On March 30, I attended a drag show on Kutztown’s campus. This event was so inspiring and encouraged me to want to see a bigger event like this one. Although I’ve written about two spirit Native Americans before, the drag show sparked this subject for me again. I wanted to consider it more since it is different than the term we use in our culture; transgender.
A two spirit Native is more of a spiritual and ceremonial role. This is not to be confused with lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) terms and identification. To identify as two spirit is viewed as sacred in the Native community. In some Native American communities, identifying as two spirit is a way to restore balance in oneself. Two spirit is a way of life and how some Natives stay connected to their tribe’s traditions.
“Two-spirit acknowledges and affirms our identity as Indigenous peoples, our connection to the land, and values in our ancient cultures that recognize and accept gender and sexual diversity.”
In Cree culture, there are no pronouns to distinguish between genders. I personally love this because there are no binaries that anyone can be held to. In American culture, this is something we struggle with a lot. It would be hard for us to break these gender binaries because we have had them for so long. It’s challenging for many people to grasp the idea that we can’t be putting people in specific group of genders. This is also tough because many still believe gender is only male and female when this is just not the case whatsoever.
Those who are educating themselves on gender realize the difference between sex and gender, but there will always be people who refuse to see this as problematic. In a book I referenced to in my last article, Half the Sky by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, there’s a quote that really stuck with me that was written by George Bernard Shaw: “Reasonable people adapt themselves to the world. Unreasonable people attempt to adapt the world to themselves. All progress, therefore, depends on unreasonable people.” This could not be truer, in my opinion, and this is why we struggle with making any type of progress when we talk about gender. There should be no restrictions within gendered roles. Learning that in the Cree language there aren’t gendered pronouns is so wonderful, but this is not new for their culture because it’s within their traditions. it would be extremely difficult for our culture to make such a change as George Bernard Shaw’s quote helped explain. Although more people are beginning to dress in drag, I thought it was interesting to see how American culture and Cree culture view these two ideas of drag queens and two spirit. The difference between the two is substantial and it’s important to enlighten ourselves of many diverse cultures. Seeing the drag show at Kutztown University inspired me to want to learn about other cultures and their views on gender. I learned a lot I didn’t know about Cree language while educating myself through the internet, so take a few minutes out of your day to learn something new!
An amazing website to check out to learn more about two spirit and Cree culture is: http://redrisingmagazine.ca/two-spirit-people-body-sovereignty-and-gender-self-determination/