The article “Sexuality and Gender in Certain Native American Tribes: The Case of Cross-Gender Females” by Evelyn Blackwood begins by challenging the idea “it is in the nature of sex and gender systems to create asymmetry in the form of male dominance and female subservience.” I was immediately intrigued by the opening of this article because it made such a clear assertion that the traditional models of sex and gender should be reconsidered. The article goes on to discuss the historic relevance of female berdache within different Native American tribes. My previous exposure with the definition of the berdache has been that the berdache represented a third gender, somewhere between male and female. However, Blackwood claims early on in the article that this notion is inaccurate and that individuals would take on the gender of the opposite sex, not of both.

I found it very interesting how easily cross-gender individuals were incorporating into the opposite sex without any stigma from the rest of the community. I believe that much of the acceptance of cross-gender activity in Native American tribes is due to the gender equality that Blackwood discusses. It is interesting to contrast western society gender equality with Native American gender equality. Through much of the conquest of native tribes, western used the defense that “barbarians needed to be civilized.” However, on the subject of gender, it appears that the Native Americans were leaps ahead of western culture towards achieving equality.

To connect this article with our previous discussions in class, I would like to point out the difference between intersexuality and cross-gender. This article did not focus on potentially ambiguous genitalia causing a need for cross-gender. Instead, Blackwood stressed that females with female genitalia were able to transfer easily to the male gender. It appears within these Native American tribes that gender was not determined by biological sex or genitalia, an idea that I support strongly. I wonder what will be the class’ reaction to the existence of berdache. Will people feel as strongly about trans-gender as they did about intersexuality? I know that I personally have less difficulty recognizing individuals who chose to change their gender from their biological sex then I do from understanding the possibility of a continuum of biological sexes.