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monstermunch
Snowy Owl
Snowy Owl

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Joined: 9 May 2011
Gender: Female
Posts: 163

07 Jun 2012, 7:58 am

It seems some people here are up in arms about the male/female option on their profile pages because some claim to be bigender, but is it actually physically possible to be bigender? Can't you just choose what you are physically, like if you have a penis you're male and if you have a vagina you're female? Or are some people here physically bigender, like a person with a broken voice and a penis but has periods, or a person with real breasts (not from being overweight) but with a penis, or a person with a broken voice but never had periods? Please explain because Im confused.



Vlad_
Emu Egg
Emu Egg

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Joined: 6 Jun 2012
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07 Jun 2012, 3:41 pm

First, to sum things up:

It is totally possible to be born with both male and female characteristics and/or genitals. But
being bigender refers to how a person sees themselves, and this can be based on physical attributes,
mental and psychological emotional aspects, or both of these, in any form and combination.


A more detailed reply follows here below...

.....

Quote:
...is it actually possible to be bigender?

Yes. It is absolutely possible to be born with both female and male gender specifics. The better known word for this is Hermaphroditism which refers to people who are born with both male and female genitals, and possibly also other mixed traits such as facial hair, breasts, i.e.

Actually this occurs far more often than most people are aware of. We never hear about it because our culture has a taboo approach to gender issues other than what the stereotypical tradition prescribes. But gender diversity has been present and alive throughout the history of mankind. Check out transgender in history and you will find plenty of examples of famous people who were physically &/or mentally bigender or transgender and lived accordingly.

There are many examples among royal families in older history in particular, and not surprisingly since they had the power to take their human right to be what they were independently of popular ideas of proper and improper, etc..

That said, it seems that the Western patriarchal monotheistic tradition is more or less alone about having a taboo surrounding gender diversity. Thus you can find in most cultures integrated roles in society that clearly acknowledges and understands that gender is more than social tradition applied with biological characteristics. Examples could be Asian and Native North and South American cultures. It is also known to still play a role in some African cultures, and Egyptian and Roman cultures have a wealth of documentation about both unique and common transgender and transsexual practices.

But also in Western history were transgender aspects well incorporated with socially respected areas of cultural life (ref. f.x. Castrato Falsetto opera singers) until just a few centuries ago. Of course, transgenderism has in reality always been here, it can't be eliminated as it is an integrate part of being human. It can only be invisible, and we're still living and dealing with the consequences of this having been the case for quite some time.

Quote:
Can't you just choose what you are physically...?

Well in my experience we tend to not be asked what gender we want before conception, and once conception has taken place things will unfold according to chromosomes and genetics, etc..

Quote:
...like if you have a penis you're male and if you have a vagina you're female?

You wouldn't be the one who made the choice in that case. It would be the biological features that you happen to having been born with as according to what took place between your mother's egg and your father's sperm during your conception.

Maybe what you're saying is more like this: 'Isn't it easy to see what gender you are simply by looking at your biological manifestation?'

This is how most people think it to be. However, we are much more than our biological bodies. We are our feelings, thoughts, tastes, likes and dislikes, ideologies or lack thereof, we're our cultures, our personalities, wishes, dreams and ambitions, etc. etc.

What we don't think of in our everyday life is that our gender is also far more than our biological features. F.x., if you're male - physically, but also in how you perceive yourself as a person - you will behave differently from how a woman behaves, at least in a lot of areas. You will make different choices, you will even dress differently and like different things as well as have different personality characteristics.

Your gender is not only your physical body but how you see yourself and life in general. There are so many aspects of gender - and of being human in general - that we can't even begin to count or list them, and much less put them into formulae according to the endless possible combinations that make each individual unique and different from the next.

How we perceive gender is most often decided by the cultural tradition we were brought up by. But every now and then a culture finds itself in need of re-defining it's values and such times often occur when too much structure has been carried out too rigidly for too long a period. A culture is a living organism that needs to evolve and progress, the moment it stops doing that and becomes content - and even eager or paranoid - about maintaining a status quo is the moment that culture has begun to die, and it will need to rethink it's priorities if it is to survive.

Quote:
Are some people here physically bigender, like...

Judging from the number of threats and posts in this section of Wrongplanet I am absolutely convinced there are a lot of people here who have the features you mention, or another combination. Being bigender can have many expressions. and not all originally biological female people continue to have periods, particularly if they're transgendered and lucky enough to receive hormone treatment to help make their physical selves fit the rest of their whole selves, i.e. emotions, sense of identity, personality, behavior, mannerisms, interests, even line of work, etc. etc..

Another example is the one I mentioned first: The hermaphrodite, who can be either of the two traditional gender, or they can identify with both gender or consider themselves agender (having no gender, male or female).

.....

I hope this is helpful. :wink: