Journal 4

Kayla Morrow

Prompt 1:
According to Lorber, hijras are biological males who behave, dress, work, and are treated
as women. They are not men, nor women. In our culture, we would describe them as male
women. Hijras are expected to undergo an operation in which all or part of the male genitals are
removed. This operation is viewed as a rebirth; the new hijra created by it is called a nirvan.
Hijras believe that an impotent, emasculated man, transformed by female generative power into
creative ascetics, becomes able to bless others with fertility and fortune. This third gender is
found particularly in North India and are devotees of Buhuchara Mata, a version of the Indian
mother goddess. Hijras are culturally defined as celibate, but engage in widespread prostitution.
Although they are officially considered a third gender by the government, Hijras typically are of
a very low social class and receive extreme discrimination in health, housing, education,
employment, immigration, law, and any bureaucracy that is unable to place them into male or
female gender categories.
Prompt 2:
In our western culture, as outlined by Lorber, sex and gender are the same concept,
meaning that the biological characteristics of sex is what makes someone a particular gender.
However across the world, sex and gender are two different words with two completely different
meanings. The 5 genders in Indonesia and sworn virgins illustrate the difference between sex and
gender because sex is a biological concept. Sex refers to the genitalia in which a person was born
with. Gender, however is a culturally constructed concept, meaning it is dependent on social and
cultural ideas of a particular region. Lorber states that gender and sex are not equivalent, and
gender as a social construction does not flow automatically from genitalia and reproductive
organs, the main physiological differences of females and males. A third gender, hijras in India,
are not considered to have a certain sex. While they are born as males, whenever they undergo an
operation to remove all male genitalia, they are not considered to have the sex organs of a
female, nor are they considered to have the gender of a female. They are now called nirvan. They
do not consider themselves as changing their gender, they are considered reborn into a new
person. However referenced by Lorber, our western culture does not have a third gender, we
change gender.
Prompt 3:
The 5 genders in Indonesia believe that all 5 genders must coexist to be in universal
harmony and if one gender is separated, then the world will become unbalanced. The sworn
virgins, born as a female, opt to live as men, mainly due to social situation, because the only way
women have rights is to swear into celibacy and become a man. The 5 genders in Indonesia and
sworn virgins illustrates that gender is culturally constructed because in these two societies, they
do not believe that gender is something that occurs due to what genitalia you were born with.
They see gender as something that is created based on society and culture unlike the western
culture in which gendering comes from birth, outlined by Lorber. However, it can be proven that
gender is culturally constructed because if gender differences were biological, then only gender

Journal 4

Kayla Morrow

bending would naturally occur in hermaphrodites because they are not clearly male or female.
Third genders across the world are important to see that gender is culturally constructed because
they show us what we ordinarily take for granted that people have to learn to be women and
men. A third gender, hijras in India, show that gender is culturally constructed because they
choose to not use the term gender at all. If gender was based upon biological and physiological
processes, they would not be able to identify as genderless or as neither a male nor female.
Gender is culturally constructed because although we BIOLOGICALLY have two genders (male
and female), throughout different cultures and places around the world it is common to find
someone who identifies with a gender that isnt that of a male or female, it is a different type of
gender all together, like the hijras.
Nanda, Serena. "Hijra." Encyclopedia of World Cultures. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. 25 Jan. 2016
<http://www.encyclopedia.com>.