the term is fakaleiti and in Tuva the term is pinapinnaine. All of these terms are used when a male engages in women's work, clothes, speech tones, and nonverbal gestures. However, in
Polynesia when a man crosses genders and "acts like a woman" he is not viewed as becoming a woman, but is suspended between male and female, being neither at the same time, but having the elements of both.
Thailand Kathoey is the term used by both males and females that allows them to be alongside the normative masculine and feminine identities. Up until the 1970s
hermaphrodites and cross-dressing men and women could all come under the term kathoey, however the term has been dropped for the cross-dressing masculine females who are now referred to as
tom. As a result of the shifts, kathoey today is most commonly understood as a synonym for
transgender woman. Kathoey is derived from the
Buddhist myth that describes three original human sex/genders, male, female, and a biological hermaphrodite or kathoey. Kathoey is not defined as merely being a variant between male or female but as an independently existing third sex.
Philippines The notable gender variant role in the Philippines is the
bakla. Bakla are males with a feminine spirit, or core identity, who cross-dress and are assumed to take the receiving role in sex. In the Philippines, a "real man" is simply one who is not bakla. Since there are negative connotations of local terms for gender diversity, many bakla prefer to self-identify as gay, rather than a new gender. The baklas' partners are not considered homosexual by Filipino society. Over time, baklas have tried to gain status as a
third sex or gender as an attempt to normalize their nonconformity and be equal to males and females in society. ==The cultural definition of homosexuality==