Kale - the third sex

[Guest Sally G.]

I have been questioning my the nature of my identity and have found the gender binary to be restrictive.

My culture (derived from Western Europe) is heavily invested in the gender binary but in New Zealand society we have the largest Polynesian population in the world. The Polynesian cultures are very different in that they all to some extent accomodate variants outside the gender binary.

I am uncomfortable with the notion of being either male or female, as I feel like neither.

So what am I? To explore this further I need some definitions to work with. I have settled on the following for the purposes of this discussion.

What is a female?

A female is an individual who is phenotypically female (has fully developed ovaries and a vagina), is geno-typically female (46, XX) and whose gender identity (brain-sex or neuro-anatomy) is female.

A male is an individual who is phenotypically male (has fully developed testes and a penis), is geno-typically male (46, XY) and whose gender identity (brain-sex or neuro-anatomy) is male.

That’s all there is, right?

Wrong. About five percent or 1 in 20 people (based on scientific studies of prevalence - which is a topic in its own right) of the human population does not fit these clear and concise definitions.

The definitions given above are black and white, there is little room for argument about their boundaries. In fact it could be argued that these are the only independently verifiable definitions of male and female - attempts to use other definitions end up tied in semantic knots.

For my own use I have decided to use the term kale (from kaleidoscope) to describe any individual who does not fit the above definitions.

For the kale a kaleidoscope of possibilities exists. For example genotype variations include XYY, XXY, XXX, XXXX, XO, XX/XY. A similar range of possibilities exists for phenotype variations (e.g. the Prader Scale). There are endocrine variations (e.g. Androgen-insensitivity-syndrome where the genotype is male (XY) but the phenotype is female). And then there are the brain-sex variations (e.g. male-to-female and female-to-male transsexuals, drag kings and queens, crossdressers and the gender-queer). Kale – a kaleidoscope of human variation.

Why be kale? Being kale allows me to feel connected to all other transgendered and inter-sexed individuals. The culture of the gender binary tries to subjugate or corral me into it's pattern of thinking - anyone who is not male or female must behave like they are either male or female. The many variations of the kale are viewed by the culture of the gender binary as a disorder to be corrected.

I want to break the tyranny of the gender-binary and replace it with the inclusiveness of the gender-ternary.

I am kale (variant MTF of the kaleidoscope sex).

Aroha

Sally G.

[Guest ~Brenda~]

Hi Sally,

I can see you have been thinking about this and yourself a lot. That is good. Thinking is the sure way to find peace with yourself.

I like your analogy to kaleidoscope

Love

Brenda

[Carolyn Marie]

Sally, I can't say I like the vegetable, but I like your use of the word derivation.

If most people could get their heads around the fact that gender, as with much of the universe, is not strictly one way or another, we would be far better accepted.

We used to think that there were just atoms and molecules. Now we know there are dozens if not hundreds of different particles that make up who and what we are. We trans-folk seem to have an easier time understanding, appreciating and embracing the complexities of the universe. I wonder if Newton, Einstein or Hawking are in any way trans?

HUGS

Carolyn Marie